Environment
Sustainability
New Internationalist offers critical analysis of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and considers the possibilities of a world beyond consumerism. It unpacks corporate claims of sustainability, with particular focus on the fast fashion industry and large, transnational corporations
Carbon credits are dispossessing African communities
Instead of cutting their emissions, big polluters are exploiting the continent’s forests.
What if…we got real about sustainability?
It might reverse the UN’s order of holiness, Vanessa Baird finds.
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.
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
Is concern about population growth exaggerated?
Does obsession with population size miss the point? Mohan Rao and Sara Parkin weigh in on the debate.
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.
No more of your junk
Adam Liebman explains why we need a less rosy notion of what actually happens to our recycling.
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.
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'
Arvind Gupta: making toys from trash
Making learning fun for young minds. Priti Salian reports from a classroom in Bangalore.
Certified nonsense
Sustainable forestry may be an oxymoron. Chris Lang finds some holes in the system.
Last stand
The world’s last great woodlands are fast disappearing – with untold consequences for the environment and for us. Time to stop the destruction, argues Wayne Ellwood.
Cowspiracy: stampeding in the wrong direction?
There’s much to admire in the documentary but its political framing and a major error threaten to undermine its message, writes Danny Chivers.
Switching on to energy democracy
Popular participation, social ideals and ecological sustainability are key attributes of sustainable systems, Claire Fauset writes.
2016: Time to take the leap
Naomi Klein and her team speak to Marienna Pope-Weidemann about the significance of The Leap Manifesto.
21st century COP out
A brief illustrated history of the climate negotiations by cartoonist Kate Evans.
Paris deal: Epic fail on a planetary scale
The Paris Agreement is being hailed as a great success. But will it deliver climate justice? Danny Chivers and Jess Worth put it to the test.
Myth 6: Fossil fuels are more economically viable than renewables
Not if you look at the environmental costs, says Dinyar Godrej.
Global Climate March: pictures from around the world
People marching in France, Germany, South Africa and elsewhere on 29 November 2015, part of New Internationalist's live coverage of the Paris climate talks.
The Left should embrace degrowth
Giorgos Kallis explains why we should all be living ‘the degrowth way’.
Race science rears its ugly head
Racism disguised as academic research must be robustly challenged, argues Gavin Evans.
Shifting priorities: from arms to renewables
Andrew Smith and Matthew Burnett-Stuart urge the government to reconsider its spending plans.
Will fracking realign the world?
Pundits foresee an altered world order brought on by fracked gas and oil. Dinyar Godrej thinks the changes could play out quite differently.
Is it time to ditch the pursuit of economic growth?
Economist and author Dan O'Neill and journalist and author Daniel Ben-Ami go head-to-head.
Biofuels - the good, the bad and the ugly
From wood to algae, biofuels have been around for years. But they're not necessarily all they're cracked up to be. Danny Chivers has the low-down.
10 DIY Permaculture Ideas
From living roofs and forest gardens to animal tractors and chicken greenhouses.
Tasmanian roots
The two Australians, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, set the ball rolling – *Russ Grayson* and *Steve Payne* tell their story.
Going off the mains
James Stronell is completing a house in the dry Australian Bush where there's no water connection. What was he thinking?