Environmental activists and NGOs spend a considerable amount of time Facebook posting and Tweeting. But the best use of social networks is about what you want to achieve. ALESSIO PERRONE spoke to some experts in the field and gives some tips about how to use platforms successfully to promote social change
Frack Free Greater Manchester campaigners joined human rights defenders from as far as Argentina and Colombia in May to protest outside British Petroleum (BP)’s first ever shareholder meeting in Manchester, UK. HELENA COATES - a local resident - environmental campaigner and mum of two, explains why she took part
Anti-fracking movement 'Reclaim the Power' has announced its plans for a summer of disruption against a fracking site in Lancashire. This came days after Greg Clark said shale wells in England will be considered permitted development. CATHERINE HARTE reports
It’s never been easier to show support for a cause. To make online armchair campaigning even easier still, Ellie O’Donnell and ALEXANDRA HEAL and ELLIE O'DONNELL have compiled a list of 10 ongoing campaigns they think Ecologist readers would like to know about
Farmer and activist Hector Christie marches into Tesco and Asda to 'round up the Round Up' to protest the use of carcinogenic ingredient - and is totally stunned by how the staff in one North Devon superstore respond. BRENDAN MONTAGUE reports
Public protests at the copper smelter plant of Sterlite Industries in the town of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, India, were met with police fire during the last two days, with 13 protesters killed and and hundreds injured. MRINALINI SHINDE and AMEYA BOKIL report
Ada Colau surprised many when she won the election to become mayor of Barcelona. The housing rights activist was part of a deep social movement aiming for participatory democracy. But this latest article from the SYMBIOSIS RESEARCH COLLECTIVE examines how winning the election was just the first step
A judge has ordered the eviction of protestors occupying the site of a proposed new coal mine in County Durham. Local residents are putting up one last fight to try and stop the project. MAT HOPE reports
The building of the proposed Chutka nuclear plant in the tribal-dominated Mandla district in central India will mean the local population will be displaced - for the second time. It will also contribute to global greenhouse gas emissions. Faced with injustice and threats to their safety and livelihoods, villagers have started a two-month long campaign. KUMAR SUNDARAM reports.
Community leaders from Colombia, the Philippines and Uganda have been in London challenging attendees of the Mines and Money Conference. HANNIBAL RHOADES, TATIANA GARAVITO and SEBASTIAN ORDONEZ report.
The opencast coal mine at Ffos-y-Fran near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales is the UK’s largest - and has produced eight million tonnes of coal. Now Miller Argent, the owner and operator, wants to extend the mine. Banks Mining has applied for planning permission to begin a new mine at Highthorn, in Northumberland. The application will go before Sajid Javid, the Communities Secretary, today. MAT HOPE of DeSmog UK spoke to the people most affected.
In 2016 the UK imported £26 million worth of fur, showing that the industry has gone global. Only by exposing the level of cruelty and showing people what lies behind the fashion will change ever come about writes LAURA BRIGGS
Theresa May's Tory government pushes forward with its nuclear white elephants. But one Cumbria couple persist in exposing the dangers of new nukes and old. Now Martin Forwood and Janine Allis-Smith of Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment have won the 2017 Nuclear-Free Future Award, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
The South Georgia Heritage Trust and the University of Dundee hosted 300 delegates from 43 countries to share a global picture of the world’s islands where ecosystems can hang in the balance, reports LAURA BRIGGS
With growing evidence of harm to physical and mental health caused by continuous pulsed em radiation from 'smart' electricity meters, Lynne Wycherley asks: have we underestimated risks to heart function and the nervous system? And of interference with embedded medical devices, such as cardiac pacemakers? It's time to switch to over-wire or fibre communications to bring the 'smart green grid' of the future to electrosmog-free reality.
Polish activists have this week chained themselves up to machines used to cut a 9000-year-old forest in a bid to stop the destruction of trees for what is clearly commercial gain. NICK MEYNEN reports
A 'Friend of the Sea' Dutch-owned trawler certified to supply 'sustainably caught' shrimp to the US and EU was arrested in Liberia after operating in an an area reserved for artisanal fishers, writes Peter Hammarstedt. The vessel, which had no licence and lacked the turtle excluders required by law, was discovered by the crew of Sea Shepherd's 'Bob Barker' in a joint mission with the Liberian Coast Guard to clamp down on rampant illegal fishing.
On the one side, the Guarani people and the entire panoply of international and Brazilian law asserting the rights of indigenous peoples to their lives, lands, and way of life. Against them, the entrenched economic and political power of farmers, ranchers, loggers and others exploiting the wealth of the Guarani's soils, forests and waters. Right now the power of money is winning every time. Only with international pressure can the Guarani emerge victorious.
We are not able to fight everything, and even when we do fight, we are not able to win every time, writes Janey Stephenson. Some things are bigger than us. That is not our fault. Contrary to capitalist logic, that does not make us flawed or unproductive. Within our movements, it does not make us lazy or weak or failures. It makes us human. There is a time to rest.
There's a shift occurring in the stewardship of the UK's National Parks - a move towards legislating for greater freedom to plunder the Parks' natural resources for financial gain with conservation of natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage taking a back seat. JAN GOODEY reports on the looming threat to the National Parks in Wales
Activists in Gloucestershire are battling to block the construction of a massive incinerator that they see as a blight on the landscape, costly, polluting, wasteful and undermining recycling, writes Dan Hinge. Now the fight, backed by superstar actor Jeremy Irons, just entered a new phase after a tribunal forced the County Council to reveal essential details of the contract it had signed.
'Smart meters' looked like a great idea, writes Lynne Wycherley, giving us more control over our energy use. The downside? They emit as many as 14,000 short bursts of intense microwave radiation a day, disrupting cellular electrochemistry and causing health symptoms from migraine to tinnitus, insomnia, dizziness, anxiety, chest pain, palpitations and memory loss. Now a growing number of 'electro-sensitives' have had enough!
The Drax power station in Yorkshire is the UK's biggest CO2 emitter, burns more wood each year than the entire UK timber harvest, and is a major importer of coal from strife-stricken regions of Colombia, writes Frances Howe. This Thursday campaigners will target the company's AGM to highlight its impacts on forests, biodiversity, climate and communities, in the face of Drax's PR offensive to make biomass appear 'sustainable'.
