2018 in articles

I wrote about 80 articles for The Revelator in 2018 (the first year that all of my articles appeared in one place, the site I also happen to edit). Here are a few that I think summed up the year:

For Florida Panthers, Extinction Comes on Four Wheels -- a new way for me to look at the annual mortality stats. (I dread looking at 2018's final numbers.)

 

Ghost Cat Gone: Eastern Cougar Officially Declared Extinct -- this came as no surprise (the cougar was last seen 80-odd years ago), but the official announcement still resonated with people.

Is This the Year the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow Goes Extinct? -- not quite, but it's still a bad situation. (A good entry from my series on captive breeding, too.)

Extinction Ink -- a look at a tattoo artist who memorializes endangered and extinct species (I like using the arts as a lens to look at important issues).

Drill, Baby, Drill: The U.S. Added 38 Percent More Oil and Gas Rigs Last Year -- an exclusive detail that no one else seemed to have noticed.

Can Throwing a Tantrum Help Save Us From Climate Change? -- a fun book and a fun interview.

RIP Sudan, the Last Male Northern White Rhino -- I've been writing obituaries for almost every member of this species as it dies out. Painful.

America’s Freshwater Mussels Are Going Extinct — Here’s Why That Sucks -- important stuff (and again, a fresh way to look at it by focusing on captive breeding).

Trump Budget Cuts Could Cause Hundreds of Plant Extinctions in Hawaii -- again, a story just about everyone else missed (plus not enough people write about plant extinction).

Eight Years Until Red Wolf Extinction? -- that timeline still scares me.

How the Golden Lion Tamarin Is Helping to Heal Brazil’s Rainforest -- a nice success story in the making.

It’s No Mystery Why These Crime Novels Are Set in National Parks -- a fun interview about serious subjects.

Inhumanity at the Border — and Beyond -- one of the all-too-few editorials I wrote in 2018. This really resonated with people.

Sorry AC/DC, Rock and Roll Is Noise Pollution -- just a fun way to look at a serious issue.

Murder and Intimidation of Environmental Activists Hits Record Levels -- I tried to focus on both the treats and the people trying to help.

When This Rat Went Extinct, So Did a Flea -- who else but me would write about parasite extinction?

The Trump Administration’s ‘Dishonest’ Attack on Fuel-economy Standards -- a tough one to write, but important. (Great interviews really helped.)

How the Environment Fared in the Midterm Elections -- a great collaboration with my deputy editor, Tara Lohan. (I look forward to following these new officials as they take office next month.)

 

Swampy Thing: The Giant New Salamander Species Discovered in Florida and Alabama -- too cool (and one my most popular articles of the year).

 

2018: The Year Things Fell Apart — or the Year the Tide Turned? -- another editorial. I'm happy with how this one came out. Expect more in 2019. 

 

For all of my 2018 articles -- including a lot of other good ones -- go here. 

And check out the archive on this now-rarely updated blog for similar posts from previous years -- except for last year, which I missed.

2016 in Articles

Okay, as 2016 turns into 2017 I find myself struck with two powerful revelations.

A) I am really, really bad at updating this blog.

and

B) I am really, really happy about the writing that I did during this past year.

I wrote and published 236 articles in 2016 -- that's down from 248 in 2015 -- covering as endangered species, climate change, new technologies, science careers, comic books and other topics. Most of those articles were written for Scientific American, TakePart and various IEEE publications, which kept me pretty busy, but I also wrote for PBS's Nature, Audubon, Sierra, Hakai, Slate, Vice/Motherboard and several trade publications. I'm happy to say that I didn't take a single assignment just for the money. I enjoyed working on everything and feel that the work I did this past year not only mattered but helped to add to the conversation on many important topics.

As I usually do at this point, here's a list of 20 of my favorite articles from the past year, in the order that they were published:

1. The Surprising (and Mostly Legal) Trade in "Mermaid Ivory"
2. How Do You Save an Elephant’s Tusk? Ask a Materials Engineer
3. Endangered Hawaiian Bird Immortalized In Space
4. What Happened When I Pushed Myself to Interview More Women
5. Drones' New Mission: Save the Forests
6. Preaching Against Extinction
7. Turtle Voyeurs
8. Wildlife Tourism Faces Dark Days—but Revenue Soars
9. Why People Keep Taking Deadly Selfies With Animals
10. Firefly Populations Are Blinking Out
11. Scientists’ New Research Tool: Pokémon Go  
12. Is It Ethical to Kill Poachers?
13. Snails Are Going Extinct: Here's Why That Matters
14. The Amazing Biodiversity within an Elephant's Footprint
15. A New Weapon in the War Against Climate Change Denial: Laughter
16. How to Craft a Winning Elevator Speech
17. Snow Leopard Conservation Gets Boost from New Tech
18. How Do You Stop a Marauding Bull Elephant Named Trump? Send in the Drones
19. Vote for Biodiversity
20. How High Schoolers’ Hacks Fixed a Whale Snot-Collecting Drone

(That's a pretty good list, but there were a lot of other gems in the mix. You can find links to everything that I published last year here.)

