Environment
This section considers how we can build a world that works both for the planet and for its people. We draw attention to the perils of deep sea mining and continued coal extraction while considering solutions to the environmental crisis through interview pieces and critical analysis of current, technological solutions.
The case for nature
As the alarm sounds on the sixth mass extinction, Dinyar Godrej squares up to what we need to do to avert it.
How ancient forest gardens keep hunger at bay
Tesfa-Alem Tekle showcases the unique agroforestry system that sustains communities in Ethiopia’s southern highlands.
Planet farm
Rob Wallace connects industrialized farming to the emergence of ever more deadly pathogens.
What if…we got real about sustainability?
It might reverse the UN’s order of holiness, Vanessa Baird finds.
Enforcing ecological catastrophe at all costs
After an activist is hospitalized in Germany following police action, Andrea Brock reflects on the criminalization of, and violence against, environmental defenders in Europe by state and private actors.
9 inspiring food-aid projects
Emergency relief can be done in ways that go beyond sticking-plaster solutions. Frideswide O’Neill and Hazel Healy profile nine groups doing things differently…
How foodbanks went global
The rise of food charity in some of the most affluent countries is surely a sign that something has gone badly wrong. So why is this broken model being exported to the rest of the world? Charlie Spring investigates.
‘People can't afford to eat'
Penny Walters bears witness to food poverty in the UK and suggests a way out of it. As told to Hazel Healy.
Death by Covid-19 – or hunger?
The pandemic has left millions of people on the brink of starvation. Hazel Healy asks why our food system is failing the poorest so badly – and offers a glimpse of a more equitable path. With extra reporting by Mohamed Camara.
How to bend the curve of biodiversity loss
As the UN convenes the Biodiversity Summit in New York, Joji Cariño, Andy Whitmore, Milka Chepkorir and Claire Bracegirdle argue the case for centering the knowledge of indigenous people and local communities in the fight against biodiversity loss.
Introducing… the Food Justice files
New Internationalist launches a one-year series dedicated to unpicking why hunger persists.
Organic food is a ‘human right’, says leading food scientist
To stamp out pesticides from our fragile food systems is to protect those most prone to ill health, Friends of the Earth’s senior staff scientist, Kendra Klein explains to Yasmin Dahnoun.
Battle of the heavyweights
Jan Goodey reports on the legal bid to save the Amazon fringe that could set a worldwide precedent for forest protection.
In an uncertain global future, is it ethical to have children?
Ethical and political dilemmas abound these days. Seems like we’re all in need of a New Internationalist perspective. Enter stage: Agony Uncle.
Criminalizing hunger
In Chile, state security forces are increasingly detaining, beating and harassing the volunteers of community-led soup kitchens. Carole Concha Bell speaks to the organizers resisting this intimidation.
The global fight for clean air
What’s in store for the future when it comes to stopping air pollution? Watch experts and campaigners discuss the fight for clean air at a New Internationalist live event.
How to stop progress
Dana Drugmand explains how the powerful car industry has continually blocked change to keep us hooked.
‘I don’t want to live like this’
Community journalists from the northeast of England on the impact of air pollution on their lives.
Top of the class
Dirty air is not an impossible problem. Beth Gardiner assesses some places cleaning up their act.
Fed up with the fumes
Dirty air in Nigeria takes a huge toll on lives and livelihoods. But civil society is not short of ideas for change, as Michael Simire finds out.
Hitting the population brakes
Popular wisdom has it that everything is speeding up, including population growth. Danny Dorling shows just how wrong that is – and argues that we are actually in a time of slowdown. A tour of future population prospects for key hotspots
The hidden polluters
Agricultural air pollution seems to be a tough nut to crack. Amy Hall explores the air-pollution problem down on the farm.
Unfit for habitation
India’s air pollution crisis affects millions, and not just in Delhi. Aruna Chandrasekhar meets people forced to live, and resist, at Mumbai’s toxic perimeter.
Water as a weapon of war
Turkey is restricting access to a vital life source for thousands of people in northeast Syria. A new crowdfunder is raising money for water infrastructure in the region, writes Jo Taylor from the campaign.
To protect life
Covid-19 has shown us that swift action on global health is possible, even if it still falls short. What could we achieve, asks Amy Hall, if we took an urgent approach to air pollution, another widespread killer?
Covid-19 cannot be an excuse for more toxic air
Air pollution kills millions of people each year. In the post-virus rush to return to ‘business as usual’, we could end up with worse air quality than ever before unless we make radical changes. Amy Hall writes.
The plight of Spain’s migrant workers
Many in Southern Spain's migrant workforce have long been alleging systematic exploitation from employers. Clare Carlile explains the repercussions for workers demanding more during this crisis.
The violence of ‘conservation’
Fiore Longo of Survival International argues for an end to big conservation projects that abuse and destroy the very peoples who know how to protect the land.
Inside the Trojan horse
BP or not BP activist Phil Ball on the love, sweat, and ingenuity of the unprecedented 51-hour creative takeover of the British Museum.
Is concern about population growth exaggerated?
Does obsession with population size miss the point? Mohan Rao and Sara Parkin weigh in on the debate.
Who owns the sea?
Vanessa Baird examines the free-for-all consensus when it comes to the world’s oceans, and its implications for our future.
Deep-sea dilemma
Sea-bed mining promises many riches, but at great risk. Should we pause for thought? asks marine biologist Diva Amon.
Marine gene rush
The race is on to patent all marine life – and some have got a head start. Marine scientist Robert Blasiak explains to Vanessa Baird what it means.
Life after coal
Can we move away from fossil fuels without destroying the communities that rely on them? Sam Adler Bell looks to the devastated US coalfields of Appalachia.
