Nature and the environment
Sacred places
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Paganism is a potent force in Ireland’s conservation movement
Long-held beliefs in an ‘Otherworld’ inhabited by wrathful fairies are now driving a resurgence in Irish eco-activism
by Juju Lane
Meaning and the good life
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You can be a materialist and find meaning in the universe
My hard-nosed materialism led me to an existential crisis, but then I realised the difference between science and scientism
by Jessica Tracy
Sacred places
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Nan Shepherd delved into a queer erotic kinship with nature
In the Highlands, Nan Shepherd found an erotic kinship with nature: ‘The Living Mountain’ a core text for queer ecology
by Melissa Matthewson
Food and drink
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La cucina povera delivers the fare we need to sustain us now
La cucina povera made do with whatever was available in nonna’s kitchen garden, and remains the perfect fare for our times
by Louise Fabiani
Nature and the environment
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What does water want? Most humans seem to have forgotten
Asking what water wants sounds a bit mystical, even radical. But it’s a practical, proven path to creating a better world
by Erica Gies
Sacred places
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Our children will need to find the beauty in our burnt planet
How will our children find beauty in a world rapidly breaking into what observers call a spectacle of unremitting loss?
by Stephen J Pyne
Nature and the environment
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Why people across the world see constellations, not just stars
Orion, the Big Dipper and the rest reflect shared features of human perception – but also diverse cultural interpretations
by Simon J Cropper, Duane W Hamacher, Daniel R Little & Charles Kemp
Animals
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Sex lives of the pygmy seahorses – a hidden, miniature marvel
Randy females, pregnant males and breeding quartets: the secret sex lives of the pygmy seahorses of Sulawesi in Indonesia
by Richard Smith
Nature and the environment
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Grey whales taught me how to mother, how to endure, how to live
When I was in crisis, grey whales taught me how to mother and how to endure, till I could find my own paths through change
by Doreen Cunningham
Beauty and aesthetics
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Gardening with Heidegger: from mystery to truth, via the earth
The garden as a source of authority beyond human wisdom – on Martin Heidegger’s philosophy of gardening for truth
by F Bailey Norwood
Animals
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Calling Australia’s wildlife ‘weird’ puts it at risk
To see Australia’s wildlife as weird or bizarre adopts the colonial framings of past naturalists – and puts animals at risk
by Jack Ashby
The body and physical health
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We’re children of ice and snow. Can we survive the coming heat?
Temperature is more than a number; it’s an experience of our flesh. How will our bodies cope with an ever-warmer planet?
by Robert Frodeman & Mark Bullock