In addition to all of the above I also appeared on several radio shows and podcasts, had my work translated into Spanish, did some blogging here and there, tweeted a lot, and wrote dozens of ideas for gag cartoons that I will get around to drawing one of these days.

One more note about this year's articles: you may recall my discussion earlier this year about trying to achieve gender parity in my sources. Here's how it all broke down. I interviewed a total of 331 people in 2016. 197 of them were men (59.5%), 134 were women (40.5%). That's not quite the 50-50 I had hoped for, but it's still pretty good (and much better than most journalists, especially in the sciences).

Well, that's the year that was. 2017 is bound to hold all kinds of exciting challenges and opportunities, so I (for one) look forward to what comes out of my keyboard in the months ahead.

For now, though, thank you for reading. As always, I couldn't do any of this without my friends and readers who make all of this possible.

2015 in Articles

Ah, New Year's Day. As always, I like to take a little bit of time on January 1st to look back at the year that was.

Now, there's a lot of stuff going on in my life that I could talk about but I don't want to keep you here until next January 1, so I'll keep this focus on the professional side of things.

It was a hell of a year. I wrote my little fingers to the bone while working for a long list of publications and covering a broad range of topics. As you might expect, the majority of the articles I wrote this past year were about endangered species and other wildlife, but I also covered climate change, technology careers, personality traits, new consumer devices and a whole lot more.

All told I published 248 articles in 2015. That's actually the smallest number that I have published in years -- heck, maybe ever -- although in the process I had my best freelance year ever, financially. Hey, I'll take it.

Some of my fellow journalists are pretty amazed that I can accomplish what I do. I chalk it up to a few major factors: I love what I do (which gets me out of bed in the morning), I'm well practiced at things (so I can work quickly), and I make my editors' jobs easy (so they keep coming back for more).

At this point I usually try to narrow things down to my favorite two or three articles for the year, but I don't think I can do that this time around. Here are links to quite a few of my favorites:

Poachers in Africa Have a New Enemy: Math

Damselfly in Distress: Water Shortages and Cannabis Threaten African Insect

Prehistoric `Lizard of Great Sleepiness' Nearly Extinct in Vietnam and China

Local Craigslist Ads Are Fueling the Slaughter of Elephants Worldwide

The Big Reason the Deepwater Horizon Disaster Is Not Over

Climate change will scramble polar bears' diets – and eggs aren’t the solution

China’s Wealthy Are Banking on Extinction

Even the Unicorns of the Sea Can’t Escape Climate Change

If Apes Go Extinct, So Could Entire Forests

Is That Wildlife Documentary Lying to You?

You Could Learn a Thing or Two About Living a Long Life From the World’s Oldest Orangutan 

The Newest Comic Book Superheroes: The World’s Endangered Tigers

Orangutan orphan named 'Lisa' in tribute to terminally ill veterinarian

Stowaway Snail Helps Save Species from Extinction

Orangutans Are Dying as Indonesia Burns

Nextinction: Ralph Steadman Goes Gonzo for Endangered Birds

An Introvert's Guide to Leadership

Killer Starfish Threaten Fish That Walks on Handlike Fins

Career Focus: The Three *New* Laws of Roboticists

The Sneeze That Could Wipe Out Hawaii’s Seals

High School Student Designs a ‘Wheelchair’ That Lets Users Stand Up

Wolves and Monkeys: Unusual Hunting Buddies

Wolf-Safe Beef: An Idea Whose Time Has (Almost) Come


You can find links to all of the rest of my articles from 2015 here, along with links to my three radio appearances, a couple of interviews with me, my Bicentennial comics blog, my webcomic (still sadly stagnant) and a whole lot more.


Well, that's it for 2015. Onward and upward for 2016. Thank you, as always, for reading. I couldn't do this without you.

2014 in Articles

New Year's Day is good for three things: sleeping in, looking back and looking ahead.

