City Repair

By Morag Gamble, Mark Lakeman, Sense-making in a changing world

Start with wherever they're able to get to start to say yes. And then you get to the next yes. And the next yes. Until the process begins.

‘Chile Has Entirely Privatised Water, Which Means that Theft is Institutionalised’

By CIVICUS Staff, CIVICUS

Water is in the hands of large producers who have dried out our territory and compromised the lives of our communities. Ours is an extreme case: Chile has entirely privatised water, which means that theft is institutionalised. Chile has clearly prioritised extractive industries over the rights of communities to water.

The Bizarre Blindspot in “Planet of the Humans”

By Craig Collins, Resilience.org

So, was the film "Planet of the Humans" a hit job on the environmental movement disguised by the filmmakers' phony claim to care about Mother Earth?  Or was it an honest, get real, exposé of its assertion that, "The takeover of the environmental movement by capitalism is now complete"?

If Defending Life on Earth is Extremist, We must Own that Label

By George Monbiot, The Guardian blog

Police say climate groups such as Extinction Rebellion are a ‘threat’. They’d have done the same for the suffragettes and Martin Luther King It’s not an “error” or an “accident”, as the police now claim. It’s a pattern.

Has Extinction Rebellion Got the Right Tactics

By Chay Harwood, Marc Hudson, New Internationalist

All agree we need to take action for climate change, but some environmentalists find the Extinction Rebellion’s tactics difficult to get behind. Environmental campaigners Chay Harwood and Marc Hudson provide the arguments for and against them.

No Disaster is Natural

By Jason von Meding, Djair Sergio de Freitas Junior, Maíra Irigaray, openDemocracy

The latest environmental and human catastrophe involving Brazilian mining giant Vale occurred on the 25th January 2019 when a mine-tailings dam in Minas Gerais state ruptured. Mining waste and sludge engulfed the town of Brumadinho, with over a hundred people confirmed dead and more than 200 missing.

Connecting to Nature is a Matter of Environmental Justice

By Nicki Carter, Open Democracy

Environmental activism is meaningless if it does not grapple with issues of injustice and expose the links between environmental devastation, colonial history, and the exploitative relationships of the North and the South. But does this mean that campaigns focused on our connections to the natural world and the suffering of non-human animals are irrelevant?

Inside 350.org and Why They Rise for Climate

By Anna Gooding-Call, Medium

350 not only networks people together at the grassroots level, but connects fellow climate change activist groups and unites them for major conglomerate projects and demonstrations. It helps smaller organizations make big changes together. There may not be a more significant presence in climate change activism than 350.

The measure of a man in 120 breaths

By Albert Bates, Medium.com

“It has been a disappointment to me that so many people, including all too many environmentalists, thought the spirit of liberation of the 1960s was and is dispensable.” — Jan Lundberg (1952-2018)

2017 Was Deadliest Year for Environmental Activists

By Brett Walton, Circle of Blue

Global Witness, an international human rights and natural resources group, tallied 207 killings of activists in 2017, the most since the group began compiling data in 2002. Killings occurred in 22 countries, primarily in Latin America.

Come Plog With Me. (Yes, Litter Matters. A Lot.)

By Karen Lynn Allen, Musings

I encourage you to join me in plogging or plalking. First off, plogging and plalking is good for you! I’ve written many times before about the benefits of walking and walkable neighborhoods.

The Next Big Change in Environmental Campaigning – the Opportunity of our Shared ‘Compassionate’ Values

By Tom Crompton, Common Cause

If we ourselves move away from tacitly reinforcing the assumption of self-interest, and build our work outwards from the potent insight that most people prioritise ‘compassionate’ values, we can open vast possibilities for ambitious – and durable – responses to environmental challenges.