Finding a lever for civilizational transformation
From Indigenous-led governance to worker-owned cooperatives, scattered experiments may offer a blueprint for a pathway out of our global predicament.
nature
When your local reflecting pool or pond turns green with algae, don’t reach for chemicals – nature has better solutions
Trying to kill algae with chemicals is a common response when community ponds or other water features go green. But there are better solutions that cost far less, last longer and carry less risk of harm to pets and wildlife. Rather than battling against nature, these alternatives work with nature for long-term solutions.
In defense of “nature”: why the word still matters in the age of AI
“Nature” is often cast as a word that separates humans from non-humans. But it can also mean something much larger: the universe, the course of things, the great event we live within. It’s a word worth defending.
From Mississippi to Yellowstone: What headwaters teach about designing bioregional funding ecosystems
Imagine what a financial system would do if it behaved like a headwaters system. There would be continual arrival of flows from elsewhere. Resources would pool into local places. Actions would converge in the same direction. And all of it would support the continual emergence and maintenance of life.
Finding hope and purpose in a world in crisis
After years of turning her backyard into a haven for wildlife, the author, Cylvia Hayes, watched the songbirds suddenly disappear. What began as a personal loss became a reflection on eco-grief, ecological decline, and how to find meaning, connection, and hope in a world undergoing profound environmental change.
As nature terms disappear, so does our ability to see and protect the natural world
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.
Is matter conscious? If so, does it matter?
The question of consciousness continues to devil us. If consciousness is distributed throughout the universe, then its appearance in humans is just one manifestation. Does it matter one way or the other how we think about this question? I think it does profoundly.
A Horse Is a Horse of Course, Unless Given the Right to Sue 2— In Nature’s Name
In this Trumpian era of alternative facts and truth isn’t the truth, it somehow seems fitting to expand further the fiction of personhood to include animals and Nature in the effort to save the environment. After all, it is their environment too.
A Horse Is a Horse of Course, Unless Given the Right to Sue— Which Could Be Good for the Environment
Within recent months I’ve been bumping into an increased number of animal rights cases. Last week a horse name Justice was given 15 minutes of fame in the Washington Post (WaPo). The article triggered an “ah/hah” moment; today’s article is the result.
The Progress of this Storm: Nature and Society in a Warming World
Now Andreas Malm, who won the prestigious Deutscher Memorial Prize for his 2015 book Fossil Capital, has written a powerful essay “to scrutinize some of the theories circulating at the nature/society junction in the light of climate change.” In clear and convincing prose, he shows that the “end of nature” thesis stems from deep confusion about the complex relationship between human society and the rest of nature.
How Community-Led Rights of Nature Initiatives Are Protecting Ecosystems
Mari Margil says there are many communities across the U.S. that are pressing the issue of rights of nature through law making, community mobilization, and within the court system. The communities are building a movement and advancing a new paradigm for protecting the environment. “It’s a movement that in the past 10 years has accelerated rapidly,” she said.
Living world: Should natural entities be treated as legal persons?
It defies our normal modes of thinking that natural entities such as trees, rivers, mountains, lakes, and glaciers should be given legal standing in courts and public life. And yet we take as a matter of course the legal rights of other inanimate entities.
