Metaphors are powerful, especially where the fight for climate justice – and justice more widely – is concerned. They focus our attention on their components; connecting, reframing – creating associations between these constituent parts and so transforming them – uplifting, illuminating, distorting and deprecating. 'Natural' metaphors can be particularly potent. In this short piece, Barney Pau explores the metaphorical potential of the weed, finding it rich with resilience and binary-defying multiplicity. Edited by Jackson Howarth.

Neurodiversity adheres neither to a single definition, nor a uniform experience. In this taster from our new issue, Elspeth Wilson describes how her nature writing and creative work intersect with both her sensory needs, and the environment around her, and speaks to Jane Burn, poet and illustrator, and Tzipporah Johnston, embroiderer and visual artist, about their own experiences. Edited by Zainab Mahmood.

Field recordings are atmospheric conditions in which to create an album – but they’re also being used to understand the world around us a little better. Gail Tasker looks into efforts to catalogue the sounds of our changing planet. She finds works that tell ancient stories, uncover geographical mysteries and record the drivers of the climate crisis. Edited by Katie Urquhart.

From gaming to virtual museum tours to Google Earth, the use of interactive digital spaces to record places, store information and build online worlds is well-established. But the metaverse is now recording real spaces and vanishing places. Nicholas Pritchard examines what museums and photographic records do to our sense of the world – and questions whether commercial cloud spaces are the right next step for our cultural and ecological memories.

Are you a climate tech acolyte or an energy maximalist? A climate urbanist or an eco-globalist? Eirini Sampson takes a deep dive into forms of ‘neo-pastoral’ environmentalism that advocate returning to rural livelihoods – finding a controversial and fragmented community. Edited by Jackson Howarth.

As the XR ‘Big One’ gears up for a more moderate approach to mass protests this month, factions within the movement have turned to increasingly radical activities. Olly Haynes explores how the thinking behind climate-based direct action has evolved in the UK and beyond. Edited by Katie Urquhart and Jackson Howarth.

We’re starting to see buildings being created with a better ecological record in the UK, and their designers have been quick to claim the credit. But UK built environment firms take a very different approach to building at home than overseas, argues Krish Nathaniel. There is a ‘west and the rest’ approach emerging, with firms using the soft power of ‘green’ at home to mask their ecologically and socially damaging practices overseas. Edited by Martha Dillon.

‘Climate anxiety’ is often used to describe horror at the environmental catastrophe we are living through. But what does it really mean to live through a crisis of such head- spinning, far-reaching and all-consuming proportions? Clayton Page Aldern digs deeper into the neuroscience as he seeks to understand emotional and physical responses to the climate crisis.

Edited by Alice Skinner and Eleanor Leydon. Illustrated by Byun Younggeun. This article was commissioned and funded in collaboration with Wellcome Collection's Stories.

In a climate crisis, many people who experience disabilities find themselves in uniquely vulnerable positions. Yet our bodies exist in complex, multilayered relationships with the wider environments in which we live. Elspeth Wilson unpicks her relationship with ecological systems and spaces, arguing that disabled perspectives can encourage a reframing of nature, place, and society. Edited by Eleanor Warr and Grace Duncan. Illustrated by Sally Booth.

Though greenhouse gas emissions are the main focus of climate debates, the waste pollution crisis was the original cause of the environmental movement. Dr Arianne Shahvisi digs into the UK’s shaky recycling infrastructure and its dependence on overseas dumping. She argues that it's time we put a stop to waste colonialism once and for all.

Edited by Harry Lloyd. Illustrated by Ifada Nisa. This article was commissioned and funded in collaboration with Wellcome Collection's Stories.

In recent years, the marketisation of ‘natural capital’ has made serious inroads in the finance sector. Adrienne Buller asks if so-called green financing can every really account for the dynamism and complexity of the natural world, or whether attempting to put a price on pollution will only fast track ecological decline. Illustrated by Anthony Padilla.

The last year has seen a surge in online protest, but how effective has it been? Molly Lipson argues that, while online activism offers an important opportunity for mobilising and organising action, it often fails to add up to action on the ground. With the ever-present threat of infiltration and state-surveillance, activists have to navigate a considerable minefield as they work to harness the potential of online protest. Illustrated by Fan Pu.

In Benedikt Erlingsson’s 2018 feature film, Woman at War, protagonist Halla runs a choir, wants to adopt a child, and sabotages electricity pylons. Andrew Key takes a look at changing depictions of direct environmental action on film, considering the influence of XR on activist narratives and our predilection for the heroic individual.

When we discuss changes to our surroundings, be it climate degradation or otherwise, we tend to think about changes that have taken place within living memory – over decades, rather than centuries. Over time, as decades pass, our standards gradually slip. This is ‘shifting baseline syndrome’; a tendency for conservation efforts to ignore the historic richness of our landscapes. But if we are going to look back, when should we look back to? Sophie Yeo explores what the phenomenon means for climate change, and what can be done to resolve it. Illustrated by Jake Alexander.

Louis Rogers was relieved that Rebecca Tamás’ Strangers: Essays on the Human and Nonhuman moved away from typical descriptions of nature as ecstatic. He reviews this 'intelligently digested' collection of wide-ranging ideas about more complex relationships with ecology from the celebrated poet.

'It delivers not only a challenging ecological message, but also a gripping cyberpunk thriller.' Chen Qiufan’s first novel Waste Tide paints a bleak portrait of waste build-up in China, highlighting its harrowing effects on both the environment and the people who live in it. Martha Swift reviews, finding a fast-paced, violent read, pointedly critical of the ecological destruction wrought by the waste processing industry.

This year, Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You made waves exploring the experience of a young Black Londoner dealing with trauma. But the recurring images of climate crisis and discussions of the environment in the show have been overlooked. Christine Ochefu digs deeper into the varied Black experiences of UK climate activism. Illustrated by Bobbye Fermie.

As people reach for their cookbooks during self-isolation, instagram influencers and food trends are seeing a huge influx of interest. Sharlene Gandhi explores the real origins of the zero waste movement, and the whitewashed gentrification that remains prevalent in environmentalist principles around eating. Illustrated by Hannah Percy.