2019 July/August

Get Sierra free in your mailbox or on your device with your Sierra Club membership

Subscribe

Current Issue: 2024 Spring

All Issues

Feature

The US Recycling System Is Garbage

China doesn't want our crap anymore, and who can blame them?

By Edward Humes

June 26, 2019

Departments

Varshini Prakash, wearing a dark-blue puffy jacket, looks into the camera while standing against a metal fence. Behind her is water and a city skyline.

Do-Gooder

Varshini Prakash Has a Blueprint for Change

The Sunrise Movement tackles climate change and income inequality

By Leanna First-Arai

July 5, 2019

Editor’s Desk

You're Recycling Wrong

Back to the drawing board for everyone on how to take out the trash

By Paul Rauber

June 27, 2019

Stories help connect us to the issues we care about, and to each other

From the Top

Explore, Enjoy, and Listen

Stories help connect us to the issues we care about, and to each other

By Michael Brune

June 30, 2019

Faces of Clean Energy

From Prison to a Career in Solar

Solar-installation boot camp changed my life—that and disc golf

June 10, 2019

Illustration shows wildfire flames in the shape of a man. He's looking down at a real man on the ground and surrounding him with his arms.

Eyewitness

They Named a Wildfire After Me—I Have Thoughts About That

When my family's West Texas ranch burned, it felt like I was mourning a person

By David McDannald

July 9, 2019

The front tip of a kayak points toward the back of a whale in the distance. To the right is a Haida Gwaii island with many trees.

Field Trip

What It's Like to Kayak With Whales in Haida Gwaii

Where orcas rule the waves and Indigenous elders protect the land

By Aaron Millar

July 4, 2019

In River of People With Elephant at Night, an elephant stands in between two lines of people, all looking down at their phones.

Critic’s Notebook

Is the Human Race Sleepwalking to Oblivion?

Nick Brandt's "This Empty World" is an elegy for a planet in peril

By Jonathan Hahn

June 29, 2019

Illustrations show a hiker walking up to a sloped icy patch on the trail, then he's sliding down it, digging his heels into the snow to slow down, sliding over boulders and hitting a tree feet first (he says Ooof), and then standing up and waving to a

Survive

You're Plummeting Down a Mountain—Now What?

Of course the time you don't bother to get out your ice ax is when you fall

By Alex Brown

July 8, 2019

The first electric airplanes are here—and they're tiny.

Stress Test

How Close Are We to Getting Electric Airplanes?

The first electric models are here—and they're tiny

By Heather Smith

July 9, 2019

Changemaker

Submerged in Ocean Activism

Penny Hooper works to save the coast she loves

By Wendy Becktold

July 8, 2019

Steam rises from water in a field at New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve.

Club News

South New Jersey Rejects a Power Plant and a Pipeline

The decision to close the B.L. England Generating Station is a double win

By Mukta Patil

July 3, 2019

The back of midwife Mak Muji walking down a path toward a building in between two large piles of garbage and trees. In a bag, she's carrying the analog scale she uses to weigh babies.

Photo

What It's Like Living in a Landfill

Some Indonesian communities are literally living in garbage

July 6, 2019

Books

Buzzy New Book Makes Case for Why We Need Insects

"Buzz, Sting, Bite" celebrates the pests we love to hate

By Michael Berry

July 7, 2019

Books

The Race to Save Butterflies Before It's Too Late

Nick Haddad tracks scientists in their mission to save the insect's rarest species

By Jonathan Hahn

July 7, 2019

Ask Mr. Green

Is There Earth-Friendly Disposable Dishware?

When in doubt, avoid single-use items

By Bob Schildgen

July 2, 2019

A large plume of black smoke rises into the sky from a fire at a petrochemical plant near Houston.

Protect

Boom Goes the Plastics Industry

With demand for oil expected to slow, oil companies seek a lifeline in plastics

By Antonia Juhasz