From the Editor

We at Ecotone are lucky, in this era of screens, to work in the same place together. For the past twenty years, this magazine has been made in the same hurricane-tested, development-­threatened place. . . .

In a hard time or a good time, the moon is a steady solace. It’s no exaggeration to say that I’ve been looking forward to this, Ecotone’s Moon Issue, for years—and I’m thankful to be able to share it with you at this moment, when that solace feels ever more needed.

The headlines started appearing in late summer. “Earth had its hottest August in 175-year record,” wrote the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Now, in November, there’s a regular pile of them: “NASA finds summer 2024 hottest to date” (NASA), “2024 is on track to be the warmest year on record” (the World Meteorological Organization), “This year set to be first to breach 1.5C global warming limit” (the BBC).

Since moving to the Carolina coast, I’ve taken up the hobby of shark tooth hunting.

This week associate editor Michelle Donahue and I took a break from talking about submissions and went in search of lunch. We landed at Salt Works, the venerable breakfast-and-lunch place across from Wilmington’s arboretum.

Hello from the ocean. Which is to say, hello from a salutary winter beach walk. It’s gotten pretty cold here on this coast, but a walk by the shore is often still the ticket.

Last fall, the release of the sixth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was—or should have been—a wake-up call.