Author Archives: alfiehighland

About a year ago, I wrote an article that discussed the morality behind eating meat. It’s a question that I still feel strongly about, yet it is only part of the conversation. For many, many, years, scientists, politicians, and activists alike have argued around plant-based diets for their potential as a climate change solution. ThisContinue reading “Sustainable for Whom? Interrogating Plant-Based Diets in the Era of Climate Crisis”

Each of us builds our own story of nature. It shapes our perception of the environment around us and its narratives guide our behaviours, relationships, and teachings. Yet the story has become monolithic through the dominant power of Western environmental knowledge. Recognition and respect for this perspective and its achievements are crucial, for it hasContinue reading “Bridging The Gap: A Review of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer”

This article has a little less direction than my previous posts, but I feel it was more of a necessary cathartic process. I’m more than aware of the challenges faced when attempting to engage in the climate crisis, whether that be due to anxiety, distraction or apathy. What I hoped to feel writing this wasContinue reading “Understanding the journey: from climate anxiety to green anarchism.”

As a culture we seem to have arrived in a place where whatever native wisdom we once possessed about eating has been replaced by confusion and anxiety. Somehow this most elemental of activities has come to require a remarkable amount of expert help. From the atkins diet, to red meat and cardiovascular disease, opinions onContinue reading “What’s for dinner?”

“If we fail to identify and address greenwashing, we allow ourselves false confidence that we are already addressing the causes and treating the symptoms of the climate crisis.” — Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the Environment Agency Trust. It fills our lives. A truly primal emotion that builds and sustains relationships, from your parents toContinue reading “Greenwashing our environmental problems away”

“The wealth of nature does not lie in its ability to accumulate and privatize capital; it lies in the manifold ways that it enables humans to live. Capitalism makes nature ‘visible’ to us using money so it appears on a spreadsheet and how much it’s worth to humans as investors. Living with nature means thatContinue reading “Capitalism and Conservation – The Revolution”

Based on the book ‘The conservation revolution – Radical ideas for saving nature beyond the Anthropocene’ ‘One of the greatest violence’s of the neoliberal era was the closure of the political imagination. Even on the left, perhaps especially so, the sense became pervasive that there was no alternative to capitalism. Revolutionary possibility was generally confusedContinue reading “Capitalism and conservation – The Dilema”

The world population is expected to increase to 9.9 billion by the year 2050, meaning humans need to produce 60% more food within that same timescale. Achieving this goal is challenging, not least because it needs to be accomplished with less land and water, within an increasingly warmer climate. Conventional farming methods can no longerContinue reading “Genetically modified crops – Are they healthier for us?”

Transboundary conservation provides a global opportunity to tackle our climate change and biodiversity loss issues on a worldwide scale. However, exploring its effectiveness and viability is essential to deem whether this is just an idea or a concrete course of action. Therefore, written below is an extensive literature review that aims to answer the question,Continue reading “Transboundary Conservation – Does it Work?”