Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Across cultures, practices that limit ego and hierarchy help sustain cooperation and trust. In an era of cascading crises, rediscovering these “social technologies” could strengthen community resilience and collective action.
In New Zealand, forest gardening is being reshaped to fit local climates, ecosystems and cultural contexts. Drawing on years of research and practice, this work shows how place-based adaptation can support more resilient, regenerative food systems.
For the past couple of decades, we at Post Carbon Institute have been pointing out that a transition to alternative energy sources will necessarily be slow and incomplete. Given that oil is a depleting, polluting, non-renewable resource, industrial society is due for a reckoning. We are all in an extended Wile E. Coyote moment.
As housing costs rise and populations age, underused space in existing homes offers an overlooked solution. In-home suites can provide affordable housing, support aging in place, and strengthen community ties while making better use of what we already have.
The global food system is both essential and unsustainable, locked into patterns that resist meaningful reform. Real change, the author argues, lies in rebuilding local, regenerative food systems that can gradually replace what no longer works.
As low-lying island states face the loss of their territory, new legal and political strategies are emerging to sustain nations in exile. Whether they can preserve sovereignty, identity and cohesion without land remains an open question.
Plastic waste is no longer just a pollution issue. In many cities, it is now shaping how drainage systems function, with growing efforts to intercept debris upstream before it overwhelms flood infrastructure.
In the first instalment of a new series on thinking about the future, Nate Hagens argues that most debates about what lies ahead are shaped by a single competing narrative. He introduces “scenario thinking” as a way to hold multiple possible futures at once, and explores why this is psychologically and culturally difficult in practice.
We travel to Uganda to speak with human rights defender, environmental activist, and community organizer, Gerald Barekye. Gerald works with communities in oil-affected regions to support those most impacted by environmental degradation and fight for both ecological and human rights.
Studies show a steep decline in nature-related language, from books to music. Now, projects like children’s books, citizen science platforms and everyday practices like gardening and birdwatching are helping rebuild our ecological vocabulary.
New research shows that plants can temporarily halt root growth under stresses like cold and drought, then rapidly restart it once conditions improve. By identifying the genes behind this “pause and push” response, scientists hope to develop crops that recover more quickly from extreme weather, strengthening food security in a changing climate.
If modernity cannot endure within planetary limits, what comes next? Dave Murphy and Tom Murphy debate the likelihood of collapse, the possibility of adaptation and what we owe each other in a time of ecological overshoot.
