Changemaker Profile: Going Beyond Green
A new initiative has sprung up to bridge the chasm that separates activism and the necessary transition to a sustainable economy from the sphere of mainstream politics.
Read moreTag Archives: issue 8
Top 10: Grassroots Movements that are Taking on the World
If we really want to see change, then to paraphrase Gandhi, we have to be the change. Grassroots movements offer up a multitude of creative and inspiring ways for ordinary folks to get involved in changemaking, both from the bottom up, and as a conversation space through which we can come to terms with our own power to make a difference.
Read more“To vote or not to vote, that is the question”
Global citizens, change-makers, anarchists, activists, followers of Russell Brand, and anyone else out there who has given up on humans being able to form good government, I urge you to resist the growing call not to vote.
Read morePower to the People: Time to Take it Back
We as civil society have passed the ball to the polluting corporations, and allowed them to set the parameters of discussion. We believed the mantra of ‘sustainable development’ lodged in the public consciousness since the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, and some still believe this despite the continuing downward trajectory of planet earth.
We have allowed Big Green groups to drink, dine and collude with Big Business leaders while shafting any meaningful action needed to change the trajectory. Radical reimagining of the way we live – with radical simplification of lifestyles – would result in the radical plummeting of corporate profits and power.
Read moreWorld News Digest – Issue 8
With the fast pace of today’s news cycle it can be hard to know what to pay attention to, and information overload is often the inevitable result. Listed under the categories of Economy, Energy, Environment, Geopolitics and Culture, our selected news highlights bypass celebrity gossip and partisan politics, cutting through the crap to shine the spotlight on the world affairs that affect us most strongly.
Read moreCR File: Baishan Fir
High atop Mt Baishan-zu in eastern China resides one of the world’s most critically endangered coniferous plants, the Baishan fir, of which only seven remain in the wild.
Read moreThe Revolution Will Not Be Boring
Russell Brand recently released his latest literary offering to the masses. Anneke Vo dishes up her impressions of the book.
Read moreThe Personal is Political
Safely isolated from our public political personas, our personal lives are sacred territory. We strive to convince ourselves that our personal choices are not politically relevant; that if we talk the right talk it’s as good as walking it, that our unconscious habits don’t snitch on our real values. But actions speak louder than words, and the personal is political.
Read moreThe End of Politics
Past collapses and prolonged depressions provide some clues as to how humans will behave in a global collapse. In areas where there remains a hugely inequitable distribution of wealth and power between rich and poor, there is a motivation for the rich to defend their wealth and repress the poor, and a motivation for the poor to seize the wealth of the (presumably unfairly) rich. But in areas where everyone is left poor, and there is little inequality, human nature, it turns out, seems to be to share and help each other.
Read moreMovies that Matter – Issue 8
To learn about the world’s problems and the creative solutions needed to overcome them often means searching for hidden gems between the folds of sub-cultures. For the time-poor majority in our society, film is an unrivalled medium for informing and inspiring. The movies that matter are the ones that have the potential to change minds and inspire action.
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SHIFT magazine 