The last year has seen a legion of mind-bogglingly extreme weather events. We compile the worst—and some of the worst responses

By Jack Sullivan

Two thousand years ago, when the ozone layer was as yet unharmed by the burning of fossil fuels and the constant application of hair spray, the Roman poet Horace reflected, “You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she’ll be constantly running back.” Unfortunately for Donald Trump and his disciples, Mother Nature—like the equally tempestuous Stormy Daniels—can’t be bought off with hush money. The disastrous effects of global warming are becoming increasingly clear, and if things stay on course, humanity will soon make the great flood look like a backyard pool party. From Maryland to Mecca, the weather is sending us a message—but some politicians remain stubbornly hard of hearing. READ ON

Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, and Patti Smith have joined forces to save a much-loved garden in downtown New York

By Bevan Hurley

When Martin Scorsese was growing up in New York’s Little Italy in the 1950s, the neighborhood that became the inspiration for some of his best-known films was “more or less a concrete jungle”.

“There was no shade, no greenery, no respite, something that every neighborhood needs,” Scorsese, 81, said. Now, he has joined Robert De Niro and the musician Patti Smith in an attempt to stop the city from bulldozing a community-run garden in the Nolita neighborhood to make way for low-cost housing.

The Elizabeth Street Garden features Gilded Age sculptures and lush greenery, and for years has hosted outdoor movie screenings, yoga classes and poetry readings. READ ON

Even as an environmental activist, R.F.K. Jr. often put science second, onetime allies say

By Michael Oreskes

A river runs through the personal saga of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. That river is the Hudson, or, in the language of the Indigenous Lenape, Shatemuc—the river that runs both ways with the tide.

Kennedy portrays himself as a savior of the precious estuary. This narrative is central to his self-portrait, of a man who redeemed himself by overcoming his addiction and protecting and resurrecting the environment.

But those who interacted with him on the banks of the Hudson say the story runs both ways, too.

His environmentalism, they report, was often diluted by sloppy science, self-aggrandizement, and craven calculations about what funders would think. This led repeatedly to splits with close friends and colleagues. READ ON

Oil companies give millions to cultural institutions. The reputational benefits? Priceless

By Rebecca John

“If you consciously set out to choose an industry whose public image had all of the ingredients of the perfect villain, Big Oil would be the ideal choice,” wrote Herb Schmertz in 1986.

But who was Herb Schmertz? An eco-warrior? A climate-change campaigner? No, Schmertz was head of public affairs for Mobil (now ExxonMobil), whose mission during the 1970s and 1980s was to transform the industry’s toxic image.

To achieve this goal, Schmertz, a former military-intelligence officer and Kennedy-campaign organizer, employed a portfolio of sophisticated P.R. techniques, including the sponsorship of high-profile cultural institutions such as museums, art galleries, READ ON

A topsy-turvy battle has broken out in Scotland between billionaire environmentalists, who want to cull thousands of deer, and deer-hunting locals, who’d like to see them thrive

By Patrick Galbraith

In 1851, Sir Edwin Landseer, a favorite artist of Queen Victoria’s, painted a huge oil-on-canvas of an impossibly large stag set against the backdrop of a rocky, fog-swept Highland landscape. The beast is far bigger than any red deer you’d find in Scotland, and the wild mountains come straight out of Tolkien. The Monarch of the Glen is Scotland as imagined by a Victorian sportsman.

The painting was part of a culture that was being created around the pursuit of red-deer stags. In the early 19th century, there were only 6 hunting estates in Scotland, large areas set aside for the pursuit of grouse and deer, but by 1900 there were roughly 150, covering well over two million acres of heather, woodland, and rocky scree. READ ON

As Earth Day approaches, Edward Burtynsky’s haunting aerial photographs confront the stark reality of humankind’s industrial impact on the planet

By Elena Clavarino

Photography didn’t run in Edward Burtynsky’s family. His parents were immigrants from Ukraine who came to Canada after W.W. II. They settled in St. Catharines, Ontario, on the banks of the Niagara River. Burtynsky was born there in 1955. His father, Peter, worked on the production line at the General Motors plant. In 1965, when Burtynsky was 11, a widowed neighbor sold her husband’s darkroom equipment and some Tri-X film to Peter. This purchase marked the beginning of Burtynsky’s career.

As a teenager, he studied black-and-white photography and learned how to print photographs, then began selling portraits for 75 READ ON