Pacific Standard

Last week, the International Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations body for assessing scientific research related to climate change, released a Summary for Policymakers of the Special Report on Climate Change and Land. This summary outlines ways current land management practices ...

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Editor's Note: To read the original version of this story in English, click here. Es el último día de marzo de 2018, el día antes de Pascua, el comienzo de la temporada de la cosecha de las cebollas. Para media mañana, Berenise, de 16 años, ya había llenado algunos baldes. Al hacer su trabajo usaba ...

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Welcome to our fall books preview. While Pacific Standard won't be around in the fall, these books will, and we encourage you to read them! —Ted Scheinman September 3rdA Fortune for Your Disaster by Hanif Abdurraqib (Tin House Books)In his second collection of poetry, Hanif Abdurraqib explores ...

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Martin heard the French-speaking policemen before he could see them. It was the first day of September in 2017 and he had been picking plantains on the far end of his family's cocoa farm in Mamfe, Cameroon, when a commotion broke out. He walked over to the area where local farmers hired for the new ...

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Ever since humans became a spacefaring species, settling down on other planets has seemed an inevitability—even a necessity. Scientific titans including Stephan Hawking and Carl Sagan believed humans were "obliged" to leave Earth, if only to ensure our survival as a species. The dinosaurs didn't ...

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By accident of Earth's 23.5-degree tilt and the specific geography of our view of space, amateur astronomers and travelers who find themselves lost in the Northern hemisphere have long searched for Ursa Major, the great bear, whose torso is formed by the conspicuous Big Dipper. Amid the pandemonium ...

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On Mars, we'll all farm underground. Our crops will grow in a greenhouse, where large, parabolic mirrors focus the sun's weak rays and transmit them through fiber optic cables. We'll harvest vegetables to eat—but also the purified water that evaporates from their leaves. We'll all be vegan, because ...

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This PS Pick originally appeared in The Lede, the weekly Pacific Standard email newsletter for premium members. The Lede gives premium members greater access to Pacific Standard stories, staff, and contributors in their inbox every week. While helping to support journalism in the public interest, ...

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To get from the Pacific Coast to the idyllic, mountain-surrounded town of Ojai, California, you drive by a series of working oil wells, clearly visible just off the side of the freeway. They serve as a reminder that Ventura is the third-biggest oil-producing county in California—a fact ...

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It's been wonderful to see Native writers in North America thriving in the mainstream, receiving recognition for work that challenges traditional literary forms as well as outdated narratives about Indigenous life and history. I can't keep up with the notoriety my friend, the Cheyenne and Arapaho ...

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