AP Human Geography Collection

A disastrous oil spill off the coast of Alaska and massive explosion of a rig in the Gulf of Mexico revealed a pattern of unsettled standards and inconsistent oversight that cast doubt on the oil industry’s preparedness for future accidents. 

In the 1980s, rising public awareness about waste was fueled by a bizarre news story about a meandering New York City garbage barge. 

Ancient methods of collecting and storing rainwater are being used to address severe drought today. 

Burmese pythons released into the wild by well-meaning pet owners have created a reptilian nightmare in the Everglades. 

The increasing scarcity of drinking water is beginning to capture the world’s attention – but surprisingly, an innovative solution might just be found in one of the Earth’s driest places. 

A rapidly growing California wildfire is threatening a grove of giant Sequoia trees in Yosemite National Park, some nearly 3,000 years old. For context, we examine the 1988 fires in Yellowstone National Park that ignited a debate over firefighting tactics and sustainable forestry. 

There are now so many wild horses on public land – nearly 100,000 – that they have become caught in a battle between the government, ranchers and environmentalists. 

Churches once led a refugee rescue effort that shapes U.S. immigration policy today. 

Today’s immigration policies echo an anti-immigration movement from the 1990s in California. 

What obligation does the United States have toward people who are uprooted by war? 

In the 1960s, fears of overpopulation sparked talk of population control. So what happened? 

In Ukraine, elderly Jewish citizens threatened by the war with Russia are being evacuated. As children, they escaped the Nazi invasion. Now some are finding refuge in a most unlikely place: Germany. 

Across the globe, more and more people are living longer lives and that’s redefining what it means to be over 65, and what the future might mean for retirement. 

This Emmy-nominated video explores a massive protest by Mexican American high school students that became a milestone in a movement for Chicano rights. 

The 1982 attack against Vincent Chin redefined hate crimes and energized a push for today’s stronger legal protections. (Mural by Anthony Lee.) 

The U.S. government ordered 120,000 people of Japanese descent, most American citizens, imprisoned during World War II. An admission of wrongdoing and reparations payments came decades later, but a Supreme Court ruling had lasting impact. 

Native Americans demand accountability for a federal policy that aimed to erase Indigenous culture. 

For generations, Native American children were removed from their homes and placed with white families. A recent Supreme Court ruling affirms the rights of Native families and tribes, giving them preference in adoption and foster care placement. 

A Soviet blockade around Berlin cut the divided city off from the West. But in 1948 U.S. and British pilots began to fly food, fuel and medicine to the Allied sectors. 

In the Cold War, North Korean Communists invaded South Korea. President Truman’s decision to intervene had consequences that shape the world today. 

Both parties play the redistricting game, redrawing electoral boundaries to lock down power. 

The defeat of Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court in 1987 changed the way justices are confirmed today. 

In 1948, World War II aviators risked their lives in a secret operation to smuggle weapons and planes to the Israeli military. 

Driven by fears of the rise of communism, the United States adopted a policy of containment, intervening in the politics of countries across the globe. In Latin America, the consequences of those efforts are still unfolding. 

“Massacre in El Salvador,” a collaboration with Frontline and ProPublica, tells the story of El Mozote, the worst massacre in recent Latin American history, and why a final reckoning is at risk. 

Officials who drove the decades-long war in Afghanistan look back on the strategic mistakes and misjudgments that led to a 20-year quagmire. 

Plant-based meats may be high tech, but the ideas behind them have been around for decades. 

Author Rachel Carson’s strike against the pesticide DDT turned her into both an environmental hero and a foil for those who believe regulation has gone too far. That fight is more relevant than ever. 

In the 1990s, a bunch of gene jockeys brought the first genetically engineered food to market. The business crashed but biotech science has flourished far beyond the produce aisle. 

A small South Dakota farm holds lessons for feeding a crowded and less predictable world. 

Race-based federal lending rules from New Deal programs in the 1930s kept Black families locked out of suburban neighborhoods, a policy that continues to slow their economic mobility. 

The history of racial integration in public schools, and what happened after the buses stopped rolling. 

Some cities are trying to help poor children succeed by having their families move to middle-income, so-called “opportunity areas” – an idea that was once politically impossible. 

Since the summer of 2020, we’ve documented the impact of the pandemic on housing and evictions. We followed tenants, landlords, lawyers, judges, sheriffs and social workers across the U.S. who were affected. 

At the height of rush hour on August 1, 2007 a bridge carrying eight lanes of I-35W traffic over the Mississippi River suddenly collapsed, sending cars and trucks plunging into the water below. 

In the latest installment of our “What Happens Next” series examining the future of society, we visit Medellín, Colombia—a city that has reinvented itself over the past few decades, turning its violent past into a sustainable future by transforming its slums. 

Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, and Louisiana’s troubled housing recovery has shaped the response to every major disaster since, including Hurricane Sandy. 

Has the government done enough to stop housing discrimination?