https://znetwork.org/category/topic/ecology/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Wed, 11 Mar 2026 20:28:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/category/topic/ecology/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-u-s-quest-to-control-the-worlds-oil-trade/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-u-s-quest-to-control-the-worlds-oil-trade/#respond Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1295671 Transcript This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. “The US/Israeli Attack Was to Prevent Peace Not Advance It.” That’s the headline of a new article in CounterPunch by the economist Michael Hudson, who details how President [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-u-s-quest-to-control-the-worlds-oil-trade/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/surviving-a-pan-crisis/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/surviving-a-pan-crisis/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:45:40 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295660 We are not facing separate crises, but the simultaneous collapse of multiple historical orders unfolding in the present. Not only international relations and political science scholars but also the broader communities of social sciences—and increasingly even the natural sciences—are confronting a profound and widely acknowledged crisis, which is not merely “theoretical,” “disciplinary,” or “scientific” in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/surviving-a-pan-crisis/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/while-spending-billions-on-iran-war-trump-quietly-moves-to-boot-millions-more-off-food-aid/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/while-spending-billions-on-iran-war-trump-quietly-moves-to-boot-millions-more-off-food-aid/#respond Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:40:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295659 The Trump administration is quietly pursuing a regulatory change that would strip federal nutrition assistance from an estimated 6 million low-income Americans—including nearly two million children—as it spends billions on an illegal, open-ended war on Iran that has killed more than a thousand people and plunged the global economy into chaos. The change sought by [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/while-spending-billions-on-iran-war-trump-quietly-moves-to-boot-millions-more-off-food-aid/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/federico-savini-on-degrowth-and-its-future/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/federico-savini-on-degrowth-and-its-future/#respond Tue, 10 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295642 Humanity cannot continue to expand production and consumption exponentially on a finite planet.  It’s biophysically impossible. The carbon emissions are already producing more volatile weather patterns, more frequent floods, droughts, and wildfires, and disruptions of agriculture, commerce and global supply chains. And yet the US Government and respectable opinion remain in zones of denial or [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/federico-savini-on-degrowth-and-its-future/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/paz-government-vs-land-defenders-in-bolivia/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/paz-government-vs-land-defenders-in-bolivia/#respond Sat, 07 Mar 2026 12:32:18 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295526 At the same time every morning, Elvidio Mercado saddles his horse and heads to his cattle ranch in the community of Pampa Redonda, in the department of Tarija, in southern Bolivia.  “We’re all farmers here. The countryside is beautiful, and everything grows well,” said Mercado. The people in Pampa Redonda make a living by growing [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/paz-government-vs-land-defenders-in-bolivia/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-after-january-3-a-nation-standing-in-the-storm/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-after-january-3-a-nation-standing-in-the-storm/#respond Fri, 06 Mar 2026 15:30:51 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295509 On our recent delegation to Venezuela, one quote echoed again and again — a warning written nearly two centuries ago by Simón Bolívar in 1829: “The United States appears destined by Providence to plague America with misery in the name of liberty.” For many Venezuelans, that line no longer feels like history. It feels like [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-after-january-3-a-nation-standing-in-the-storm/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/localism-isnt-romantic-its-structurally-superior/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/localism-isnt-romantic-its-structurally-superior/#respond Fri, 06 Mar 2026 15:16:29 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295503 As the formal economy that shaped the last two centuries begins to contract, many Canadians are quietly shifting toward local solutions. This isn’t driven by nostalgia or a rejection of modernity. It’s a pragmatic recognition: small-scale systems often perform better when large ones start to falter. The core advantage of localism lies in preserving feedback. