New Internationalist

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Nature's defenders

The race is on to exploit the planet’s dwindling resources – minerals, oil, water – as fast and rapaciously as possible. This is causing toxic pollution, adding to global warming and threatening the lives and livelihoods of those living closest to nature. Holding the frontline are indigenous people – especially those of the Amazon. We visit Peru, where a rebellion of nature’s defenders is taking hold and challenging both governments and corporations.

October 2011, Issue 446

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Analysis

Analysis

Nature’s defenders
Vanessa Baird introduces a clash that is becoming increasingly heated – and relevant.
Peru's dam busters
Peru’s Asháninka people take on the dam builders to save Pakitzapango.
Meet the defenders
Profiling environmental champions who don’t buy Western ideas of development.
Avatar for real
From Canada to Congo, from India to Australia, indigenous communities are fighting for their lives and livelihoods.
¡Agro si! ¡Mina no!
When the people of Peru’s southern Andes arose to defend farming and oppose mining.
A different imagination
Opening up the space in our minds. Vanessa Baird concludes this special report. Plus Action contacts and information.
Agenda

Agenda

Indonesia’s forgotten massacre
Waste water farm tames ‘the garbage monster’
Shack-dwellers’ victory
Still no real justice for Afghan women
Spain’s slow-burning revolution
Gemma Galdon gives a quick introduction to the Spanish movement that sparked a worldwide revolt against the global financial system.
The population time bomb: hoax or horror?
Who is to blame for the Somali famine?
Is it the US government? Is it Al Shabab? Is it the UN? Sally Healy argues it is the result of a collective failure.
Argument

Argument

Should there be a maximum wage?
As the hyper-rich pull further away from the rest of us, should the state impose a limit on what people earn? Read our debate and have your say.
Arts

Arts

Winds of change
Movies from North Africa and the Middle East flesh out the cultural and social contexts to the current political uprisings.
Reviews
Films, books and music from around the world reviewed.
Alternatives

Alternatives

Volunteering offers new purpose
Tina Burrett finds Japanese youth galvanized post- tsunami.
In a pickle
Anna Weston considers how best to preserve her harvest.
Have a happy and green Hallowe’en
In the US, Green Hallowe’en is now an established movement
Action

Action

Full listings
With special reports on campaign news
Regular features

Regulars

Letters
Missing eucalyptus, mother-fracking, bringing men out of their macho silence and why the Berlin Wall was good for stability.
Country profile: The Gambia
Facts, figures and ratings.
Cut to the quick
Claire C tots up the price of shark-fin soup.
Letter from Cairo
Love is hard in a city slum, writes Maria Golia.
Photo Feature
Benedicte Desrus captures the faces of hate as Uganda’s anti-gay campaigners call for capital punishment.
Mark Engler
How ‘the land of the free’ became ‘prison nation’.
‘We will remove Bashar’
Undercover journalist Daniel Wiggins gives an inside view on Syria’s protest movements.
Puzzle Page
Axe's classic crossword is joined by a wordsearch and ‘Sudokey’
Applause
Self-adjusting glasses – so simple.
Cartoon corner
Big Bad World, Only Planet plus guest cartoonist Mohammad Saba’aneh from Palestine.
Anna Chen
On riots, feral scum and politicians.
And finally...
Faithless guitarist David Randall on why all music is political.