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Trained as a mechanical engineer, Matt worked in the solar energy industry and directed the design and construction of a clean-room factory in Thailand. Moving back to the United States, he spent 2 years sourcing his clothes, food, tools, and shelter from the wild. Now living in San Francisco, his goal is to bridge the pre-industrial and modern worlds. He is currently working for Google X on a renewable energy project.

Maddie's father, Nathan Roark, is the director of Buffalo Cove Outdoor Education Center, a wilderness camp located in the foothills of the Southern Appalachians dedicated to helping children discover and connect with the natural world.

Rachel immerses herself in the communal mud pit at the Twin Oaks Communities Conference in Louisa, Virginia. People from around the world come to the conference to talk about ecovillages, cooperative housing, and how to live closer to nature.

Kate participates in a study measuring how time in nature benefits cognition, organized by neuroscientist David Strayer. The EEG cap and facial electrodes record brain activity as Maggie is exposed to the natural environment of rural Utah.

Esme swims in the balcony pool of a hotel in Singapore, as rush hour traffic builds on the road below her. The hotel contains over 15,000 square meters of greenery, amounting to twice its land area. In Singapore, 100 percent of the population is urban. The city-state is promoting conservation of its natural resources and the use of green technology. ‘Wild’ nature is being reincorporated into the city.

At the Davey Lopes Recreation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, local children grow food to give away to people who live in the neighborhood.

Madelaine experiences virtual nature at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Dr. Matilda van den Bosch stresses her subjects with a math test and a simulated job interview. After delivering them into a virtual forest with singing birds, she measures how soon her subjects' heart rates recover.

Rikers Island is New York City's main jail complex and the largest penal colony in the world. There are five organic gardens run by the Horticultural Society of New York, where detainees and prisoners tend flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Riots, lockdowns, beatings, and solitary confinement occur in the nearby buildings.

In the United States each year, wildfires burn millions of acres of land. The number has been rising. To prevent wildfires, the US Forest Service performs controlled burns between fire seasons, when the land is wet enough that fires don't go out of control. The budget for controlled burns is 1 percent of the amount spent fighting wildfires.

Farmers still use ice, the best technology available, to protect orange trees from cold winter temperatures in the Central Valley of California.

Scientists race to create climate-change-resilient agriculture. By crossbreeding domesticated crops with their wild ancestors, they propagate super-hardy strains that can withstand droughts, heat waves, and freezes. As erratic weather patterns intensify, farmers need crops that can cope with such stresses.

Due to the depleting aquifer and years of drought, wind turbines now provide more consistent income than crops in Briscoe County, Texas.

Researchers at Mauna Loa Observatory have continuously monitored and collected data related to atmospheric change since the 1950's. They maintain the longest continuous record of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The undisturbed air, remote location, and minimal influences of vegetation and human activity are ideal for climate science.

The ozonesonde balloon will measure ozone and standard meteorological quantities such as pressure, temperature and humidity in the upper atmosphere.

The Geysers is the world's largest geothermal field, containing a complex of 22 geothermal power plants that draw steam from more than 350 wells, approximately 72 miles north of San Francisco, California.

If a major eruption happens on the sun, the solar storm can send electromagnetic radiation and charged particle radiation into our atmosphere.

To catch people hunting unlawfully in western Wyoming during the off-season, rangers from the state’s Game and Fish Department occasionally conduct sting operations. They position a taxidermied elk in mountain valleys and wait out of sight for someone to shoot it. This elk was on its day off in the hallway of the department’s Pinedale Regional Office.

Rooftops in the city of Portland, Oregon, host bee hives to pollinate the city's plant life.

Air samples from Niwot Ridge in Colorado are used by NOAA Earth Systems Research Laboratory’s Global Monitoring Division to make real air standards–the air to which every other air sample is compared.

Every summer since 1946, members of the Juneau Icefield Research Program have traversed the Juneau Icefield, contributing to the oldest continual study of a glacier in the Western Hemisphere. The Juneau Icefield in southeast Alaska is one of the largest ice fields in the world, covering more than 1,500 square miles.

If climate-warming trends continue, the Juneau Icefield is expected to completely disappear by 2200.

Globally, glaciers cover about 10% of the Earth’s surface and store about 75% of the world’s freshwater.

The Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii has been erupting continuously since 1983. In 2017 a torrent of molten rock poured out into the Pacific Ocean. Tourists from around the world rented seats on lava boat tours, despite the risk of flaming debris falling on them.

The new house is at an elevation of approximately 20 feet higher than the last house, which was built in the same place, before the lava flow.

The air over Cape Kumukahi on the Big Island of Hawaii has traveled across the Pacific Ocean. It is arguably the cleanest air on Earth. This photograph was made on Goda and Lev's second date. They asked for a clothed portrait and, during the photo shoot, started kissing.