OnEarth Magazine: Subscribe | Current Issue
Your OnEarth: Login / Register

Search

DON'T MISS:
Groundbreaking journalism needs your support
SUBSCRIBE TODAY and enjoy a special introductory offer: A full year for just $15!

Urban Harvest

Confronting climate change and poverty, a new crop of city farmers comes of age in Africa.
Guardian Environmental Network
By John Humphreys
Should We Aim for Nitrogen Neutrality?
community blog | (0) Comments
March 14, 2011: I recently read  "The Evolution and Future of Earth’s Nitrogen Cycle" in Science. Just as we have "broken into" the carbon cycle and revved it up by digging up and burning millions of tons of coal, gas and oil that had been... read more >
Overseas, Obscure, Out Of Sight … But Not Forgotten
community blog | (1) Comments
August 26, 2010: Regular readers will have detected a passion in my writings for the underdog. Whether it be the imminent extinction of vultures, or the heroic few who battle to protect the least lovable creatures of all, crocodiles and... read more >
So, whom do we boycott?
community blog | (0) Comments
May 18, 2010: We are all outraged at the unholy mess that the sunken rig is causing in the Gulf. Soooooo....Maybe I should be boycotting BP? (even though I was born in Britain). Yes, that’s it….wait a minute, though….my next closest gas... read more >
Christian churches mobilize for Earth Day
community blog | (0) Comments
March 14, 2010: On paper at least, or on pixel perhaps I should say, there is solid support across every Christian denomination for environmental protection – whatever else they might disagree on (a good resource for this is www.... read more >
Snowmaggedon
community blog | (0) Comments
February 6, 2010: Well, that Arctic oscillation is certainly making Europe and North America shiver. The coldest January in Britain for 23 years. The most snow Washington DC has seen for ninety years (yes, the media really did call it... read more >
What's so important about these areas? It's for the birds...
community blog | (0) Comments
January 29, 2010:   ‘People always accuse environmentalists of being pessimistic and doom-and-gloom,' John Cecil of the National Audubon Society said to me recently. ‘But we are optimistic. We think we can do something...that's what keeps us... read more >
The New Silent Spring (No-one Cares About the Trash Collectors)
community blog | (3) Comments
January 11, 2010:   I wrote recently about how captive breeding is sometimes the only thing that will save animals from extinction (‘Last chance to see'). This is the case in the huge crisis - as catastrophic as Rachel Carson's "Silent... read more >

Re "The New Silent Spring (No-one Cares About the Trash Collectors)" (March 9, 2010): @Joanne: captive breeding - until a safe natural habitat can be made for the animal - is the last ditch response. It works well, but takes skill and a lot of support by scientists, villagers, politicians etc in the animal's... Read More >
Last Chance to See
community blog | (0) Comments
December 19, 2009:   "Last chance to see"  is the title of a wonderful BBC TV program seeking out truly endangered animal species. It pairs the very witty comedian Stephen Fry with the zoologist, writer and photographer Mark... read more >
Naïveté, greed and self-centeredness risk sinking Copenhagen
community blog | (0) Comments
December 15, 2009:  OK, the minute I read about the ‘poor nations walking out' at Copenhagen's Climate Change conference...I started banging my forehead on the table. This ‘group of 77' is not just the Pacific Islanders  - it includes... read more >
Making a carbon offset matter...
community blog | (0) Comments
December 6, 2009: There is a lot of cynicism amongst environmentalists about carbon offsets. If they are for industry, then the cap-and-trade wrangling and backroom deals have often put them off the whole idea. If the carbon offset is for an... read more >
John Humphreys
I am a biochemist working in pharmaceutical software. I have been mad about natural history since the age of 5 and am an ardent conservationist and pragmatic environmentalist.