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/localism-isnt-romantic-its-structurally-superior/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europes-supply-chain-law-corporate-lobbying-wins-over-the-defenseless/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europes-supply-chain-law-corporate-lobbying-wins-over-the-defenseless/#respond Fri, 06 Mar 2026 15:09:32 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295500 The DS3D – Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive – is a complicated, highly convoluted, hyper-legalistic invention, but it “can” help workers worldwide. Despite its unpronounceable name – even for Germans – Germany’s so-called Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz “can” deliver good things for many workers, potentially. And even after its European version was seriously watered down when cashed-up corporate [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europes-supply-chain-law-corporate-lobbying-wins-over-the-defenseless/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-future-of-forests/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-future-of-forests/#respond Fri, 06 Mar 2026 14:38:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295513 Our species’ origin and destiny are entangled with the roots and branches of trees. We evolved in and around trees, and we’ve learned to breed and plant them for their fruit, nuts, wood, and blossoms, taking their seeds with us as we migrated—hence the English walnut, native to Persia, and the Georgia peach, native to China. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-future-of-forests/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/technical-solutions-for-water-resilience-in-arid-zones-in-iran/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/technical-solutions-for-water-resilience-in-arid-zones-in-iran/#respond Thu, 05 Mar 2026 16:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295403 Introduction Iran’s water crisis has moved beyond the warning stage to become a structural reality. Tehran, a metropolis of 15 million people, may face rationing measures followed by partial evacuation. Reservoirs stand at 12% capacity. Groundwater tables are subsiding by up to 30 centimeters annually. Faced with this situation, one question arises: what solutions exist, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/technical-solutions-for-water-resilience-in-arid-zones-in-iran/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-cathedral-of-plastic-how-we-manufactured-a-year-of-excess/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-cathedral-of-plastic-how-we-manufactured-a-year-of-excess/#respond Tue, 03 Mar 2026 17:31:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295396 I found myself in a temple of excess last weekend. It wasn’t a place of worship, but it felt like one: a massive toy store inside a shopping mall. I was there for a mundane reason - a relative’s son was turning six, and a gift was required. But as I stepped through the sliding glass doors, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-cathedral-of-plastic-how-we-manufactured-a-year-of-excess/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/escalation-of-this-war-could-shatter-iran-into-ethnic-enclaves/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/escalation-of-this-war-could-shatter-iran-into-ethnic-enclaves/#respond Tue, 03 Mar 2026 17:31:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295354 As a political-cultural geographer who has long been an antiwar organizer and studied the history of U.S. military interventions, it’s clear that the war on Iran could set into motion a regional conflagration, the violent break-up of Iran into ethnic enclaves, and a toll that would make the Iraq War look like a warm-up exercise. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/escalation-of-this-war-could-shatter-iran-into-ethnic-enclaves/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-we-need-a-life-based-paradigm-instead-of-the-growth-paradigm/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-we-need-a-life-based-paradigm-instead-of-the-growth-paradigm/#respond Mon, 02 Mar 2026 17:27:45 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295345 Human activity has grown to challenge planetary limits, yet the official solution to any problem that arises is to grow more. Like fish unable to live anywhere but in water, our leaders find it hard to imagine any way of life outside the Growth paradigm. Production and consumption, income and expenditure define our lives. Measured [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-we-need-a-life-based-paradigm-instead-of-the-growth-paradigm/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/water-a-factor-of-stability-and-conflict-the-iranian-case-and-the-forgotten-lessons/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/water-a-factor-of-stability-and-conflict-the-iranian-case-and-the-forgotten-lessons/#respond Mon, 02 Mar 2026 17:21:34 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295341 INTRODUCTION: TEHRAN, A CAPITAL TO BE EVACUATED WELL BEFORE THE BOMBS, BECAUSE IT’S DRY In November 2025, Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian issued a warning that sent a chill through the entire country: Tehran, the capital of one of the world’s oldest empires, might have to face rationing, then partial evacuation. Not under the threat of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/water-a-factor-of-stability-and-conflict-the-iranian-case-and-the-forgotten-lessons/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/let-them-eat-patents/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/let-them-eat-patents/#respond Mon, 02 Mar 2026 01:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295303 Today roughly 25 percent of the global population works the land. Their grueling labor feeds the remaining 75 percent. The true magnitude of farmers’ importance reveals itself in moments of crisis. They are a keystone in a fragile global food system. If their work is jeopardized, the consequences will not be abstract. The world’s food [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/let-them-eat-patents/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/21st-century-common-sense-part-3/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/21st-century-common-sense-part-3/#respond Sat, 28 Feb 2026 16:20:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295290 It was the summer of 2003. I was employed at the time as the national coordinator of the Independent Progressive Politics Network, working towards, we hoped, a progressive, broad-based alternative to the Dems and Reps. But something happened that summer in Europe which changed my life, leading me to leave that IPPN job a year [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/21st-century-common-sense-part-3/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/maga-is-the-avatar-of-a-fossil-fuel-industry-coup/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/maga-is-the-avatar-of-a-fossil-fuel-industry-coup/#respond Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295292 I wrote over a year ago that “doomerism,” or “doomism,” if you prefer, ought to be a precondition for activism. If you believe that the sea won’t soon rise and drown the coastal cities that run the world’s economies, if you believe that deserts won’t swell and swallow up farmlands, if you believe that fascist predatory [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/maga-is-the-avatar-of-a-fossil-fuel-industry-coup/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/cuba-under-siege-battles-u-s-oil-blockade/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/cuba-under-siege-battles-u-s-oil-blockade/#respond Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295162 President Donald Trump on January 29 imposed import tariffs on any country providing Cuba with oil. The false claim that Cuba threatened terrorism against the United States served as pretext.  The U.S. Supreme Court on February 20 ruled that President Trump lacked constitutional authority for imposing tariffs. Now tariffs continue under different legal authorization. The oil [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/cuba-under-siege-battles-u-s-oil-blockade/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-suicidal-folly-of-a-war-with-iran/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-suicidal-folly-of-a-war-with-iran/#comments Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:54:01 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1295173 The Laurel and Hardy negotiating team of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, coupled with Trump’s appalling ignorance of world affairs and megalomania, seem set to push the U.S. into yet another debacle in the Middle East, one the Congress has not approved, and the public does not want. The demands imposed on Iran by the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-suicidal-folly-of-a-war-with-iran/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/on-turtle-island-indigenous-food-is-not-the-past-its-the-future/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/on-turtle-island-indigenous-food-is-not-the-past-its-the-future/#respond Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295143 One of my favorite parts of researching The Gastro Obscura Cookbook is talking to leaders in the food world about the recipes that matter most to them. When it comes to Indigenous food of North America, few experts rival Sean Sherman. An Oglala Lakota chef raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota, Sherman has devoted his career [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/on-turtle-island-indigenous-food-is-not-the-past-its-the-future/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/treason-at-the-end-of-the-world/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/treason-at-the-end-of-the-world/#respond Mon, 23 Feb 2026 21:41:44 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295102 There are certain words polite society forbids. Genocide.Collapse.Treason. Say them, and you are hysterical. Extreme. Nuts. But there comes a point in the life of a civilisation when refusing to use the correct word becomes the real extremism. We are living through the greatest act of intergenerational violence in human history. The evidence is no [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/treason-at-the-end-of-the-world/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/who-really-wins-from-the-us-critical-minerals-drive/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/who-really-wins-from-the-us-critical-minerals-drive/#respond Mon, 23 Feb 2026 21:09:56 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295090 The global race for technological supremacy now runs on cobalt, lithium, rare earths, and coltan – the minerals that make possible everything from electric vehicle batteries to semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Rare earths, a group of 17 metals essential to electronics and defence technologies, and coltan, the ore used to produce tantalum for smartphones [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/who-really-wins-from-the-us-critical-minerals-drive/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/from-one-munich-to-another-but-what-security-are-they-talking-about/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/from-one-munich-to-another-but-what-security-are-they-talking-about/#respond Mon, 23 Feb 2026 20:47:14 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295076 At first glance, everything separates the Munich Conference of 1938 from the Munich Security Conference of 2026. The former saw Czechoslovakia sacrificed on the altar of Hitler’s appeasement policy by the “great democracies” of