Against “Ecological Consciousness”: Why We Need Ecological Literacy, Not Mystified Unity
The Earth doesn’t need us at all, it certainly doesn’t need us to awaken. It needs us to pay attention, to get involved, and to become ecologically literate.
Environment featured
Overcoming Divisions and Building Power for the Just Green Transition: The Case for Climate-Labour Alliances
Forging new alliances between previously disjointed social movements has the potential to significantly build their popular power. The story of Germany’s “Wir Fahren Zusammen” coalition shows how these alliances might be built in practice.
Investing in fear: how economic destabilization drives extractive cultural feedback loops in mineral extraction
Investing in cultural shifts towards community and environmental health may provide beneficial alternatives away from traditional fear-driven accumulation of wealth, benefiting cultural and social resilience, while increased attention to environmental regulations may prevent further damage wrought by mineral extraction.
The Trump Our Forests Act
While the human fear of fire is understandable, the political fear of fire—playing it safe with the political winds on a bill that strips citizens of their ability to contest logging on millions of acres of maturing forest—isn’t. For Democrats in particular, it’s to betray one of their most faithful constituencies.
Will Coral Reefs Be Gone by 2050? How Bleaching, Acidification, and Ocean Heating are Killing Coral Reefs
In this episode, Nate is joined by Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, the marine biologist who made this landmark prediction, for an update on the health of coral reefs and the primary ecological stressors driving their decline.
Do Forests Make It Rain?
If the theory of the biotic pump is correct—and the forests play an essential role in the water cycle—this gives urgent importance to saving our old growth forests and restoring those which have been demolished or degraded.
When We Win: Stories From the Frontlines of Ecological Resistance
As I stood there with Van Zile and looked at the land, I did not hear the sound of a big truck rumbling nearby or a tree falling. I took a big breath, because sometimes we win. Remember that the dams are gone. Remember that.
Green Capitalism in the Americas: False Solutions, Real Threats
In this special issue of the NACLA Report, we critically examine the rise of green capitalism in the region in the lead-up to COP30 in Belém, Brazil in November.
Peak Oil, Ponzi Pyramids, and Planetary Boundaries
In this week’s Frankly, Nate returns from New York City Climate Week with fresh reflections on the disconnect between our economic narratives and biophysical realities.
An Update On the Mother Orca, Alki
As I wrote about earlier, in September another mother Orca, Alki, was spotted pushing her dead calf through the waters of the Salish Sea. Two days later, on September 15th, she was spotted without her calf and it’s assumed she’s released it, which is good news as such exertions place a significant strain on creatures already struggling to survive.
Jane Goodall, the gentle disrupter whose research on chimpanzees redefined what it meant to be human
Anyone proposing to offer a master class on changing the world for the better, without becoming negative, cynical, angry or narrow-minded in the process, could model their advice on the life and work of pioneering animal behavior scholar Jane Goodall.
Review: Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
Bringing the “inanimate brute matter” (in Isaac Newton’s phrase) ‘back to life’ may plunge us into unknown legislative and imaginative territory. But it feels like an essential reconceptualisation, to resurrect our rivers through old and new ideas, bubbling up through the cracks.
