China's coal extraction and consumption peaked years ago and much sooner than anticipated. But the Silk Belt and Road Initiative – a massive foreign investments plan – seems to outsource China's emissions. Just like we in the West did, when we moved production to China. Ecological economists, FEDERICO DEMARIA and JOAN MARTINEZ ALIER report
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As economic growth in Pakistan surges forward, and its emissions are set to soar, are the implications for climate change being forgotten, asks ANAM ZEB
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Ahead of this week's 29th meeting of the CITES Animals Committee, in Geneva, Switzerland, the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) reveals how the legal trade in lion bones from captive-bred lions serves only to exacerbate and drive the illegal trade in wild tiger parts
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Along the Rimac River Valley of Peru, local farmers have taken the problem of water security into their own hands and embarked on a combined reforestation and water storage project, which not only provides safe water but has empowered the local community and, thanks to improving the mountainside soil stability, has reduced the risk of devastating landslides. FOREST RAY reports
On 20th May 2017, the Animal Legal Defense Fund hosted its third annual Animal Law Symposium in Los Angeles, California. It brought together legal professionals and animal advocates from all around the nation to focus on the latest answers to a very important question: How can we best protect wild animals when human activity increasingly runs counter to the interests of wildlife? One of those advocates, STEPHEN WELLS, says we can no longer afford to ignore the devastating impact of animal agriculture
Read More... Wildlife charity backs EU court case against Poland for failing to protect forest
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Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn - who said he'd never give up his allotment, whatever the outcome of the recent UK elections - knows it and so do the millions of gardeners, growers and allotmenteers who've found a deeper relationship with their own patch of land. HARRIET GRIFFEY discovers the healing power of that relationship as described in a beautifully written new memoir
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Got something to say about the environment and the way we do (or don't) care for it? Here's your chance to get what you think noticed and published....
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The winner of the 2017 Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy and Water - announced today (12th June, 2017) - is Futurepump, which manufactures an affordable, highly efficient and portable solar irrigation pump aimed at the millions of smallholder farmers in Kenya and around the world, writes CHHAVI SHARMA
Read More... Diners want the food industry to ‘clean up' its act and tell the truth about GMO ingredients
The South Georgia Heritage Trust and the University of Dundee hosted 300 delegates from 43 countries to share a global picture of the world’s islands where ecosystems can hang in the balance, reports LAURA BRIGGS
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With growing evidence of harm to physical and mental health caused by continuous pulsed em radiation from 'smart' electricity meters, Lynne Wycherley asks: have we underestimated risks to heart function and the nervous system? And of interference with embedded medical devices, such as cardiac pacemakers? It's time to switch to over-wire or fibre communications to bring the 'smart green grid' of the future to electrosmog-free reality.
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Polish activists have this week chained themselves up to machines used to cut a 9000-year-old forest in a bid to stop the destruction of trees for what is clearly commercial gain. NICK MEYNEN reports
Read More... Sea Shepherd helps arrest 'sustainable' shrimp trawler for illegal fishing in Liberian waters
Only global protest can secure land rights and justice for Brazil's Guarani people
Resting as resistance: when superhuman aims and human limitations collide
From child-soldier to Netflix star, the Congolese park ranger has won his award for stopping oil exploration in the Virunga National Park. He talks to SOPHIE MORLIN-YRON
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Meet the man securing justice for the Dongira tribe's sacred hills...in the first of her profiles of two of this year's winners, SOPHIE MORLIN-YRON interviews the recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize for Asia
Read More... The ecology of war: imperial power, permanent conflict and disposable humans
Ivan Ivanovich Semeniuk: a returnee to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone speaks
There is a growing global movement to recognise the rights of rivers, writes Debadityo Sinha. But rights alone are not enough. We must love and respect rivers, and even think like rivers to understand the vital functions they perform within landscapes and ecosystems, and so discover where their 'best interests' truly lie. And then we must be willing to act: protecting rivers and restoring them to health and wholeness.
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May this new collection of John Muir's writings reach us now and inspire another generation to fall in love with wild nature, to care for it, to know that wilderness is not optional but central to our survival in the centuries to come, writes Terry Tempest Williams - and remind us how to embrace this beautiful, broken world once again with an open heart. If we do approach the mountain, it is we who are moved.
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Recognising nature as a legal stakeholder with inalienable rights in environmental law proceedings is a powerful counterbalance to corporate dictatorship, writes Mumta Ito. It empowers people and governments to stand up for nature - the underlying basis of our economy and our lives. And it stands in contrast to feeble approaches based on the financialisation and commodification of nature, which may be twisted to justify more destruction.
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The political events of the last year are cause for sorrow, for reflection, and for reorientation. But they're also cause for a Green reboot. And fortunately, the UK's upcoming election on June 8th gives us just such an opportunity, writes RUPERT READ
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Who are the best guardians of forests and other wild places? Governments? Conservation NGOs? Corporations? No, writes Prakash Kashwan, it's the indigenous peoples who have lived in harmony with their environment for millennia. But to be able do so, they must first be accorded rights to their historic lands and resources, both in law and in practice. Among the countries leading the way, Mexico. Among the laggards, Kenya and India.
