The Killing Famine is an original comic by the artist Tim Zocco, who has been working with the STEPS Centre throughout 2020. In this piece, Tim Zocco reflects on a…
The Killing Famine: an outsider’s view of conservation and colonialism
Weird ecologies
In this short post, Amber Huff (STEPS/IDS) and Adrian Nel (University of KwaZulu Natal) introduce the idea of ‘weird ecologies’ and explains why ‘the Weird’ has such an enduring appeal…
Genome editing in post-Brexit agriculture: Which way for the UK?
Angela Noland, Dominic Glover and Adrian Ely In less than a month’s time, the UK’s relationship with the European Union will change dramatically. Agriculture and food will be among the…
How do we study mangrove ecology with pastoralists in Kachchh?
by Ranit Chaterjee, Pankaj Joshi, Mahendra Bhanani, Mahesh Garva and Nobuhito Ohte As part of the TAPESTRY project, we are working to understand the ecology of mangroves in Kachchh, on…
Transformation in a crisis: reflections on research and action
This is a personal reflection from Lyla Mehta on the Transformations to Sustainability mid-term workshop, which took place virtually in June 2020. Find out more about the meeting and see…
Don’t save ‘the world’ – embrace a pluriverse!
by Saurabh Arora and Andy Stirling The United Nations is 75 years old on 24 October 2020. It’s an unfortunate year to be reaching this milestone. Apart from global pandemic…
Does the African Green Revolution include smallholder farmers?
This year’s African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) took place online, hosted out of Kigali, Rwanda. Chaired by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the AGRF is a…
The ‘weight’ of humanity: questions on Attenborough’s ‘A Life On Our Planet’
Two images stand out in David Attenborough’s new film A Life On Our Planet. The first is of the “blue marble”, the Earth, viewed from a spacecraft for the first…
Nuclear vs renewables: what’s better for climate mitigation?
This is an adapted version of a Nature.com blog by Prof Benjamin K. Sovacool and Prof Andy Stirling, to accompany the publication of their paper “Differences in carbon emissions reduction…
How have large investment projects affected people in Africa’s drylands?
by Jeremy Lind, Doris Okenwa and Ian Scoones In recent years, the gaze of global investment has been directed to Africa’s land and resources. Over the past decade, global capital…