Lyla June on Renovating Native Foodways as a Path to Sovereignty
Native Flower Rebellion in Argentina
As the Extinction Rebellion shuts down the system in the North, Indigenous women in Argentina stage an uprising of their own. The Native Flower Rebellion, they are calling it: an occupation of “self-convoked” Mapuche, Qom and other Indigenous women have traveled from all corners of the republic to demand an accounting from their government, and to unite in a powerful message: The Terricide must stop.
Temaca to the World: We're Not Going Anywhere
TEMACAPULIN, Jalisco, Mexico — It’s been 14 years since the people of this charming colonial town in the Green River Valley of Mexico’s agriculturally rich Jalisco state have gotten a good night’s sleep — 14 years of fighting the thirty-story megadam that poses an existential threat to their precolonial heritage. A generation has nearly grown […]
How the Women of Standing Rock Are Building Sovereign Economies
For Sicangu Lakota water protector Cheryl Angel, Standing Rock helped her define what she stands against: an economy rooted in extraction of resources and exploitation of people and planet. It wasn’t until she’d had some distance that the vision of what she stands for came into focus. “Now I understand that sustainable sovereign economies are needed to […]
Women of Standing Rock: LaDonna Brave Bull Allard
In the harrowing days of the Standing Rock resistance to the Black Snake, LaDonna Brave Bull Allard — Tamakawastewin, or Good Earth Woman — became an icon, though she’s quick to step away from such titles with her self-deprecating humor. The Lakota historian’s fight to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline from plowing past her son’s […]
Campesino Past, Biodynamic Future
Gaby Gonzalez is a soil scientist, an architect and a third-generation Mexican farmer, descended from a proud campesino grandfather and schooled by her father in the ways of modern industrial agriculture, an approach she found seriously flawed. The lessons she learned from both of them found a new meaning when she discovered biodynamic agriculture. Last […]
Restoring the Earth, One Camp at a Time
Over the past 150 years, poor land management practices, driven by industrial agriculture, has resulted in the loss of half of the earth’s topsoil. Soil is becoming so degraded that some scientists are predicting that in some parts of the world, such as the UK, we only have 60 harvests left. More carbon has been […]
Editor’s note: One of my most inspiring assignments so far this year brought together two important movements for the healing of the Earth: the first Ecosystem Restoration Camp in the Americas, and Vía Orgánica, the host organization. I went on to write about them both for Mongabay Latin America and the brand-new issue of Permaculture […]
One day in July 2017, Marianna Treviño-Wright was driving her car by the levee that crosses the private property of the National Butterfly Center. Then she saw something unsettling. Surrounded by the dense Texas thornscrub that grows on either side of the levee, she pulled over, got out of her car and confronted five government contractors […]
Garet Bleir has spent the last 100 days living out of a tent beside the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation and allies in the Esto’k Gna’s villages near the U.S.-Mexico border. He is there investigating the humanitarian and environmental devastation caused by the border wall sweeping through South Texas. This story was made possible with a grant from […]
She Started a Movement that Speaks for the Forests
It’s not every day that one bumps into a visionary – but it seems to be happening more often these days. On the “dance floor” of a very special beach party, on the wild Pacific Coast of Oaxaca, we found ourselves face to face with the founder of a movement to protect those rare and […]
Review by Ana Ruiz Photos by Tracy L. Barnett ZIPOLITE, OAXACA – Nine actors emerge as bats, bees, butterflies and wild felines, pollinating and controlling crop pests as they weave a fabulous dance into the web of life. Monsanto suddenly steps onto the stage, depicted as a fat man with a briefcase and a sprayer, […]
Oak Flat: Apaches Fight "Murder" of Sacred Site
We have one year left to repeal the fateful decision and prevent the murder of Oak Flat, an area of great spiritual, cultural, and historic significance to many different bands, including the Apaches of San Carlos, “Arizona”. Although this very area was once designated by President Eisenhower to be protected from mining, legislative efforts began […]
A Kinder, More Beautiful Activism
Gentle is not the same as weak. If you don’t believe it, just askSarah Corbett. I first encountered Sarah in my research for a story on activism for introverts. Her now famous Ted Talk inspired me to seek her out, and luckilyfor me, she responded, leading to several stories – one for RiceBusiness Wisdom and […]
21 Planet-Friendly Holiday Ideas
