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.
Defusing the carbon bomb
In order to avoid climate breakdown, over 80 per cent of known fossil-fuel reserves must stay in the ground. Danny Chivers has this round-up of social movements targeting mines, rigs, infrastructure and investment.
Is vegan activism too confrontational?
Is challenging members of the public with the reality of animal suffering and slaughter counterproductive? Vegans Chris Saltmarsh and Hannah Short agree to disagree.
Why I protested a British Museum exhibition of my own people’s history
Yasmin Younis explains why she protested against a British Museum exhibition of her own people’s history.
Radical lessons from bird watchers
Meet the long-tailed tit: a one-species rebuke to ruthless Darwinism. Tom Whyman reports.
When it is illegal to waste food
By supermarkets, that is. Timothy Baster and Isabelle Merminod on the progress of a much-lauded French law.
Dirty work: a photo essay
Dirty Work showcases the everyday lives of those making a living in the waste trade.
Indigenous India: written in stone
An indigenous movement in Jharkhand is reminding the Indian authorities of their constitutional duty to protect tribal lands. But the government is persecuting tribespeople for standing up. Rohini Mohan reports.
It’s all down to you
Dinyar Godrej explains why the packaging industry loves shunting the blame on individual consumers
No more of your junk
Adam Liebman explains why we need a less rosy notion of what actually happens to our recycling.
COP24: Who are these UN climate meetings for?
Nick Dowson highlights the issues up for debate, obstacles to negotiations and where all this leaves the majority world.
Modern life is rubbish
Dinyar Godrej argues that consumption patterns in a wasteful society add up to much more than the sum of individual actions.
COP14: Corporate power and declining biodiversity
Nele Marien explains the scale and cost of financial lobbying against biodiversity efforts.
Fighting the big burn: Lebanon's waste dilemma
The mismanagement of Lebanon’s trash has brought citizens onto the streets – and the latest plans are also stoking outrage. But, as Fiona Broom discovers, there are also optimists.
How we chose the cover of NI516
A dump in Cambodia and a child waste-picker to show that our waste never really disappear.
Editor’s letter: deep disconnect
Co-editor Dinyar Godrej pens an opening letter for the latest magazine: 'The dirt on waste'
Time for Roundup to wind up?
After decades muddying the science, Monsanto may at last account for its weedkiller’s effects, writes Claire Robinson.
Walter Aduviri – hero or criminal?
Human rights defenders are being criminalized in Peru. John Crabtree highlights the unusual case of Walter Aduviri.
Shell’s festival of unbelievable bullshit
Make the Future is the latest in flimsy greenwash PR from an oil company pretending it can save the world from oil companies, Darren Cullen writes.
Why we’re challenging UK Oil and Gas
Six women are fighting an injunction against drilling protests. Vicki Elcoate explains why
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If we all became vegan tomorrow
The Guardian repeats the myth that becoming vegan is the ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth. Chris Saltmarsh and Harpreet Kaur Paul disagree.
Dark clouds in Poland
Violeta Santos Moura reports from Poland, where reliance on coal kills some 45,000 people each year.
Jakarta's water woes
A civil society lawsuit has ended the city's water sell-off. But the fight isn't over. Febriana Firdaus reports.
Goodbye to the monarchy?
What do republican activists make of this royal wedding? Darren Loucaides finds out.
Climate justice from below for climate harms
The Bonn Climate Change Conference shows how top down processes will not bring about just solutions for the majority world, Harpreet Kaur Paul writes.
This land is my land
Ian Neubauer reports from Bougainville, where rebels chased away a mining company 30 years ago. Now the company is planning its return.
Chinese pollution on Gambian coast
Residents from a coastal village in the Gambia are suing a Chinese-owned fishmeal plant accused of pollution, writes Nosmot Gbadamosi.
The Women Who Stopped the Nuclear Deal
Makoma Lekalakala and Liz McDaid won the Goldman Environmental Prize for stopping a secret nuclear deal with Russia. Veronique Mistiaen reports
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Mercury levels rising in Brazil
A large-scale dam in the Amazon is leading to dangerously high levels of mercury in indigenous communities writes Tom Lawson.
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The Battle for ZAD: Victory for anti-airport movement
The French government has abandoned plans to build a controversial airport – but is still evicting the ZAD protesters. Claire Fauset writes.
Did deforestation cause the Ebola outbreak?
How humanity may have triggered Ebola outbreaks. By Katie McQue.
Mozambique plantation leaves no land or jobs for villagers
Promised plantation jobs, five years later these Mozambicans are still waiting, discovers Nils Adler.
‘Seashore landfilling’ and other waste woes
Lebanon’s waste is literally spilling beyond its shores. Daniel Hilton reports.
Drawing strength from our ancestors
Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres talks about her mother’s example and how ancestors accompany our struggles.
Gina Lopez fights Philippine mining
The fiery Filipino environmentalist talks to Veronique Mistiaen.-
Saving our underwater meadows
Citizens are coming to the rescue of endangered seagrass meadows, writes Nick Dowson.
