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Serena Renner

@serenarenner.com

Journalist and editor with an eye on climate, science, Indigenous sovereignty, and the coast. Associate Editor @earthislandjournal.bsky.social. Opinions my own.

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Latest posts by Serena Renner @serenarenner.com

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Ties That Bind Violence against humans is connected to violence against the earth, but healing is possible when we come together.

As EIJ Managing Editor Zoe Loftus-Farren was wrapping up our Spring 2026 issue, she noticed some common threads — namely violence against humans and violence against the earth, which are intimately connected.

But so are “bravery and resilience under harsh, sometimes unimaginable, circumstances."

04.03.2026 18:20 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Our Spring 2026 issue hits newsstands soon!

Inside, you’ll find Ukrainian mushroom foragers, Bosnian bee hunters, child farmworkers, murmurating swifts, paper-cut sea creatures, and unlikely allies against “the Machine.”

Subscribe to our print issue today! donate.earthisland.org/page/20964/d...

03.03.2026 23:48 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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Robert Bullard

When Robert Bullard began speaking about the connections between race and environmental harm, he was a voice in the wind. Now, these connections are widely recognized.

To close out #BlackHistoryMonth, we’re revisiting our 2015 Conversation with Bullard, which feels all the more relevant today.

27.02.2026 21:24 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Conservation Enters a New Era - bioGraphic One year after the Trump administration slashed biodiversity protections at home and abroad, people and organizations are figuring out where to go from here.

Today, @biographic.bsky.social published its first special issue:

Conservation Enters a New Era

One year after the Trump administration slashed biodiversity protections at home and abroad, people and organizations are figuring out where to go from here.

www.biographic.com/conservation...

26.02.2026 18:32 👍 24 🔁 19 💬 1 📌 1
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In the latest @earthislandjournal.bsky.social newsletter, I write about joining a local resistance group and witnessing the power of strangers ✊

donate.earthisland.org/page/email?m...

21.02.2026 17:58 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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I spent 17+ years writing Letters FROM the Editor. So it’s kind of nice to write a Letter TO the Editor. Some thoughts of mine from the March edition of @theatlantic.com

19.02.2026 20:42 👍 55 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
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Under the Cover of Tear Gas As the federal siege of Minnesota continues, the Boundary Waters wilderness is also under attack.

While the public has been defending Minnesota against ICE assaults, Congress has been pushing for copper mining in the Boundary Waters.

“Most Americans wouldn’t support it if they knew about it,” writes @jasondovemark.bsky.social. “The proposed pillage is happening under the cover of tear gas.”

12.02.2026 18:05 👍 6 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 1
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12.02.2026 00:02 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Connecting with Rural America Climate activist and political organizer Chloe Maxmin on authenticity, climate conversations, and democracy in rural spaces.

“Community is being built,” says Chloe Maxmin of Dirtroad Organizing. “It’s not just showing up for the sake of showing up; it’s showing up because your community needs you.”

In this Winter 2026 Conversation, Maxmin discusses how to connect across differences, and shares what else gives her hope.

11.02.2026 19:24 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation

A reminder that, while some of the damage that Trump & GOP are doing might seems temporary, the damage they're doing to the planet is permanent:
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/c...

10.02.2026 13:48 👍 321 🔁 152 💬 11 📌 8
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Breaking: Washington Post gutting its climate team Clean energy dies in darkness. Courtesy of Jeff Bezos.

The Washington Post was consistently doing some of the best climate reporting out there in recent years. This is a huge loss (h/t @sammyroth.bsky.social) open.substack.com/pub/climatec...

04.02.2026 22:40 👍 174 🔁 83 💬 6 📌 10
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Whales Speak. What Would It Mean to Listen? Researchers are working to decode sperm whale communication, opening up legal and ethical questions as well as opportunities for conservation.

Scientists at @projectceti.bsky.social record and listen to sperm whales off Dominica to decode their complex communication.

The research is moving us closer to interspecies communication, opening up legal and ethical questions as well as opportunities for conservation, writes Georgia Good.

03.02.2026 19:23 👍 21 🔁 7 💬 2 📌 0

Beautiful writing about finding sanctuary in the night sky. A balm for a heavy week in a mad world.

By @gabriel-furshong.bsky.social, in the Winter 2026 issue of @earthislandjournal.bsky.social.

27.01.2026 18:43 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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We’re Racing Down the Highway to a Mad Max World But there’s a degrowth exit up ahead.

Through unchecked resource extraction and fossil fuel consumption, “we’re doing nothing less than cooking ourselves,” writes @coxstan.bsky.social in today’s opinion column.

The exit path is #degrowth, which would not only help us stave off collapse but also usher in a better, more beautiful world.

22.01.2026 20:07 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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What’s in a Name? “Herman” should have his own name. And his own story.

“Treating individual fish as interchangeable reinforces the belief that they are livestock at best, that there’s not much going on in the underwater world,” writes @tkdano.bsky.social in her Winter 2026 Beyond Human column.

Read about her discovery of fish blindness and a desire to see.

20.01.2026 17:35 👍 20 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

Jesus.

www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...

16.01.2026 02:36 👍 21169 🔁 8504 💬 1006 📌 860
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Why Are Loons Still Dying from Lead Poisoning? In the United States, efforts to save a beloved species face pushback from a surprising foe: gun rights advocates.