As I was researching this story about being mindful of creating more joy and less waste during the holiday season, I had some lovely conversations with three women who have been working to reduce their carbon footprint for a long time. Yvonne Jacobs, Susie Hairston and Katy Katz left me with enough ideas to write a book – and some poignant thoughts, […]
Holidays are a time for giving – and increasingly, people are thinking about ways to give back to the non-human inhabitants of our planet. Mindful of the fact that we’re generating a million tons of extra garbage in that month-long space between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and that our runaway consumption is causing alarming devastation to the biosphere, we caught […]
Recently I had the chance to sit down with Michael Kodas, the author of Megafire: The Race to Extinguish a Deadly Epidemic of Flame. The context was a story about the increasingly intense fires in the American West and the impact this might have on our National Parks. Michael, a former firefighter in addition to […]
By Tracy L. Barnett The Texas Observer Nine-year-old Mauricio Treviño is every retailer’s worst nightmare. On a field trip that included a walk along the Rio Grande recently, his grandmother, Laredo businesswoman Tina Treviño, took Mauricio and her nine other grandchildren to a taquería for lunch. The restaurateur brought their order, served in Styrofoam and double-bagged […]
We came from all over the republic and beyond to show our support and to run this historic “Carrera con Causa” – Race with a Cause – to enjoy the charms of a threatened yet defiant pueblo and to bask in its famous hot springs. Here are a few images from the 11th annual Carrera […]
For some, it was the baby albatross whose autopsy revealed a belly full of bottle caps and other plastic debris. For others, it was the video of the sea turtle with the plastic straw stuck in its nostril, a team of marine biologists trying to remove it with a pair of pliers as it struggled […]
‘We will extinguish the magic of Bacalar’
Now that the Bacalar Lagoon weighs a development model some liken to “the New Cancun,” a plan that would condemn it to the loss of its famous seven colors, its stromatolites and everything that makes it a truly magical place, it seemed to us it would be important to consult with an expert from the […]
Overlooking the brilliant, placid waters of Bacalar Lagoon, in the breezy shadow of a palm tree, it’s easy to imagine that one has landed in a sort of tropical paradise where the noise and traffic and contamination of tourism magnets like Cancún are a world apart. But Marco Jerico, founder and director of the environmental […]
By Tracy L. Barnett for The Washington Post Looking down from the hilltop through the palm fronds, the sight took my breath away: at least seven hues of blue, stretching out before me to a green-fringed horizon. This was the Lagoon of Seven Colors, and it was everything I’d been told, and then some. Set […]
Puebla festival seeks to restore contaminated river
Río Atoyac in Puebla has gone the way of most rivers in this country: It’s become a contaminated, barely recognizable version of its former self. But something is different about Río Atoyac. That’s because a handful of people cared enough to fight for it. The result: Ríos Vivos (Rivers Alive) Atoyac Xicome Forum + Festival, the […]
Marichuy, Mexico's indigenous candidate: My goal goes beyond being president
By Angélica Almazán “We do not bring promises, we do not bring anything to give away, more than the heart, more than sweat, more than the effort of each day. It has been a difficult road because people no longer believe in anything and are tired of hearing promises. That is why we are not […]
8 ways you can help build hope in 2018
Feeling a little hopeless about the state of the world today? It’s understandable. Most of the news you see these days doesn’t inspire a lot of optimism. But there are a lot of positive trends and uplifting initiatives that are putting us on the path to a better world. How can we nurture and grow […]
Left: Cayuco Maya, the venue for the XV Vision Council, “Call of the Water,” was held on the shores of Bacalar Lagoon. Foreground: The Rainbow Peace Caravan’s Circus Tent has been a trademark gathering space for two decades in Vision Councils from Peru to Mexico. BACALAR, Quintana Roo, Mexico — The XV Vision Council – […]
A House for Mari: Bioconstruction to the Rescue in Tetela del Volcán
Editor’s note: This photo story is part of a series about “bio-reconstruction” or natural building initiatives that are springing up in the wake of the earthquakes in Mexico. To follow some of these developments see the Facebook page for BioReconstruye México, a network of natural builders around the country who are sharing techniques and coordinating […]
Bio-Reconstructing Mexico: Toward an Architecture for Life
By Tracy L. Barnett For ArchDaily.com Editor’s note: After the earthquakes of Sept. 7 and Sept. 19 in southern and central Mexico, a nascent natural building movement – known as “bioconstruction” or “bioarchitecture” here in the Spanish-speaking South – has stepped forward, seizing the opportunity to rebuild with an architecture that promotes long-term resilience and […]