Issue 241 • March/April 2007

Welcome

URBAN GARDENS • Satish Kumar

We need to grow food, harvest water and generate energy in our cities.

Frontline

RURALZED • Paul Kingsnorth

Bill Dunster has developed a design for affordable, ecological self-build homes in the UK.

FARE SHARES FOR THE PLANET • Paul Kingsnorth

FareShare works with major food retailers in the UK to distribute unsold food to homeless and disadvantaged people.

GREEN AND PLEASANT LAND • Paul Kingsnorth

Zero-waste and carbon-neutral villages in the UK.

WHEN THE BOAT COMES IN • Adele Poynter

After the collapse of the cod-fishing industry, the town of Raleigh, Newfoundland, revived the traditional art of mat-hooking using recycled materials.

NEGLECTED ASSETS • Paul Kingsnorth

Stuart Downward is helping urban communities to reclaim their lost rivers.

CALLING A SPADE A SPADE • Paul Kingsnorth

Tools for Self Reliance is still making a difference by refurbishing unwanted tools.

Urban Ecology

LONDON CONUNDRUM • David Nicholson-Lord

We need green space in cities, yet we are building over it at an alarming rate. The story of Camley Street natural park, in the centre of London.

SMART GROWTH • Francesca Lyman

US cities are neck-and-neck in the race to be green.

U-Turn • John Vidal

How the city of Seoul, Korea, restored its river by tearing down a motorway.

CITIES OF HOPE • Jo Oland

Cities: Magnets of Hope.The World Habitat Awards recognise inspirational approaches to solving housing problems.

STEMMING THE TIDE • Dale Jiajun Wen

The New Rural Reconstruction Movement in China aims to reverse the movement of people into the cities.

FROM SKY TO SEA • Kim Wilkie

Water shortage and flooding are in the vanguard of climate change. We need to learn to respect water and use it intelligently.

ECO-RENOVATION • Philippa Jones

The Renewable Energy House in the heart of Brussels.

Keynotes

RESPONSIVE COHESION • Warwick Fox

Thinking contextually would lead to a more ecologically coherent and democratic world.

ASSESSING THE UNKNOWN • D. K. Matai

Collective wisdom, resourcefulness and ingenuity will help us to deal with the risks to the planet.

Undercurrents

WHY WHALING? • Rosamund Kidman Cox

Why some governments support commercial whaling.

ROBOTIC LIVES • Jon Kabat-Zinn

In this era of instant connectivity, we may be losing connection with ourselves.

A NEW HUMANITY • Deepak Chopra

The metaphor of imaginal cells, and the Alliance for a New Humanity.

TIME OFF • Chris Lloyd

Restoring a sense of wellbeing: one family's experience of travelling in Europe.

CONTAMINATED WITHOUT CONSENT • Deborah Burton, Alison Craig & Diana Ward

The No More Breast Cancer Campaign is campaigning for the UK government to address the role of pollutants in the breast cancer epidemic.

The Arts

POETRY • Alice Oswald

To the River: the poetry of Tim Lilburn.

THE SILVER VOICE • Paul Caponigro

The photographic process is a fluid and living ecology.

VISUAL JAZZ • Sandy Brown

Lois Walpole's innovative basket-making.

ENCHANTED IMAGINATION • Victoria Bawtree

Remedios Varo's painting combines the rigour of academic training with a magical surrealism.

HANDMADE REVOLUTION • Basma Kavanagh

Making your own clothes: spinning, knitting, dyeing and weaving.

Regulars

Small Steps - FAIR FASHION • Ruth Rosselson

The fashion and clothing industries need to respect worker and environmental rights. Labour Behind the Label is a campaign group that supports garment workers' efforts to improve their working conditions.

Sensible Solutions - CLARIFYING CLIMATE CHAOS • Oliver Tickell

Kyoto2 would control fossil fuels and greenhouse-gas emissions as close as possible to the point of production. An outline of the framework for a second climate change protocol.

Visionaries - HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN • Jørgen Stig Nørgård

The famous Danish storyteller underpinned his stories with deep wisdom.

Letter from America - DRYING TIMES • Nicols Fox

Saving energy by drying washing on a line.

Slow Travel - SIBERIAN SILENCE • Dervla Murphy

A fraught but breathtakingly beautiful journey through Siberia by bus.

Recipes - Salads of Spring • Daphne Lambert

A spring salad made with a delectable mix of wild and garden herbs.

Letters to the Editors

Reviews

THE BIG PICTURE

The tragedy of a stork trapped in a plastic bag on a rubbish dump. From One Planet by Nicolas Hulot.

In My Own Words: WALKING TO GREENHAM • Ann Pettitt

In the 1980s a group of determined people walked from Cardiff to Newbury during the Cold War to establish the famous peace camp at Greenham Common.

In My Own Words: THE JAIN PATH • Aidan Rankin

We cannot heal the wounds of global injustice if we are consumed with anger rather than compassion.

PROFOUND PEACE • Chris McCoy

Finding Sanctuary: Monastic Steps for Everyday Life by Abbot Christopher Jamison. Anyone may find sanctuary in his or her daily life.

PROACTIVE AND POSSIBLE • Oliver Tickell

Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning by George Monbiot. Cutting our greenhouse-gas emissions sufficiently for our survival will need a profound transformation of our society and economy.

A TALE OF TWO BOOKS • Gay Watson

Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom by David Macaulay. An extraordinary book about the kingdom of Gross National Happiness.

A FAUSTIAN BARGAIN • Peter Bunyard

Nuclear Power is Not the Answer by Helen Caldicott. Why we should still be saying 'No thanks'.

A THOUGHTFUL TORTOISE • Ulric Van Den Bogaerde

Timothy's Book: Notes of an English Country Tortoise by Verlyn Klinkenborg. Imagined philosophical conversations between Gilbert White and the tortoise who lived in his garden.

SPIRIT SANCTUARIES • Tishani Doshi

The Night Life of Trees by Bhajju Shyam, Ram Singh Urveti and Durga Bai. The act of painting is an act of prayer. Magical works by three Gond artists.

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW • Jordi Pigem

Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View by Richard Tarnas. Challenging the view that the cosmos is a soulless, impersonal and unconscious background.

Web Exclusives

LIFE WITHOUT e-POCKETS • Rajesh Shah

Computers make it easy to find stuff however it’s organised; that means i never really organise and simplify my stuff.

A PHILOSOPHICAL GIANT • Michael Tobias

Of Myself by Rabindranath Tagore

A QUEST FOR TRUTH • Chris Clarke

The Science of Oneness by Malcolm Hollick

ARTISTIC SPONTANEITY • Gillian Stokes

Archetypal Postures by Ian R. Hopton

FORWARD TO NATURE • Aidan Rankin

The Bloodless Revolution by Tristram Stuart

MIND AND MATTER • James Gray-Donald

Circles of Transformation by Marilyn Daniels, Anne Goodman, Edmund O’Sullivan and Heather Reid

SAVE THE TURTLE • Andy McGeeney

Voyage of the Turtle by Carl Safina

SURVIVAL STRATEGIES • Chellis Glendinning

After Eden by Kirkpatrick Sale