The solution to protecting loons from lead poisoning is straightforward, writes @cestmoilanglois.bsky.social.

Yet efforts to educate anglers about the dangers of lead tackle and convince them to switch gear have hardly moved the needle. Why? In two words: gun rights.

From @biographic.bsky.social

15.01.2026 19:17 👍 23 🔁 14 💬 0 📌 1

This past year

ICE arrested and put zip ties on children

Shot *priests* in the head with nonlethal rounds

Raided an entire apartment building (which led to zero arrests)

And today, proved Tim Walz right by shooting and killing a woman-a citizen-in Minneapolis

Republicans

When does it end

07.01.2026 21:42 👍 1744 🔁 759 💬 93 📌 40
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Greenland Has a ʻVital Strategic Asset’ A sheet of ice two miles thick (and also some remarkable people).

@billmckibben.bsky.social today in @earthislandjournal.bsky.social providing crucial perspective on US imperialism and #Greenland — namely on the country's two-mile-thick ice sheet and #climateaction the world could learn from.

Republished from billmckibben.substack.com.

07.01.2026 22:51 👍 31 🔁 10 💬 1 📌 0
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Greenland Has a ʻVital Strategic Asset’ A sheet of ice two miles thick (and also some remarkable people).

With Venezuela effectively “handing over” oil to the US, the Trump administration is now ramping up threats to acquire Greenland. But “there’s only one truly vital strategic asset in Greenland,” writes @billmckibben.bsky.social, “one thing that could change the world. And that’s the ice... ”

07.01.2026 18:53 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Following Defeat in California, Wood Pellet Industry Eyes Pacific Northwest How California pulled the plug on biomass energy.

A bit of good news: An effort to turn California forests into a feedstock for biomass energy in the UK went down in flames, via @earthislandjournal.bsky.social
www.earthisland.org/journal/inde...

06.01.2026 18:06 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Why Are Loons Still Dying from Lead Poisoning? In the United States, efforts to save a beloved species face pushback from a surprising foe: gun rights advocates.

Who drops a feature two days before Christmas? I do. And I hope you'll read it! It's about a bird I love dearly, and how its survival has somehow gotten tangled up with American gun culture. Oh, and it's got some Mary Oliver in it.

www.biographic.com/why-are-loon...

23.12.2025 20:04 👍 19 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0
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The Last Ark By photographing every species on Earth, Joel Sartore hopes to create a library of wonder — not remembrance.

Joel Sartore is on a mission to photograph every last species living in the world’s zoos and sanctuaries — before it’s too late.

@serenarenner.com offers a sneak peek of the photographer and his online Photo Ark, which invites viewers to discover both the wonder and fragility of nature.

24.12.2025 15:35 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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Israel’s war and occupation in Palestine has damaged vast amounts of cropland. In the West Bank, a social enterprise is equipping farmers with the resources they need to cultivate their lands and establish autonomy over food production. @pragathiravi.bsky.social www.earthisland.org/journal/inde...

18.12.2025 19:02 👍 13 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 1
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A River Runs Above Us | Hakai Magazine Atmospheric rivers can cause catastrophic flooding and landslides but are crucial for water supply. In an era of increasing weather whiplash between flood and drought, can we learn to embrace the rain...

To better understand the atmospheric rivers flooding Washington State and British Columbia — and some solutions for managing water more holistically, especially in former lakes and wetlands — check out my 2023 feature "A River Runs Above Us," published in the erstwhile Hakai Magazine. #AR #floods

17.12.2025 14:36 👍 10 🔁 9 💬 0 📌 0
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Healing Together Yurok Tribe welcomes back salmon, native plants, and Indigenous sovereignty to a former lumber mill site in Northern California.

After 175 years, @yuroktribe.bsky.social in Northern California is regaining ownership of a village site and section of Prairie Creek, where it will restore salmon, native plants, and Indigenous sovereignty. It's a first-ever co-management partnership with national and state parks on #triballand.

11.12.2025 19:10 👍 9 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Excellent new @commsdeclare.bsky.social work out today - read the whole thing here: commsdeclare.org/wp-content/u...

The Shell-funded education program urging students to 'design their own CCS' inspired me to re-share an original artwork of mine from a few years ago:

07.12.2025 23:11 👍 134 🔁 52 💬 5 📌 6
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Our Winter 2026 print issue is out soon. Inside, you’ll find features about the post-wildfire future of a historic French wine region, one of the last oak groves in southern Syria, an all-women Maasai ranger team in Kenya, and more.

Can't wait? Then subscribe!
donate.earthisland.org/page/20964/d...

05.12.2025 18:12 👍 6 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

I can't stop thinking about the purported drug smugglers being murdered by the US military. The punishment for drug offenses isn't the death penalty. This is just bloodlust and men in suits playing with lives they don't care about. It's truly grotesque and gravely compromises this country.

05.12.2025 16:12 👍 11972 🔁 2766 💬 418 📌 114
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Growing Pains Building an inclusive environmental movement is challenging, but necessary.

Our Winter 2026 issue starts rolling out online this week (with print copies coming soon)! And the magazine begins with a renewed call for the environmental movement to keep pushing toward justice and inclusion despite inevitable growing pains (and potential hit pieces by the likes of @nytimes.com).

02.12.2025 18:28 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0