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Message from SFB’s founder, Oliver Gordon: Struggles From Below is very much a labour of love; one that I feel so privileged to be able to bring to you. But as with most labours, it comes at a cost to produce. I'm intent on keeping the magazine both ad-free and free-to-view. If you enjoy the content and want to support the continuation and growth of the publication, I hope you'll consider becoming a sustaining patron. Any little you could afford to donate would be massively appreciated!

‘Community ownership’ might be the best way to fight deforestation

When forests are managed by the people who live in them, conservation tends to follow.

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Could low-carbon trains cure Europe’s flying addiction?

A new generation of sleeper cars and short-haul routes are helping railways compete against discount airlines.

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These farmers show that agriculture in the Amazon doesn’t have to be destructive

A groundbreaking Brazilian community demonstrates how to farm sustainably in the forest—no cattle necessary. Words by Brian Barth and Flávia Milhorance.

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On the Mesoamerican Reef, a model for insuring nature’s future

A 100-mile stretch of coral reef off Mexico’s Caribbean coast is now insured just like any other valuable asset. Is this the future of conservation?

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World’s largest seagrass project proves “you can actually restore the oceans”

A “game changing” 20-year effort suggests that even severely depleted marine ecosystems can be brought back to life.

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A pioneering Welsh housing initiative for a life in ecological harmony

In Wales, the average citizen uses almost three times their share of the world's resources. Aiming to address this imbalance, a groundbreaking scheme allows people to bypass tight planning laws to pivot to an ecologically sustainable lifestyle.

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How Community Land Trusts can advance racial equity in our cities

Providing low-cost access to land held in a commons while enabling private ownership of the homes on that land, CLTs keep housing affordable and benefit minority communities who have suffered for decades from unfair lending practices and discrimination. By Mark Roseland and Christopher Boone, Arizona State University.

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Solar power stations in space could be the answer to our energy needs

The European Space Agency has realised the potential and is now looking to fund space-based solar projects, predicting that the first industrial resource we will get from space is “beamed power”. By Amanda Jane Hughes and Stefania Soldini, lecturers in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Liverpool.

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MMT: The antidote to a post-pandemic great recession?

Classical economics would prescribe decades of austerity to pay off the levels of government spending seen in the COVID-19 pandemic. But there’s another way, say modern monetary theorists. Dr Steven Hail, Research Scholar at the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity and Economics Lecturer at Adelaide University, explains.

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Closing the education gap

A Colombian education technology company has created a device that pools and distributes global teaching resources. It could be a game-changer for the developing world.

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The FARC’s fading dream

Following a 52-year insurgency, Colombia’s ‘Reincorporation Spaces’ were designed to allow the FARC guerrillas to demobilise while maintaining political, social and commercial autonomy. But all is far from well in Marxist paradise.

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Renewing London

Having exhibited his art across the globe and twice beaten cancer, Agamemnon Otero has now set his sights on giving London’s power back to its people.

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Creating a better leaf

Could tinkering with photosynthesis prevent a global food crisis? THE NEW YORKER

Reweaving the wild

Human roads have utterly fragmented the world of wild animals but the engineering to reconnect the pieces is in our grasp. AEON

The surgeons who can operate from anywhere in the world

While robotic surgery has been possible for several years, the equipment has been prohibitively expensive for many parts of the world and requires specialist training to use. But what if specialists could just dial in to an operation from a phone or tablet? BBC FUTURE

To regrow forests, the US needs billions of seeds – and many more 'seed hunters'

Skilled collectors are becoming rarer, undermining the nation’s ambitious tree planting goals. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Darwin in a lab: Coral evolution tweaked for global warming

Scientists are trying to speed up coral’s evolutionary clock to breed “super corals” that can better withstand the impacts of global warming. AP NEWS

‘Gentle giants’: rangers prepare for return of wild bison to UK

Animals arrive in Kent in spring 2022 and will create forest clearings – described as ‘jet fuel for biodiversity’. THE GUARDIAN

‘We need to break the junk food cycle’: how to fix Britain’s failing food system

From ultra-processed junk to failing supply chains and rocketing food poverty, there are serious problems with the way the UK eats. Will the government ever act? THE GUARDIAN

A monthly ritual of selflessness has transformed Rwanda

On the last Saturday of each month, everyone stops what they’re doing and works together to improve their communities. It’s called Umuganda. REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL

Embracing a wetter future, the Dutch turn to floating homes

Faced with worsening floods and a shortage of housing, the Netherlands is seeing growing interest in floating homes. These floating communities are inspiring more ambitious Dutch-led projects in flood-prone nations as far-flung as French Polynesia and the Maldives. YALE ENVIRONMENT 360

The new enclosure: how land commissions can lead the fight against urban land-grabs

In a bid to make Liverpool the fairest and most socially inclusive city region in the UK, the mayor, Steve Rotherham, launched England’s first land commission in September 2020. The commission’s findings chime with new research. It argues for a fundamentally new understanding of what land is. THE CONVERSATION

The futuristic plan to fix America’s power grid

Winter is often the season for blackouts. Smart grids could change that. VOX

How Gen Z is fighting back against big tech

Many in this generation are aware of what they have lost by having grown up on social media, so they’re logging off and working to create a safer, healthier future. YES! MAGAZINE

If you ask Mafi Esefa why she knows her hometown better than anyone else in the world, the 24-year-old places her hands on her hips and widens her brown eyes at the stupidity of the question. “I was born just there,” she says, pointing at a small adobe hut with a thatched roof nearby. “When I was a young girl I helped my parents pick guava from those trees. I wash my clothes in that stream. Why would anyone know this land better than me?” That Esefa’s village is deep into the Congo Basin, the second largest rainforest in the world, is of little relevance to her. Those who live and work in any place, she insists, are the ones best-placed to protect it. “It’s in our interest for the land to flourish,” says Esefa. “And we have the know-how to make it happen.” It is a point of view that is gaining traction among climate campaigners. Rather than relying on billion-dollar carbon credit schemes and multinational agreements, which have failed to halt the rampant destruction of the world’s rainforests, advocates for community forests argue the best chance for humanity to turn things around is through a grassroots approach: giving power back to the people. Find out more: link in bio👆 Subscribe for free to receive new longreads and weekly digest of the web's best solutions journalism: https://www.strugglesfrombelow.com/newsletter-link #forests #conservation #solutionsjournalism #sustainability #nature #environment #deforestation #naturebasedsolutions #reforestation #trees #biodiversity #congo #community #communityforests
Mangrove forests offer coastal cities a protective shield against extreme weather up to 50 times more cost-effective than a cement wall. In 2017, mangroves prevented $1.5 billion in flood damages in Florida, protecting over half a million people during Hurricane Irma. Damages were 25% lower in the Florida counties where mangroves were present. A recent report identified 3,000 kilometres of coastline in 20 states, territories and countries in the Caribbean region where post-storm mangrove restoration—which could be paid for by insurance—would provide flood-protection benefits that “significantly outweigh” the cost of rehabilitating the forest. Find out more: link in bio👆 Subscribe for free to receive new longreads and weekly digest of the web's best solutions journalism: https://www.strugglesfrombelow.com/newsletter-link Photo: @lockietobehere #coral #reefs #journalism #sustainability #nature #environment #conservation #naturebasedsolutions #climateresilience #climateadaptation #climatesolutions #biodiversity #mexico #revieramaya #quintanaroo #tourism #insurance #financialsector #marineconservation #oceans #ecosystemservices #mesoamericanreefsystem
‘COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP’ MIGHT BE THE BEST WAY TO FIGHT DEFORESTATION In our latest feature, Peter Yeung finds out that when forests are managed by the people who live in them, conservation tends to follow. Find out more: link in bio👆 Subscribe for free to receive new longreads and weekly digest of the web's best solutions journalism: https://www.strugglesfrombelow.com/newsletter-link #forests #conservation #solutionsjournalism #sustainability #nature #environment #deforestation #naturebasedsolutions #reforestation #trees #biodiversity #congo #community #communityforests

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