In the Antarctic, Adélie penguins harbor consistent levels of the pesticide DDT even though it’s been widely banned since the 1970s. The source: glacier meltwater that trickles past the penguins on its way to the sea, eventually making its way into the penguins’ food webs.

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Jean Jacques Rousseau (plato.standford.edu) Jean-Jacques Rousseau remains an important figure in the history of philosophy, both because of his contributions to political philosophy and moral psychology and on account of his influence on later thinkers. Rousseau’s own view of most philosophy and philosophers was firmly negative, seeing them as post-hoc rationalizers of self-interest, as apologists for various forms of tyranny, and as playing a role in the alienation of the modern individual from humanity’s natural impulse to compassion. The concern that dominates Rousseau’s work is to find a way of preserving human freedom in a world where people are increasingly dependent on one another to satisfy their needs.

Melting Glaciers Do More Than Raise Sea Levels (hakaimagazine.com) Novels and blockbuster movies that tackle climate change gravitate toward the dramatic, especially when it comes to melting ice. In these stories, mountainous glaciers crumble and cities flood as the sea rises. But a lot more happens in between the mountains and the sea, as meltwater passes through the liminal space of the coast. Here are five ways the slow, non-dramatic drip of melting ice changes our coastlines and oceans.