Read More... Bovine TB summit: science-based policy, or policy-based science?
Cellphones, wifi and cancer: Will Trump's budget cuts zap vital ‘electrosmog' research?
EDF facing bankruptcy as decommissioning time for France's ageing nuclear fleet nears
Everyone is talking about rewilding at the moment. The debate around it is shaking up the conservation sector and public interest in it is huge, with a growing movement of people advocating the restoration of our degraded ecosystems. But what does it really mean to rewild? And how would you go about doing it if you actually have some land?
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Ecologist Arts Editor, GARY COOK, visits a new exhibition showcasing the plight of the British bee - those species already sadly lost and those on the verge of extinction
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In search of stillness and silence, our Nature Editor, Elizabeth Wainwright, spent a night under the stars in the wilderness (Devon's Dartmoor) which left her feeling reflective about the price we are all paying - humans and Nature - for increasing noise pollution
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In its purist form, drawing is marking down the junctions of observed lines. The Ecology Movement does the same thing - joining up the dots of our under-strain, but interlinked environment to create forceful arguments, writes Ecologist Arts Editor, GARY COOK
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If you live or spend time in the UK countryside it may have been some time since you spotted the native brown hare - if you've ever seen one at all. That's because the hare relies on an increasingly disappearing biodiverse landscape for its food. LAURA BRIGGS talks to the scientists behind a new study investigating what type of planting - including bioenergy crops - will help stop hare populations from continuing to decline
Chelsea Flower Show - using garden spaces to tackle the challenges of climate change
WITNESS: Drawn to the Frozen South
Otra Nation - A Disney-style eco fantasy or the way forward?
Vivian Woodell, social entrepreneur and founder of the phone co-op, shares his thoughts on the growing co-operative movement and its role in building collaborative, sustainable alternatives to the standard model. Interview by Oliver Tickell.
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Environmental law professor, ROBERT PERCIVAL, who has worked for both the Federal Government and a leading green nonprofit group, says despite the Trump administration's assault on America's environment laws they will survive... and may even be stronger for the attack
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Theresa May's government may have come to a grinding halt on environmental regulation but businesses still have a responsibility - and with it huge opportunities - to go green, argues JASON SMITH
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There's no doubt that one of the losers in this year's UK election was the environment and that there's clearly been a failure not just in politics, which is failing in so many ways, but also in environmental communication - a failure to reach people's hearts and minds with the urgent need for change, writes NATALIE BENNETT
The G19 pro-climate coalition which agreed both an energy and climate action plan and important steps to help reorient private capital flows and business strategies towards a new sustainable direction has been deemed a success by many environmentalists, writes KATRIN RIEGGER (who was present at the conference for the Ecologist). But others say these agreements still do not go far enough and want to see global leaders adopting even more ambitious strategies to cut emissions and achieve the agreed goals of the Paris Agreement
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We need a new paradigm for ocean governance focused on well-being and guided by principles of sustainability, ecosystem health, precaution and interconnectedness, argues MICHELLE BENDER of the US based Earth Law Centre.
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Tensions are rising in Kenya as the country approaches local and national elections in August. But we could choose to use our differences as a strength, not a cause of conflict, says DEBORA LANGAT
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Whether from environmentalists, media or politicians science and its values are often under attack. In response, the scientific community has started a global Pro-Science Movement. Key agendas of the movement include environmental awareness and action on climate change, writes LUCY EJ WOODS
Read More... Leading from Nature: Politics and Biomimicry
The future of humanity on the planet does not rest on leaders alone - thankfully!
Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement will leave the US increasingly isolated
Australia's time to recognise indigenous peoples' sovereignty
How does cleaning your kitchen help resolve the planetary crisis? Why does the manner in which you cook your dinner have implications for how you affect change in the world? Perhaps more than you think. KARA MOSES reviews Spiritual Ecology: 10 Practices to Reawaken the Sacred in Everyday Life
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How do you define a man who has been at the forefront of the environmental movement of America for over 50 years - poet, essayist, environmentalist, farmer, activist, philosopher? Wendell Berry is all these and now his life's work sits at the heart, writes HARRIET GRIFFEY, of Look and See - a newly-released film about his life and philosophy
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LESLEY DOCKSEY reviews Paul Kingsnorth's book, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist
Read More... The Tree Line: Poems for Trees, Woods & People
'Carnage' imagines a vegan utopia where animals live as equals - could it happen?
Dynamic power pricing that responds to supply and demand could transform the way we manage our electricity systems, writes Claire Maugham, opening the door to the mass integration of renewables like wind and solar. But smart meters are essential to making that happen.
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In its Right of Reply to our recent article questioning the sustainability of New Zealand fishing practices, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) explains its certification is based on current and not historical practices.
Read More...Contrary to arguments advanced in a recent Ecologist article, the biomass industry supplying the Drax power station in North Yorkshire is a model of sustainability, writes Nina Skorupska, and delivers genuine, substantial emissions reductions compared to coal.
