A Song for Spring

Contents

Welcome

Compassion • Greg Neale

Rising to the challenges of today's world with compassion

Frontline

Compassionate Community Project • Marianne Brown

Tackling loneliness and isolation reduces health bills

News From the Grassroots • Marianne Brown

A round up of environmental news from around the globe

Ancient Forests Safe For Now • Kara Moses & Marianne Brown

European legal ruling may protect Poland's primeval woodland at risk from logging

Journalist Jailed • Greg Neale

An appeal on behalf of a journalist jailed in Turkey over a painting of conflict

Concern Over Wireless Technology • Lynne Wycherley

Reporting on new moves to counter electro-magnetic pollution

Campaign for New Resurgence Centre • Greg Neale

Reader support helps our campaign for a new Resurgence centre for education

Ecologist

Embracing Nature • Andreas Weber

Our delight in Spring reflects our connection with nature

The Telling Sound of Spring • Kate Blincoe

Listening to the song of the skylark

A Shared Path to a Flourishing Food System • Marianne Brown

Factory farms are threatening nature in the wild

A Green Revolution • Neema Pathak Broome & Ashish Kothari

On the gulf between green rhetoric and reality in Ecuador

Keynotes

The Life Required • David W. Orr

At a time of ecological and economic crisis, we must recast our ideas of economics

Undercurrents

Compassion is the Best Medicine • Julian Abel & Lindsay Clarke

A community project is cutting hospital admissions by reducing social isolation

Does My Dog Love Me? • Carl Safina

Acknowledging that animals experience complex emotions can teach us a lot about being human

Making Fashion a Force For Good • Emily Jupp

Reporting on a campaign to improve conditions for garment workers

Ethical Living

The True Meaning of Economy • Satish Kumar

For a better world we need to reject the illusion of limitless economic growth

Local Spirit • Helen Iles

The winemakers of Catalan on the call for independence and its impact on their livelihoods

Seeing and Feeling Ourselves in Others • Leo Johnson

Stories of empathy and understanding

Return to the whole • Peter Reason

A brief pause

Poetry To Go • Matt Harvey

Offering bespoke verse to order

The Arts

Festival of the Faiths • Simon Broughton

An annual celebration of sacred music in Fez

We Need to Rewild the Novel • Gregory Norminton

A call for a greening of new fiction

Organic Forms From the Earth Itself • Philip Vann

The archetypal sculpture of Ken Smith

Regulars

Poetry - A Vision of Awe, From An Island Eden • Peter Abbs

Reappraising the eco-poetry of Edwin Muir

Letters to the Editors

A selection of letters from our readers

Reviews

Worlds Unto Themselves • Michael McCarthy

Review of Islander: A Journey Around Our Archipelago

A Premier and A Conservationist • Mark Tully

Review of Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature

A Visual Tale of Society, Politics and Prophecy • PL Henderson

Review of Youth Unemployment

The Alternative? We Need New Stories • Russell Warfield

Review of Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis

Planetary Communism • Adam Thorpe

Review of Humankind: Solidarity with Non-human people

A Nourishing Read • Sara Melendro

Review of Fertile Edges: Regenerating Land, Culture and Hope

Web Exclusives

Article - A Manifesto for Compassionate Communities • Julian Abel & Lindsay Clarke

A call to create more compassionate communities

Article - Standing Together to Defend the Sacred • Sue Bayliss

Reporting from Portugal on environmental and indigenous activism

Article - We Need a Schools Revolution • Fiona Carnie

Schools should be ethical, inclusive and equitable

Article - Ocean Plastic • Oliver Tickell

We don't need more Resolutions, Declarations and Conventions; we need more action

Article - Follow Your Bliss . . .or Follow Your Blisters? • Will Gethin

Will Gethin explores mythologist Joseph Campbell’s mantra for a meaningful life.