Special features

Bamboo is so tough and so plentiful it’s used for construction scaffolding all aver Asia. So why not use it to build bikes? It seemed like a good idea to design maestro Craig Calfee and to the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York City. The two have teamed up to build better bikes for poor Africans in rural areas and stimulate the local bicycle industry in a number of African countries. The NI talked to Bamboo Bike Project co-ordinator and Columbia scientist David Ho.

When it comes to the future, the car simply can’t compete. Chris Webb charts the comeback of the people’s best friend – the humble bicycle. And you can even make one out of bamboo.

‘If the transition to Obama is to become the end of an era as well as the end of an error,’ says food and agriculture activist and author Wayne Roberts, then ‘the legacy of Bill Clinton as well as George Bush will need to be overcome.’

Filed in: Agriculture Trade

New Internationalist’s list of nominees for Most Artful Tax Dodger.

Lorena Luo in Beijing debunks the idea of a New Green Revolution.

Filed in: Agriculture

The Pesticide Action Network reports from Penang on the threat to China’s staple food.

Late-night meetings between Asian and European social movements produced the beginnings of a manifesto for change – the ‘Beijing Declaration’.

Out of the ashes of the crash, how are we to create a fairer future? New Internationalist asks leading experts from around the world to focus on specific areas and propose practical action for change.

How did we get here? David Ransom takes a global – and historical – look.

Hope was a key word in the campaign of newly elected US President Barack Obama. Americans and citizens around the world were stirred by Obama’s oratorical prowess and his vision of change. Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano is optimistic.