ESSAYS | POINTS OF VIEW
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Why Do Humans Need Darkness?: Light, Imagination, and the Human Rhythm of the City
For most of human history, darkness was not an exception in urban life. It was part of the ordinary condition of inhabiting the world. Nighttime framed resting, shaped social rhythms, protected ecosystems, and connected human beings to realities larger than themselves. Today, however, many cities behave as if darkness were a defect to be eliminated…
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How Lake Sturgeon Are Teaching Children
What if there were an educational program that could ignite a sense of wonder in middle school students, bring science to life in unforgettable ways, and nurture a stewardship ethic? That is precisely what the Sturgeon in the Classroom program is doing. It is transforming curiosity into connection, and connection into care for the natural…
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The World is a Garden of Edges
One of my former political ecology teachers, Robert Biel, has had this incredible ability to use political theories to connect the deeply theoretical with the banal everyday, the micro with the macro, and the natural with the social sciences. He would use simple threads to link geopolitics with music and ecology with architecture. One day…
TNOC’S MISSION
Cities and communities that are better for nature and all people, through transdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration.
We combine art, science, and practice in innovative and publicly available engagements for knowledge-driven, imaginative, and just green city making.
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ROUNDTABLES | GLOBAL DISCUSSIONS
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Rising autocracy around the globe is strangling science and crippling public dialogue around knowledge and action in sustainability. What now?
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Rising autocracy around the globe is strangling science and crippling public dialogue around knowledge and action in sustainability. What now?
PROJECTS | ART, SCIENCE & ACTION, TOGETHER
TNOC FESTIVAL 2026
The journey to greener,
more inclusive cities
continues…
SPROUT POETRY JOURNAL
ISSUE 4: CARE
This latest issue includes works that interrogate the modes of engaging with others in (urban and natural) space that can speak to the interrelated dimensions of care.
NBS COMICS: NATURE TO SAVE THE WORLD
26 Visions for Urban Equity, Inclusion and Opportunity
Now a global project with over ONE MILLION readers, we invite comic creators from all over the world to imagine comics about how people and nature might thrive together. Nature-based Solutions (NBS) Comics empowers creators to combine science and storytelling.
STORIES OF TNOC: VOLUME 2
Cheeky monkeys, vertical farms, climate change, and tree tribunals. Our latest collection features 49 short stories from 20 countries that radically re-imagine city life.
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AROUND THE WORLD…
THE NATURE OF GRAFFITI
This is the nature of graffiti. It facilitates speech. It speaks to us. It stakes claims and makes statements. It tells stories.
The Nature of Cities hosts a public gallery about the graffiti and street art that motivates us in public places.
REVERBERATIONS EXHIBITION
Close your eyes. What do you hear?
An exhibition exploring the elements through art, science, and sound, with over 30 contributors from various disciplines in a multimedia experience. Produced by the USDA Forest Service and The Nature of Cities.
THE JUST CITY ESSAYS
