Features

We need thriving rivers in order for life on Earth to flourish. But often how we treat them shows little understanding of this basic principle. Dinyar Godrej ventures into the maelstrom.

As climate change stretches human fragility towards breaking point, should we be preparing for societal collapse? This is the existential question behind ‘deep adaptation’, a theory that is rapidly gaining adherents. Richard Swift assesses how far, if anywhere, it will take us and what better paths we could go down.

It’s been 40 years since New Internationalist sounded the alarm on child sponsorship. But today thousands of people are still signing up to the idea. To whose benefit?, asks Kathleen Nolan as she explores why this quick fundraising tool is not all it’s cracked up to be.

Branded as terrorists by President Erdoğan’s hardline regime, LGBTQI+ people in Turkey are finding ways to express themselves and build solidarity, writes Tuğçe Özbiçer.

Cash-strapped but strategically important, Tajikistan is undergoing rapid change with its future increasingly being shaped by a power play between China and Russia. Klas Lundström reports.

The rich and powerful are using ruinous lawsuits to target journalists and activists who hold them to account. Tina Burrett explores the threat.

How can we phase out fossil fuels in a way that works for people everywhere? The historic Cochabamba People’s Agreement offers a way forward, argues Max Ajl.

Big Oil is throwing money at new fossil fuel infrastructure like there’s no tomorrow. New pipelines, refineries, wells and rigs are being built across all continents. But everywhere the industry goes, it meets resistance. Here are four profiles of groups saying enough is enough. Words by Nick Dowson.

The Mapuche people in Argentina are saying no to an influx of transnationals trying to frack their lands. Meanwhile the government offers sweetheart deals. Grace Livingstone reports.

Faced with planetary catastrophe, Big Oil has applied boundless creativity, not to solving the climate crisis but to deflecting action. Nick Dowson dissects the corporate spin.

Pollute, don’t pay. Big Oil has perfected its playbook in the Niger Delta and is now looking to walk away. Ken Henshaw reports.

From the steam engine to the Paris Agreement.

New money is being poured into oil and gas despite the harm it causes to people and planet. With more than 1°C of global warming already, the time remaining to change course is short.

Initiatives, action, and further reading on how to stop big oil.

We cannot let the ever-expanding oil and gas industry stand in the way of urgently needed climate action. Nick Dowson lays out a path to change.

Our deep desire for change is continually thwarted by the limiting political choices on offer. Political theorist and philosopher Neil Vallely digs into the roots of apathy and polarization.

Taken during a violent British raid, the Benin bronzes have sat in Western museums and private collections for over a century. Kieron Monks reports on Nigeria’s battle to get them back and what it means for the wider push to return works robbed from Africa.

Roxana Olivera tells a cautionary tale of her dogged attempts to get an abusive, intrusive photograph – taken without its subject’s consent – removed from the internet.

In Iraq a growing number of women are now doing the dangerous work of removing landmines – previously a male preserve. Adrian Margaret Brune reports.

Community organizations are helping keep people safe where the police fail. Here are some examples from Puerto Rico, Brazil and the US.