William Astore

Writer, Professor, Retired Lt. Colonel, Air Force

For our children and their children, Memorial Day weekend may become a time to reflect on another loved one lost: Mother Earth.

Jordan Haedtler

Campaign associate, Forecast the Facts

With each pipeline that is approved, each greenlight given to coal and natural gas exports, we're putting more bullets in the chamber, and doubling down on our dangerous game of 13 Tzameti.

Zester Daily

Zester Daily: The culture of food and drink.

Recently returned from protecting U.S. interests overseas and having traded in their fatigues for overalls, hundreds of veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq are now committed to growing organic produce and selling it to local communities from Seattle to Florida.

Stephen Kress

Vice President for Bird Conservation, National Audubon Society

Ocean temperatures along the Gulf of Maine are on the rise. Yet we hear the same kind of skeptical voices that confronted Carson. We should take courage from all that she confronted, and find like champions who defended her work.

Food Politic

Food news, culture and politics

Farm Forward is developing an application called BuyingPoultry.com, which will be an answer for people who are willing to spend a little bit more for humanely raised products but are confused by the labels.

Timothy Beardson

Author, 'Stumbling Giant: The Threat to China's Future'

China's environmental problems are immense, not least those connected to its voracious and inefficient use of coal. In 2011, for example, the country used almost half of global coal consumption, although its economy is still around half the size of the U.S.

Tim Profeta

Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University

Moore, Oklahoma, is in the middle of what is known as Tornado Alley -- an area where cold, dry air from Canada and the Rockies meets warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico to create the unstable conditions that cause tornados.

David Rothenberg

Author, 'Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise'

Although the arrival of the Brood II 17-year cicadas has been heralded for a hundred and fifty years, they have never gotten such a welcome in the media as in 2013. Nearly every news outlet is full of stories on the impending Swarmageddon, Cicadapocalypse, or other insect disaster.

Jeff Biggers

Author of 'State Out of the Union: Arizona and the Final Showdown Over the American Dream'

What happens in Illinois, doesn't stay in Illinois -- especially when you're dealing with the national ramifications of a combined fracking and coal mining rush unparalleled in recent memory.

Claire McCarthy, M.D.

Pediatrician, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Along with making a donation to agencies supporting those affected by the tornado, a really good thing for all families to do is to make some disaster plans of their own.

Dogster

An online community for dogs and the dog owners who love them

Growing up in a gravely dysfunctional household where coldness was the prevailing sentiment, I turned to animals for unconditional love. Even a mound full of Texas fire ants became friends.

Rachel Smolker

Co-director, Biofuelwatch

For the techno-obsessed, ideas are spawned, scientists get grants, become "experts" and build careers, patents are filed, business ventures launched, and PR firms hired, all before the fundamental questions are raised: Is this environmentally safe, responsible and fair?

Knowles Science Teaching Foundation

Empowering high school teachers to become leaders

From small victories like overcoming fears of eating plants like mint right out of the garden ("you can eat that, Miss? Oh my gosh, it tastes like gum!") to bigger changes affecting the eating habits of whole families, our school garden is slowly changing the way students think about their food.

Noah Greenwald

Endangered species program director, Center for Biological Diversity

When the Act is allowed to do its job, it's amazingly successful: 99 percent of the species under its care have been spared extinction (think: grizzly bears, gray whales and bald eagles) and hundreds are on the road to recovery.

Theresa Pierno

Acting President of the National Parks Conservation Association

National parks are the soul of America, telling our diverse stories and teaching valuable lessons about our shared heritage. As we look to the future, we must ask ourselves what is the legacy we will leave behind for our children and grandchildren?

Peter Neill

Director, World Ocean Observatory

It seems silly to say so, but is it not true that this entire process is justified to provide virility/fertility medicines or status symbols to consumers most probably ignorant of or indifferent to the consequences of their desires?

Leilani Münter

Race car driver, environmental activist

Free market economics is touted by conservatives, and yet almost routinely now we are seeing legislation being introduced designed solely to block the competition that Tesla is bringing to the old guard.