The New Republic

LATE ON THE MORNING of July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart climbed into the cockpit of her Lockheed Electra airplane on a small grass runway in Lae, New Guinea. She was 22,000 flight miles into her daring attempt to fly around the world, a journey that had captivated Americans since she lifted off from Miami a month earlier. Now Earhart was facing the most dangerous leg of the trip: a 19-hour, 2,556-mile flight to a tiny speck in the Pacific Ocean known as Howland Island. READ MORE >>

One of the (many) worries about global warming is that low-lying island nations in the Pacific Ocean will get swallowed up by rising sea levels. Last fall, government officials from Maldives put on scuba gear and staged an underwater cabinet meeting as a sort of awareness-raising publicity stunt. And from everything we know, these island nations are going to have a rough time in a warmer world. READ MORE >>

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THE GREAT DAY arrives. “I christen thee Western Light!” the woman cries. The glass shatters against the hull, the blocks are pulled out; there is a cry from the crowd as the towering mass glides away, gathering speed until it rolls up the water, rocking until it comes to rest, a ship on the sea. READ MORE >>