When the Indian government quietly approved projects that would cut through Goa’s ancient forests, an unlikely alliance rose in defiance. Young scientists and artists teamed up with veteran lawyers and activists to wage a fierce battle — online, in courtrooms and on the streets. Their collective strength saved the forest, preventing Goa from becoming a coal corridor.
Plans for Europe’s largest open-pit gold mine in Romanian commune Roșia Montană galvanized all layers of Romanian society, from villagers to presidents. The two-decade fight against a project that aimed to erase four mountains and three villages has radical social and political consequences.
Soviet eco-activism exposed state rot – but it also provided the networks, platforms and experience for ordinary people to become anti-authoritarian campaigners.
When foreign companies restarted mining operations that had been shuttered since the breakup of Yugoslavia, Vareš had high hopes of economic revival. But as the state fails to take a stand against pollution and deforestation, optimism has given way to nostalgia for the socially owned mines of the communist era.
In communities shaped by redlining and disinvestment, the only places to shop are often dollar stores – stocked with plastic goods that have crossed oceans on container ships and rolled across states on eighteen-wheelers. These journeys are long, carbon-heavy, and almost invisible, but their impact is felt from Suzhou to Chicago, from the global climate to the human body.
This year’s COP, the UN’s 30th global climate summit, is hosted by Belém. The Brazilian media has become obsessed with Belém’s poverty and underdevelopment – shortcomings that weren’t deemed newsworthy until the urban Amazon became a focus of the world’s attention. But what does it mean to be prepared? For whom?
While European cities face record-shattering heat due to climate change, not all residents are affected equally. Indoor heat sensors show scorching temps in areas with lower-income housing, compounded by neglectful urban planning and pollution- a combination that is creating health risks in urban peripheries.
For decades, Moroccan immigrants have called La Cañada Real home. Now, real estate speculators are closing in on the informal settlement. Authorities are starving the community of basic infrastructure and demolishing homes. But women are pushing back against eviction and uniting against oppression from outside their community and within.
Morocco’s drought-flood chaos is fueling a storm of cloud seeding conspiracies.
