Protecting the Countryside

Contents

Welcome

I Am An Optimist • Satish Kumar

Optimism empowers whilst pessimism disempowers

Frontline

Action From the Grass Roots • Lorna Howarth

Grass roots initiatives around the globe

Food, Glorious Food • Jyotsna Ram

Relationships, not money, hold the key to ecological food production

Art for Oceans • Lorna Howarth

Living sculptures redress coral reef decimation

Ecologist

The World We Made • Jonathon Porritt

We still have time to build a sustainable future

Selling Out on Our Ecosystems • Beth Stratford

How best to cost up the true value of Nature?

Physics and The Rainforest • Peter Bunyard

A new scientific theory links rainforest destruction to climate change

Protecting the Countryside • Andrew Motion

A rally cry to all who care about the countryside

My Green Life • Sharon Garfinkel

An interview with Deborah Meaden

Quotes

Alternatives • Miriam Valero

The fight against consumerism

Unity in Diversity • Swami Vivekananda

Seeing truth in a hundred thousand ways

Ethical Living

Good for Nothing • Sven Segal

Unfair competition puts small ecobusinesses at a huge disadvantage

Jakob von Uexkull • Claudia Cahalane

The founder of the Right Livelihood Award in profile

Trees in Schools • Andreas Kornevall

We can restore the Earth one tree at a time

The Original Free School • Lorna Howarth

How the Small School has survived the test of time

Spiced Juniper Berry • Susan Clark

A spicy mulling syrup from the berries of the juniper tree

The Cult of Money • Pope Francis

A timely message calling for the return of ethics to the world of big finance

A Clean Slate • John Moat

After forty year of aspiring to a perfect lawn, John Moat calls a truce with his nemesis

Keynotes

A New Politics • Michael Jacobs

Why we need collaboration between the Greens and Labour

Undercurrents

Work as Craft • Molly Scott Cato

Craft as labour

Natural Farming • Ted Taylor

Yoshikazu Kawaguchi is seen by many as a leader in the natural farming movement in Japan

Speaking the Unspeakable • Shantena Augusto Sabbadini

The legend of the origin of the Tao Te Ching

Beauty: A Way of Life • Shakti Maira

Satish Kumar on the trinity of truth, goodness and beauty

Nature's Artists • David Rothenberg

Finding a link between beauty and biology

Regulars

Letters to the Editors

A selection of letters from our readers

Crossword • Timothy Bonsor

A brain-teaser full of ecological clues

Poetry - The Poetry of Meditation • Peter Abbs

Introducing Buddhist poet Maitreyabandhu

The Arts

New Landscapes • India Windsor-Clive

Exploring the work of the Chinese environmental artist Yao Lu

Urban Zoology • Mary Ann Lieser

Commended essay from the Resurgence & Ecologist Nature Writing Competition

The Spirit of the Land • Luke Piper

A personal story of inspiration from the Aboriginal outback

Reviews

Limitless Beauty • Peter Reason

Review of The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology

Poetry with Purpose • Matthew Merritt

Review of The Mara Crossing

Loss of the Childscape • Mary Tasker

Review of Kith: The Riddle of the Childscape

A Hero for Our Time • Heathcote Williams

Review of The Black Pimpernel

Living Thinking • Stephan Harding

Review of Thinking Like A Plant: A Living Science for Life

An Economic Prophylactic • Stephen Lewis

Review of Meme Wars: The Creative Destruction of Neoclassical Economics

The Dynamic Way of Seeing • Simon Robinson

Review of Taking Appearances Seriously: The Dynamic Way of Seeing in Goethe and European Thought

Food in Our Cities • Tom Levitt

Review of Farming the City: Food as a Tool for Today's Urbanisation

Web Exclusives

Article - Beauty Comes First • Chris Lloyd

Celebrating the work of pioneering nature photographer Ansel Adams

Article - Art for Regrowth • Joey Foster Ellis

Reflection on underwater reef sculptures

Article - Inspired Learning • Udi Mandel

A journey through higher education initiatives

Review - Do Animals Think and Feel? • Richard Ryder

Review of The Wisdom of Animals and Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures