In a historic statement on October 22, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander announced support for a plan to divest the city’s pension funds from downstream and midstream fossil fuel infrastructure. Paired with previous divestments in upstream infrastructure and public holdings in fossil fuels, this plan would make NYC the first major U.S. city to fully divest major public pension funds from fossil fuel infrastructure. Lander has been showered with praise for this decision. But where is the praise for the activists who helped make it happen through direct action?

At 7:00 a.m. on September 14, 2024, dozens of people in colorful skirts and dress pants begin gathering around a small brick duplex at the Michigan/Wisconsin state line in the westernmost Upper Peninsula, just down the road from a series of budget strip clubs and adult video stores. This may seem like a strange place for a Native American ceremony, but not so: just beneath the bridge flows the Montreal River, and anywhere with Nibi is sacred.

Suffocated by the accumulated heat of the day, the night became long. The smell of smoke woke us up. At that moment we thought that some neighbor was burning garbage. We soon realized that the smell was different. It smelled more like burnt wood.

Lake Superior — or Gichigami, as the Anishinaabe call her — is a mighty spirit. She has cast a forcefield around the Upper Midwest, protecting it from development by bestowing us with atrocious farming soil, and indeed I have dented my shovel trying to dig a four-inch hole. But this is where the plot thickens. Because Lake Superior’s protection is not absolute, and rich geology doesn’t just attract agate hunters…

It also brings mines.

The Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE), a transmission corridor owned by a subsidiary of private equity group Blackstone, is designed to import hydroelectricity from Canada to Queens. A closer look at the situation, however, reveals that the project represents an effort by a leading fossil fuel profiteer to augment its fossil fuel profits with greenwashed imported hydropower as a false climate solution.

“De norte al sur, de este al oeste, la lucha sigue, cueste lo que cueste! (From north to south, from east to west, the struggle continues, whatever it takes!)” With this and other slogans ringing in the air, hundreds of activists of all ages filled the streets of downtown Madrid, Spain, on September 15 to demand rapid decarbonization and climate justice. At a time when news reports here are filled with stories of floods, fires, and killer storms throughout the wider Mediterranean region, Madrid’s 15S Climate March provided a much-needed dose of what is usually missing from those reports: a clear-eyed look at the policy steps that must be taken in order to face down our climate crisis.

Recently, wildfire smoke darkened our skies in northern New York, making being outside unpleasant to downright unhealthy. We experienced what it’s like when something fundamental that we take for granted, such as clean air, isn’t available. Here in the North Country, far from big cities, we expect clean air; yet we were powerless to do anything about the air pollution we were suddenly suffering. Clean water is also fundamental to our well-being. We expect our waterways to be clean and healthy, but clean water is under threat from pollution.

Aquí presentamos una entrevista con Carlos Beas Torres de la Unión de Comunidades Indígenas de la Zona Nortel del Istmo de Tehuantepec (UCIZONI), una organización que ha resistido a CIIT desde su inicio, y que forma parte de la caravana “El Sur Resiste.”

The following is an interview with Carlos Beas Torres, a member of the Unión de Comunidades Indígenas de la Zona Nortel del Istmo de Tehuantepec (Union of Indigenous Communities from the North of the Isthmus or UCIZONIT), an organization that has resisted the CIIT since its conception and forms part of the “El Sur Resiste” (The South Resists) Caravan.

“Rivers keep us alive and keep so many other living beings alive.” With those words, Blake Lavia, the President of Talking Rivers, welcomed more than 30 North Country community members to a wide-ranging discussion on a revolutionary idea: the Rights of Rivers. Held at Clarkson University on Earth Day (April 22), the event showcased the local and global momentum behind the idea as well as some of the key challenges facing those who would like the Rights of Rivers to become law across the St. Lawrence River / Kaniatarowanénhne and Adirondack Watersheds.

The Australian government has incorporated marine life into its Threatened Species Action Plan for the first time ever, but experts warn that the government's failure to address marine species and aquatic predators, such as rays and sharks, could threaten the entire ecosystem.

In biomes hurt by urban sprawl and agricultural advancement, understanding the potential of solutions that integrate human and agricultural systems will help bridge the well-being of the population and the environment. That is why agroforestry has attracted the attention of farmers, researchers and policy makers in the last decade as a new horizon for forest conservation in tropical regions like the Atlantic biome.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro created the National Strategic Development Zone of the Orinoco Mining Arc in 2016. Commonly known as the Arco Minero, it comprises an area of 111,843.70 km², larger than Cuba, adjacent to the Orinoco river, and is designated for unlawful mineral extraction. The Arco represents 12% of the country’s territory and is a severe environmental problem for the region.

“The younger generation is often framed as the ‘procrastinator.’ We are the ‘kids’ who only care about social media. Yet, in the face of the Climate Crisis, our generation is mobilizing to demand change. Here in the Haudenosaunee territory (the North Country), people of all ages believe in the ideas that the concept of Rights of Nature encompasses. We believe nature deserves further legal protection in the form of recognition as a living entity with legal standing. We want to preserve and prosper with our Mother Earth. This is why young people from the St. Lawrence River watershed are working together to organize an international symposium which will take place on March 22, International Water Day. During the North Country Rights of Nature Symposium, community members will join to discuss how best to protect the region’s waterways.”

In a follow up to “Coatepec: The Fight for the Cloud Forest”, a Forest Guardian from Movimiento por la Defensa de la Sierra describes the impact of art on their movement. The artists in question are children, and the young Earth Guardians are inspiring their community to rise up and protect their forests.

The deep consequences of interconnected globalized systems paired with destructive localized human actions is on full display in the La Guajira peninsula of Northeastern Colombia. Daniel Henryk Rasolt reports on the dire situation facing the Wayuu Indigenous Peoples.

On January 20, 2015, the PUCARL Collective (United Communities of the Antigua Watershed for Free Rivers) blocked the entrance to the Río Pescados (River of Fishes), halting the construction of a dam that was threatening the entire region. The 43 communities along the Rio Pescados are the first to defeat Odebrecht, thus protecting their waterways for the generations to come.

A new gold mine in Veracruz, Mexico, will be the first one in the world to be opened only two miles away from a nuclear reactor and from many pipelines - all in the middle of a densely populated, touristic area that is also the most important migratory route in North America. These are some of the main reasons why local activists are strongly opposing the project.

5,000 acres of cloud forest are currently being threatened in Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico - but local forest protectors are standing up to defend the ecosystem.