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They organise, research and protest: a new generation of climate activists around the world is prepared to do everything they can to protect the climate. The Ecologist has talked to young climate activist around the world. These are the top ten young climate activities working to stop Donald Trump.
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London-listed copper giant Antofagasta has been entangled in scandals in Chile involving water depletion, dangers to local communities, corruption of national politics and environmental contamination, write Ali Maeve & Liam Barrington-Bush. Yet the London Stock Exchange remains silent. Following the company's AGM last week, a new London Mining Network report puts their actions and operations into the spotlight.
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An evening debate with Federico Demaria, Graeme Maxton, Jørgen Randers and Kate Raworth at the House of Commons, Monday 28 Nov 2016
Read More...An international summit exploring real and imagined narratives of art, energy and consumption for a troubled planet, taking place at Schumacher College, Dartington, on 11th November 2016
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If you've got the 'Back to School' bug this week then check out these brand new online courses from the prestigious Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental studies - the courses are based on the award-winning Journey of the Universe film and book
Read More...As a society, we are strangely disconnected from the Earth, writes Stephan Harding. It's as if we were aliens placed here to prod and poke with our scientific instruments whilst feeling no sense of meaning, belonging or closeness to her ancient crumpled surface or rich, teeming biodiversity - a state of mind that a forthcoming course at Schumacher College aims to reverse.
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The women said they had travelled from Leeds for fear of impact on water supplies and treatment after discovering that waste water from the Cuadrilla site would be travelling to the Knostrop treatment works in Leeds.
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For over 40 years, Sea Watch Foundation scientists as well as volunteer observers all around the UK’s coast have been reporting on whales, dolphins and porpoises –collectively known as cetaceans – to inform Sea Watch’s huge database of records.
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Impunity reigns in the Amazon, write Joe Sandler Clarke & Sam Cowie, and the indigenous peoples of the forest are the big losers as they suffer repeated killings and land grabs. Big cuts to Funai, the agency meant to protect Brazil's indigenous tribes, have encouraged land barons to expand their land holdings into indigenous territories and murder any who resist.
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As we wait to learn whether (later today) Trump will pull the US out of the Paris Agreement, Remo Bebié of Finance Dialogue shares his briefing report of the what is being seen as growing demands that oil companies incorporate the international deal in their business models
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Ecuador is the latest country to tear up 'free trade' agreements that have so far cost the country $21 billion in damages awarded to foreign companies by 'corporate courts', and yielded next to nothing in return, writes Nick Dearden. So the outgoing President Correa did the only sensible thing: in one of his final executive acts this month, he scrapped 16 toxic trade and investment treaties.
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When Prime Minister Theresa May went to Brussels to hand in her 'Article 50' Brexit notice, she was also pursuing a separate, covert objective, writes Zachary Davies Boren. Leaked papers show that the UK was lobbying to gut new EU rules and targets on renewable energy and energy efficiency - even though they will only come into force after Brexit.
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Prime Minister Theresa May has made several serious mistakes in her election campaign, but her biggest 'unforced error' of all could be her public support for foxhunting, opposed by 17 in 20 voters. Now a huge march to her Downing Street residence is planned for next Monday to 'Make Hunting History!'
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With the major party manifestos all published it's not just the Greens that oppose fracking, writes Mat Hope. It's also Labour and the Libdems. So who's left? The Tories of course, who are holding fast to the fracking faith, and even want to create a new special purpose regulator for the industry. Oh yes, and UKIP, which is also committed to abolishing the Climate Change Act.
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Natural disasters like flood and drought have cost the Australian government more than A$12 billion since 2009, write Tayanah O'Donnel & Josephine Mummery, with even harsher weather events predicted for coming decades. Clearly, it's just the time for Australia to eliminate funding for research on adapting to climate change.
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With oil prices remaining low, the world's oil industry is facing bleak years ahead, writes Paul Brown. The global push to decarbonise the economy, combined with surging renewable energy and the trend to more efficient and electric vehicles, is denting investor confidence and pointing to the shrinking away of a once mighty and profitable industry.
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A huge raft of environmental reforms is promised in the Labour Party's draft manifesto, writes Oliver Tickell. Among the highlights: a ban on fracking; a clean energy policy based on renewables and efficiency; no commitment to new nuclear power; to meet our Paris Agreement obligations on climate; to give companies a legal obligation to protect the environment; to retain all EU environment laws post-Brexit; and multilateral nuclear disarmament.
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Attacks on Amazon Indians and on their land rights are threatening vital areas of rainforest, writes Jan Rocha. Meanwhile FUNAI, the agency responsible for safeguarding indigenous tribes is being forced to withdraw from key conflict zones due to underfunding, while Indians' attempts to assert their rights are met with state violence.
Read More... Monsanto's new 'glyphosate-free' Roundup is vinegar!
Brazil: Government to abandon tribes to 'genocide' by loggers and ranchers
Fracking kills newborn babies - polluted water likely cause
We can do it! 'Mission 2020' bid to get emissions falling in three years