I already slept in. I'll look ahead later today. For now I'm looking back.

This was a busy, busy year. In addition to moving all the way across the country -- no small endeavor, let me tell you -- I worked my tail off. Well, more specifically my fingers. I published 286 articles last year, ranging from short news posts to massive magazine features. That averages to about one article per work day, although some of the articles took months of work to pull together.

This is actually the lowest number of articles I have published in years (I published 392 in 2013 and more than 400 in 2012), but I concentrated on more involved work that had a greater impact. I also dramatically increased my per-article fee as a result (something freelancers always need to focus on achieving).

My favorite article of the year wasn't really an article -- it was an essay celebrating 10 years of my Extinction Countdown blog/column over at Scientific American. It's one of the most emotional things that I have ever written.

I have a lot of other favorites from this past year -- they're all my babies -- but I think for the purposes of this post I'll narrow it down to two, one more for SA and another for TakePart:

Found: A Snake Species No One Believed Existed

Cheetahs are Being Wiped Out, and Selfies are to Blame

You can find links to the other 283 articles from 2014 here.

With that out of the way, let's go ahead and look ahead: I look forward to filling 2015 with more amazing articles. Thank you for reading. I couldn't do this without you.

My favorite articles of 2012

What a year. I published just over 400 articles in 2012, including more than 110 about endangered species, as well as hundreds more covering a variety of other environmental topics, a few dozen covering bleeding-edge technology, and more than a few about great people doing great things around the world. Here are my favorite articles from the past year:

Should YouTube Ban Videos of the Adorable but Endangered Slow Loris? (Scientific American) - The first of several endangered species articles on this list, and the one that generated the most discussion.

Sell or Keep - One of two articles on this list written for Lion magazine, although it was actually written in 2011 but published in January 2012. Putting this article together gave me the opportunity to speak with Lions Club members around the world as we looked at a subject many clubs are struggling with every day. This also includes my first published magazine photo.

Mini Livestock - My first article for Conservation magazine. A great, potentially game-changing idea.

Kalamazoo ospreys get safe new roost thanks to enterprising filmmaker (Mother Nature Network) - A nice article about some people who saw a chance to make a difference and embraced it.

First Responders Since 1951 - Another article for Lion magazine, and a very personal one. My dad was a member of this Lions club, and I probably rode on one of these ambulances on my way to being born.

3rd Annual Antelope Die-Off in Kazakhstan—Was a Spacecraft to Blame? (Scientific American) - I'm the only journalist in the West who has been following this story (except for the billion bloggers who ripped me off after this was published).

How do horses travel overseas to the London Olympics? (Mother Nature Network) - I had a chance to cover the horse-racing industry a few times this year. It's a weird, messed up industry populated both by scumbags and people who really, really care about their animals.

Every Engineer is a Green Engineer (Today's Engineer) - I interviewed some incredibly interesting and passionate people for this one.

Okapi Conservation Center Recovering after Militia Attack that Killed 6 People and 14 Animals (Scientific American) - Heroes and villains.

Romanian Teen Wins IEEE Presidents' Scholarship (IEEE's The Institute) - What a cool kid. You're going to be reading a lot more about this young man in a few years.

Cost to Prevent All Future Extinctions: $11 per Person? (Scientific American) - I love outside-the-box thinking. This was reprinted (and copied) in a few places and generated a lot of discussion.

What if climate-change doubters held a debate and nobody came? (Mother Nature Network) - I still laugh about this one.

Video: 2 Rhinos Fight for Life after Their Horns Are Chopped Off  (Scientific American) - I still cry about this one.

And my favorite article of 2012?

Prosthetics: A Career That Changes Lives (Today's Engineer) - Writing this article was an amazing experience. The scientists and engineers I interviewed for this article really touched me with their passion, compassion and drive to help people. That would have been enough in and of itself, but several readers have told me that this article made them decide to go into the prosthetic field. I can't imagine a better compliment.


You can find links to all of my 2012 articles here. Take a look -- and if you have any of your own favorites, I'd love to hear your picks!

World Rhino Day

Today is World Rhino Day, and you can read all of my recent Extinction Countdown articles about rhinos here.

Water, water everywhere

In honor of Blog Action Day, here are links to several of my articles about water:

Three Simple Ways to Save Water

The Race to Save Mexico's Water Monster


21 percent of Africa's freshwater species threatened with extinction

Mediterranean dragonflies and damselflies disappearing with region's freshwater

Coral reefs: Vital to the oceans, vital to humans