Some of my favorite emails contain variations on an exciting phrase: “I’ve enclosed an op-ed for your consideration.”
These messages — and their accompanying commentaries — come to us from environmental experts all over the world who have something important to say about saving life on this big blue marble we call home.
Some of them offer roadmaps for improving our efforts to address problems like conservation, environmental injustice, or climate change. Others point out lesser-known threats we should do more to address. Many authors share personal insights and experiences that most readers would otherwise rarely encounter.
Here are 12 of our favorite environmental commentaries of the past year, addressing Indigenous rights, coral reefs, activism, some iconic or lesser-known endangered species, and more:
‘Active Management’ Harms Forests — And It’s About to Get a Whole Lot Worse
Ghost Reefs of 2083: The Paleontology of Color (A Speculative ‘Fiction’)
The Last Breath of the Himalayas: Can We Stop the Collapse?
Palm Oil Continues to Plague Borneo’s Orangutans, Elephants, and Other Icons
Rare Earth Metals Must Not Come at the Cost of Indigenous Rights
Saving America’s National Parks and Forests Means Shaking Off the Rust of Inaction
Saving the Ryukyu Rabbit Tick: The Posterchild of Parasite Conservation
Trump’s Approach to Public Lands? Expanding the Extractive Economy and Declaring a War on Nature
What Catastrophes Get Our Attention and Why It Matters
Who Heals the Earth’s Healers? Ways to Avert Burnout for Environmental Advocates
Truthfully, this list could have been twice as long — and it still wouldn’t have included every inspirational or intriguing expert opinion we published in 2025. I encourage you to scroll through our entire Ideas category, where you’ll find a few dozen more essays worth reading. (While you’re at it, keep going back into 2024 or earlier — most of our commentaries have a long shelf life and remain of interest for quite a while after they’re published.)
Meanwhile, don’t forget that a different kind of commentary appears a couple of times a month in our newsletter: exclusive cartoons by Tom Toro. Here’s one of my favorites from the past year:
Do you have a story to tell in the year ahead? We’re always open to op-eds and commentaries from activists, scientists, conservationists, legislators, government employees, and others — especially anyone with insight about the regressive and repressive second Trump administration. You can find out how to submit here, or drop me a line at any time.
