Atmos

Climate and Culture
Volume 11 Micro/Macro
Volume 10 Afterlife
Volume 09 Kinship
Volume 08 Rhythm
Volume 07 Prism
Volume 06 Beyond
Volume 05 Hive
Volume 04 Cascade
Volume 03 Flourish/
Collapse
Volume 02 Latitude
Volume 01 Neo-Natural

In This Issue

The Space Between
In BEWILDERMENT, the follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel THE OVERSTORY, Richard Powers turns his attention to the universe within and without. Here, he speaks with Atmos about the shift from alienation to interbeing, the question vexing astrobiologists, and what it means to live where you live. Read Article
Beyond the Human
Humanity is at an evolutionary turning point. The question is: What are we becoming? More animal? More machine? The founders of Queer Nature explore ecological identity beyond binaries. Read Article
Come Together
If the future asks one thing of us, it’s reconnection—to ourselves, each other, and the wider realm of nature. While the U.S. wrestles with its own division, photographers from around the world reflect on moments of concord they have captured on camera. Read Article
Course Correction
For the Klamath River and its people, teachings for justice can be found in the corner, charting a new course for the future steered by the wisdom of the past. Read Article
Reimagining Rehabilitation
In a system that invests in incarceration rather than redemption and punishment rather than people, abolition is the only answer. So what does a world free of prisons look like? Read Article
Crumbling Capital
One way or another, late-stage capitalism will collapse. We can let it take us down with it, or we can grow something new: a world where mindsets of scarcity have been overrun by sustainability. Read Article
We Are Earth
To change the course of the climate crisis, we must draw on the strategies of our fellow life-forms, ensuring collective survival through interconnectedness. Read Article
Seeing Through the Veil
In the West, many Muslim women are defined by their head covering. Coco Khan looks beyond the stereotypes surrounding the veil, into the fight for power and representation in a world that insists on oversimplification. Read Article
The Sound of Solidarity
“Al-Hara” means neighborhood in Arabic, but Radio Alhara’s community isn’t defined by any geographic boundary. Amid COVID lockdowns and the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the station’s blend of music and political activism became essential—both globally and locally—as a beacon for collectivism and self-determination. Read Article
Expanding Horizons
Science fiction can help predict the future—whether it will be utopian interplanetary communities or ruthless colonial societies. As humans look toward building new worlds in space, a question looms: Will we drag our problems with us? Read Article
Broken From the Colony
​​For Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors, a climate-fiction contest from Fix, Grist’s Solutions Lab, Ada M. Patterson conjures a future in which trans women and nonbinary folks find acceptance and security among the coral as the sole survivors of a storm that submerged their Caribbean island. Read Article
Dreaming Awake
In a society still rooted in oppressive systems, dreaming isn’t an escape—it’s an act of resistance. As contributing editor Rachel Cargle writes, Black women have always been birthing new worlds by way of the imagination. Read Article
The Saga of Grimes
How does science fiction become history? Few artists are better equipped to answer this question than GRIMES, who has gone from being a visionary indie musician to having a front row view of humanity’s potential future among the stars. Here, she talks with award-winning sci-fi author Nnedi Okorafor about embracing the dark and the light, the spirituality of technology, and writing her own saga. Read Article
Upside Down
While on assignment for Atmos, Lea Colombo’s trek through the Namib Desert took an unexpected turn: a brush with death that brought a new perspective. Read Article
The Other Side of Disaster
Climate catastrophe is not just one event—it’s a force that reverberates. This has been the heartbreaking reality for Nicaragua’s Miskito communities, many of whom are seeking refuge north after Hurricanes Eta and Iota hit in 2020. Read Article
Colonization’s Lasting Impact on Photography
The language to describe the photographic process—taking, shooting, capturing an image—is rooted in the violence of colonial practice. Indigenous artists Josué Rivas and Rose B. Simpson reflect on the brave act of breaking free. Read Article
The Umbilicus
Land defender Tara Houska reflects on her experiences fighting Line 3 on the frontlines—and why reconnecting with our future will require reconciling with our past. Read Article
El Bosque
The cloud forests of Veracruz, Mexico are otherworldly in their beauty and lifegiving in their nature. As climate change and industrialization close in on these disappearing landscapes, Mexican poet María Baranda contemplates the multitudes they contain—the forest beyond the trees. Read Article
Seeding Sanctity
As the climate crisis threatens frontline communities and fragile ecosystems, practitioners of nature-connected belief systems—like Santeria—are calling on their roots to reawaken an eco-consciousness embedded deep within. Read Article
The Great Mystery
Ruth Hopkins invites us to behold Wakan Tanka, the essence at the heart of Oceti Sakowin spirituality, in which the sacred flows through everything: from the movement of muscles to the stars in the sky. Read Article