Author of Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlisted novel ‘The Bees’ Laline Paul shares her thoughts on zoomorphism, ice, and how stories open new worlds of possibility. You are one of the few writers who has written for adults from the perspective of non-human creatures. What led to you make that leap of the imagination, and how do people […]
Read More… from The Natural World Is In Our KeepingLaline Paull
Mexican poet, novelist, environmental activist and journalist Homero Aridjis makes an impassioned appeal on behalf of the vaquita, the world’s rarest marine mammal, as it balances on the brink of extinction. Please sign this petition to show your support. […]
Read More… from Save Mexico’s Vaquita PorpoiseHomero Aridjis
Grass In a courtyard of black tree-like columns, fragile young pasture carpet covers cracked ground. Deer and rabbits congregate silently to eat pale shoots. Under hoof and paw and shoot lies wreckage. Once proud Douglas fir trees, ancient cedar, hemlock and white pine; what was rich and diverse forest is now blistered earth and […]
Dear Earth, put us on probation. You are doing this already with the pandemics that you send us. Try and test us, put us through the suffering we deserve. Too often we have been saved by the benevolence of the universe; and because salvation like that has come easily to us, we do not learn. […]
Content warning: this essay contains descriptions and an image of animal suffering some readers may find distressing. Having retired to Phuket in Thailand in 2003, my wife Gill and I were keen to make a positive difference in our adopted home. Having long been aware of the terrible suffering of the ever-increasing stray dog population, […]
Read More… from The dog and cat meat trade in AsiaJohn Dalley
A year ago, my son Raphaël Coleman, aka #IggyFox, died suddenly of an undiagnosed heart condition. Here’s what I have learned, and what he taught me. Even in the most crushing grief, we are hard-wired to survive. The moment a human heart is broken, microscopic seeds of new life begin to germinate. This is your […]
‘Small Axe’ writer Courttia Newland shares an excerpt from his new novel, ‘A River Called Time‘ (Canongate, 2021), and speaks to Writers Rebel’s James Miller about Afro-Futurism, dystopia and the ecological movement. A River Called Time: An Excerpt He sank into the silence, grateful for the life that surrounded him on all sides, an unseen […]
The incredible story of Yaku Pérez, an indigenous water defender who, after being jailed and nearly assassinated for his activism, is among the top three candidates in Ecuador’s presidential election, taking place on February 7th. #YakuPresidente #ClaroQueSePuede, #YakuEs […]
Mary Wollstonecraft is best known for her pioneering writing on human rights, feminism and education. But one of her lesser-known works contains a startlingly prophetic insight into humankind’s impact on the environment. By @BeeRowlatt How did you first become aware of the natural world’s vulnerability to the impact of humans? Did it come as an […]
Read More… from Mary Wollstonecraft as environmental prophetBee Rowlatt
Continuing our series of videos from our On the Brink event, here is model, actress & campaigner Lily Cole speaking passionately about the plight of the rusty patched bumble bee. […]
Read More… from Lily Cole telling the story of the rusty patched bumble beeLily Cole
Maryland, 1988. Junior high. Our task in Mr. M’s class: author a dispatch to a pal on Phobos, a moon of Mars, communicating highlights about our world. This task had a catch: ABC’s fifth and most common mark was off limits — for, as Mr. M told us, this symbol didn’t occur on Phobos. This […]
At our On the Brink event, artist, poet and environmental activist Judy Ling Wong related the story of a magical encounter with a snow leopard, speaking out against the threat of extinction to these wondrous creatures. Video edited by Ben Crabb. […]
As Christmas approaches, Clare Druce, founder of Chickens’ Lib, reminds us of the damage done by factory farming chickens and turkeys. Factory farming promised plentiful cheap food. Instead, it has given us giant corporations where the profit motive reigns supreme, while ‘food animals’ suffer on an unprecedented scale. Treating animals like machines goes hand in […]
Read More… from How Factory Farming Threatens Us AllClare Druce
From micro-plastics in the snows of Everest and Antarctica, to carrier bags at the bottom of the 11km-deep Marianas Trench, and the billions of particulates infesting the brains of our children, nowhere and no-one on our planet remains uncontaminated by the polluting by-blow of early 21st century human activities. The atmosphere too is tainted, it’s […]
Read More… from The Case for Rewilding the ClimateBill McGuire
The marvellous Dame Emma Thompson gave a melancholy and mischievous call out to the Puffin for our On the Brink event when she found herself unable to “research puffins amidst the musty stacks” of the London Library “prevented by this latest lockdown.” She relies, instead on her “straggling and intermittent memory” to give us “everything […]
The real beauty of a coral reef is in the way it renews itself and creates the strongest of structures in the world with the most delicate of life forms. If the fragile polyps are damaged, the reef crumbles. You could say the same of us, and our world: that which is most fragile […]
What do we do when climate change threatens more than just a species and its habitat, but puts at risk thousands of years of relationships between land-based cultures and their most sacred plants? When Adla Massoud and her friends invited me to join them for a pilgrimage to the northernmost stands of Cedars of Lebanon […]
Read More… from Read: Sowing the Seeds of HopeGary Paul Nabhan
Tell us about what’s happening at Ardee bog, and why you are campaigning to stop it. Ardee Bog, in Ireland’s County Louth, is threatened by an absurd infrastructure project. If a proposed road, the N52 Ardee Bypass, is allowed to proceed in its current form it will cut through Ardee Bog and its […]
Read More… from Read: Trees breathe out. We breathe in.Katie Holten
Changing destructive policies is one of the biggest ways to halt the loss of habitats and exploitative practices that affect the most at-risk species on the planet. Writers Rebel and Extinction Rebellion are committed to holding governments to account to reverse the devastating losses to biodiversity that the Anthropocene has caused. If you’ve not yet […]
Read More… from ACT: Take a stand against extinctionOn the Brink: Support conservation missions
This year for Remembrance Day for Lost Species, November 30th, Writers Rebel are bringing together 20 writers from around the globe including Margaret Atwood, Amitav Ghosh, Elizabeth Kolbert, Ben Okri, Homero Aridjis and others to each tell the story of one animal. Please join us for this free landmark event. Below, Writers Rebel member Alex […]
Read More… from READ: They All Run TogetherJoin us for On the Brink: Mon 30th Nov, 7pm GMT