The Issue 45 Editor's Note: What's the Big Idea?

Editor's Note: Kevin Berger on Nautilus’ style of environmental journalism. Plus: the high price of cheap shrimp; checking in on the bees; the political power of ecstatic sex; where do anesthetized minds go? naive realism and you; and more. [View in browser]( | [Become a member]( ISSUE 45 September 23, 2022   Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here](. EDITOR’S NOTE What’s the Big Idea? BY KEVIN BERGER Writing about the environment is a challenge for modern journalists. How many more ways can we say humans have made a mess of the world and everything we care about is vanishing? Well, maybe you shouldn’t answer that. There are many more ways. But what I mean is because the underlying theme of most environmental articles is the same, the articles don’t feel vital. Outrage has a sell date and by now outrage is stale. We can only read so many tales of greed and blight before, to quote the great songwriter Neil Finn, we “turn right over to the TV page.” Maybe our exhaustion is a big part of the reason why the collective action needed to arrest climate change is stalled like a rusted Jeep on a desert road. Yeah, it’s an eyesore and somebody should move it. But I’ve got more important things to worry about right now. Making you care is my job as an editor. Finding the stories that light up your reading mind is, I admit, a challenge. I consistently ask myself, Have readers heard all this before? Does our story have a wedge that pries up a rock to reveal new information? Does the data add up to a vital idea? And most importantly, Is the article a pleasure to read? [SUBSCRIBE TO NAUTILUS IN PRINT]( Of course, I think the environmental science articles in this issue live up to those standards. “The High Environmental Cost of Cheap Shrimp” spotlights an estuary in Ecuador that embodies a global problem, the destruction of mangroves. The trees with labyrinthine roots are fulcrums of wetland ecosystems. They are also natural citadels for us. They halt rising storm waters and provide a line of defense for homes. Cutting them down for get-rich-quick developments is a well known offense in environmental circles. But what makes Kata Karáth’s story special is that cutting down the mangroves is also uprooting the livelihood of fishermen in Ecuador. The mangroves provide critical habitats for the shellfish they catch and sell. But in recent decades, big shrimp companies have cleared the mangroves to make room for pools in the estuary’s brackish waters for shrimp to breed. Good environmental reporting makes us see the hidden consequences of daily actions. An average American eats more than 4 pounds of shrimp per year and 37 percent of it comes from Ecuador. I didn’t know any of that and didn’t give a second thought to greenlighting Kata’s investigation. Another article in this issue, “How Are the Bees Doing?” answers a question about which I have been curious, given the acres of articles that appeared on colony collapse disorder more than ten years ago, and have disappeared from headlines. The answer, in short, is the bees are not alright. Journalist Lois Parshley doesn’t stop there. She outlines projects by savvy insect and agricultural experts to rescue bees from insecticides and urban sprawl. What makes Lois’ article even more original, and quintessentially Nautilus, is it contains a vital idea. Bees, Lois learned, respond to environmental changes by working together. When their hives get too hot, stemming from changes in the atmosphere, they fan their wings to cool it off. To survive, and thrive, the bees work together. There is no other way. Yes, we know bees are critical pollinators. Our food supply depends on them. But bees as role models for humans? Now that’s an idea to base an article on. Enjoy Nautilus Offscreen [READ US IN PRINT](   [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( Copyright © 2022 NautilusNext, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from nautil.us. Our mailing address is: NautilusNext 360 W 36th Street, 7S, New York, NY 10018 To view in your browser, [click here]( . Don't want to hear from us anymore? Click here to [unsubscribe]( .