大象传媒

Everyone on the planet cannot be rich. It鈥檚 not possible. However, everyone can have 鈥渆nough鈥� and thrive: have our basic needs met, while caring for each other and the Earth that provides for us. That is, if we turn away from exploitative systems that distance us from each other and our communities, and pillage our natural resources. 

The current pandemic and intensifying climate disruptions underscore the planetary crisis: Modern civilizations cannot advance by doubling down as nature-colonizers.

What would it look like to have social and economic systems that work with Earth rather than against it? Nature flourishing and supporting its human populations. Human rights that work within rights of nature. Abundant and deindustrialized food and water.  Can you picture it?

Doing this allows us to free, restore, reconnect, and rewild vast terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and to reconnect to one another, to look out for one another, to live in community in a way that fosters care and compassion for each other.

If humans could have a do-over, the corrective choice would be transformation, a complete overhaul to an 鈥渆cological civilization,鈥� where our institutions and economies are modeled on nature鈥檚 systems and, in fact, actively support them.

Imagine that, a world where human beings live in harmony with nature.

An ecological civilization does not exist. But one is possible. Indigenous people lived in a way guided by respect and gratitude for natural systems for thousands of years. Traditional African and Asian philosophies and practices embrace this ideal.

Some of us鈥攊ndividually or collectively as progressive movements鈥攁re already moving toward an ecological civilization: we grow our own food, we shop local, we walk or bike to work (reducing our carbon footprint), we care for our neighbors. The ideal of an ecological civilization serves to link the goals of many of today鈥檚 movements. We have more goals in common than we know: People who support Rights of Nature might not have considered that they share goals with the anti-corporate-personhood Citizens United groups or Confucian traditionalists in China.

And we could be doing much more. 

Our spring issue will define an ecological civilization as a way to visualize a world that works for all. Send us your leads and pitches for reported stories on community initiatives or groups that move us toward an ecological civilization.

Reporters, what鈥檚 happening in communities near you? Tell us about the environmental solutions that promote the right-sizing of human impact with attention to equity, justice, and liberation for all. And how do we fix the messes we鈥檝e already made? Restoring, undamning, depaving. Where are local policies that reflect true transformation of our harmful systems over weak reformation?

We are looking for themes of human rights, environmental stewardship, decolonization, racial equity, food justice, economic fairness, localization, and well-being and caretaking.

All of the stories we seek will be examples of excellent journalism and storytelling: stories that have compelling characters, are well-researched, and demonstrate struggle and resolution. Hurry and send your pitches to [email protected] by Oct. 16. After that, you can continue to send them to [email protected].