Europe, which allowed this “appeased” Hitler to unleash the Second World War by invading Poland a year later. As for the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/from-one-munich-to-another-but-what-security-are-they-talking-about/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/females-vs-citizens/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/females-vs-citizens/#respond Mon, 23 Feb 2026 20:28:52 +0000 Around midsummer this year, my partner and I will welcome our first child into the world. I have thought long and hard about whether or not to say anything in this newsletter, committed as we are to our privacy. But, ultimately, it is becoming harder and harder to write every week without referencing our decision [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/females-vs-citizens/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-goes-up-must-come-down/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-goes-up-must-come-down/#respond Sun, 22 Feb 2026 13:01:18 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295023 New research published Thursday bolsters growing concerns that a handful of companies and countries are using the global atmospheric commons as a dumping ground for potentially toxic and climate-altering industrial waste byproducts from loosely regulated commercial space flights. The new study analyzed a plume of pollution trailing part of a Falcon rocket that crashed through the upper [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-goes-up-must-come-down/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/epa-sued-for-backtracking-on-greenhouse-gas-regulation/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/epa-sued-for-backtracking-on-greenhouse-gas-regulation/#respond Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294983 Two lawsuits filed Wednesday in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals mark the beginning of a rocky legal road for the Environmental Protection Agency following its reversal of a 2009 rule underpinning federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. The challenges include a lawsuit brought against both the EPA and its administrator, Lee Zeldin, by a coalition of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/epa-sued-for-backtracking-on-greenhouse-gas-regulation/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-cuban-revolution-holds-out-against-us-imperialism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-cuban-revolution-holds-out-against-us-imperialism/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2026 17:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294865 In January 2026, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US security—a designation that allows the United States government to use sweeping economic restrictions traditionally reserved for national security adversaries. The US blockade against Cuba began in the 1960s, right after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 but has [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-cuban-revolution-holds-out-against-us-imperialism/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activists-are-racking-up-wins-against-a-false-climate-solution/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activists-are-racking-up-wins-against-a-false-climate-solution/#respond Wed, 18 Feb 2026 17:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294867 Last June, California climate and environmental justice groups celebrated a victory a long time in the making. After an opposition campaign that built alliances across movements, turned out supporters to hearings and generated 50,000 public comments, a company gave up plans that threatened to wreak havoc on the state’s forests. The corporation behind the defeated [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activists-are-racking-up-wins-against-a-false-climate-solution/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/towards-a-climate-doctrine-for-sovereignty-in-mena-governing-natural-cycles-as-a-strategic-asset/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/towards-a-climate-doctrine-for-sovereignty-in-mena-governing-natural-cycles-as-a-strategic-asset/#respond Wed, 18 Feb 2026 17:36:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294869 Climate change is no longer just an environmental variable—it is reshaping economic, social, and strategic balances worldwide. In the MENA region, one of the most climate-vulnerable zones, trends are unmistakable: rising temperatures, prolonged water stress, extreme rainfall events, and mounting pressure on agricultural systems. For countries in this region, the challenge goes beyond ecology—it directly [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/towards-a-climate-doctrine-for-sovereignty-in-mena-governing-natural-cycles-as-a-strategic-asset/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-can-move-beyond-the-capitalist-model-and-save-the-climate-here-are-the-first-three-steps/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-can-move-beyond-the-capitalist-model-and-save-the-climate-here-are-the-first-three-steps/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2026 23:15:43 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294818 We have an urgent responsibility. Our existing economic system is incapable of addressing the social and ecological crises we face in the 21st century. When we look around we see an extraordinary paradox. On the one hand, we have access to remarkable new technologies and a collective capacity to produce more food, more stuff than [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-can-move-beyond-the-capitalist-model-and-save-the-climate-here-are-the-first-three-steps/feed/ 2