---
title: "Climate and nature: the spring 2018 New Humanist"
date: "2018-02-15T10:09:01+00:00"
modified: "2018-02-15T10:09:01+00:00"
url: "https://rationalists.org.uk/2018/02/15/climate-and-nature-the-spring-2018-new-humanist/"
post_id: 6736
categories: ["Uncategorised"]
---

# Climate and nature: the spring 2018 New Humanist

![cover](https://rationalists.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/images/1802-1-Cover.jpg)
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What now? Our writers on climate change
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**Living with the consequences**

Climate change is already here: we must stop debating deniers and start making tough decisions about what we will save, says **Will McCallum.**

> “Collectively, we have some difficult decisions to make about what we choose to save and what we should accept we are going to lose. We need to reflect on what the changed world we are facing is going to look like.”

**Defenders of the Earth**

Environmental activists used to enjoy greater freedom than most­, says **Sam Geall** – but now they are under attack, from Modi’s India to Trump’s America.

> “The green movement’s strengths have always been in its grassroots nature: how it empowers communities looking to understand their environments. From there they can engage in democratic politics at different levels.”

**The final story**

Why is our popular culture so obsessed with the end of the world? **Cal Flyn** on the apocalypse in film and literature.

> “As politicians dither, the creators of films and television shows have been grappling with how best to depict environmental Armageddon.”

**The wilderness in us**

We have always been shaped by the natural landscape, just as it has been shaped by our history, writes **Fiona Sampson.**

**Like cats and dogs**

Domesticated animals have been part of human society for tens of thousands of years. **Jonathan Rée** explores the ethics of the relationship between humans and animals.

***The Spring 2018 issue of New Humanist is on sale now! [Subscribe here](/subscribe) for just £27 a year.***

Also in this issue:
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![Beckett](https://rationalists.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/images/beckett-preview-post.jpg)

- **Samira Ahmed** on our political retreat to the irrational
- Have postmodernists deconstructed truth just when we need it most? **Peter Salmon** on the work of Bruno Latour
- **Juliet Jacques** on Ann Quin and the importance of avant-garde literature
- Q&amp;A with linguist and cognitive scientist **Steven Pinker**
- **Marcus Chown** on how to fit 7 billion people into the volume of a sugar cube
- How did we end up putting so many people in prison for so long? **Rosa Ellis** on the disaster of IPP sentences
- **Samira Shackle** reports from Iraq on the worsening situation for minority communities
- Spotify offers fans unparalleled access to music – but is it making culture blander? **Alex Macpherson** investigates
- **Caroline Crampton** on what the return of *Queer Eye for the Straight Guy* says about changing attitudes
- What happens when religion and authoritarianism mix? **Francis Beckett** on the link between earthly and divine authority
- Columns from Michael Rosen and Laurie Taylor; the latest developments in biology, chemistry and physics; cartoon by Grizelda; book reviews; cryptic crossword and Chris Maslanka’s quiz

*New Humanist is published four times a year by the Rationalist Association, a 133 year-old charity promoting reason, science and secularism. Our journalism is fiercely independent and supported entirely by our readers. To make a deeper commitment, why not* *[donate to the Rationalist Association](https://www.justgiving.com/rationalistassociation)?*