Internet-based social media seem to have changed the nature and practice of social activism. Social media can spread information faster and more efficiently than anything that has previously existed. Still, not everything is changed by the new social media.

Since May 15, there has emerged a new protest movement in Madrid, instigated by financial crisis and inspired by the Arab Spring. Here Andy Price offers a participatory account of the fascinating ‘15-M’ movement and the democracy it espouses.

Is human interaction with the natural world by definition destructive? Building on social ecology’s insights, Peter Staudenmaier suggests that radical environmental activists can help to create and promote a coherent alternative to this Disney Ecology.

Brian Tokar argues against biofuels as a solution to long-term energy needs on a national or international scale. Not only do the costs of biofuels far outweigh their benefits, he writes, their origins and production exist in fundamental conflict with achieving a sustainable society.

Peter Staudenmaier examines the controversial views of utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer on selective infanticide. Are Singer’s arguments progressive, providing insights for an ethics to guide the left? Or do his views constitute a morally bankrupt position of social prejudice that belong nowhere near us?

The only chance the world has for an ecological future is for most of us to live in cities. We must start sharing our resources and land bases, stop spreading out so much, and focus on transportation and energy resources. But for this to make sense people need to be able to make their cities their own.

By showing how the domination of women and the poisoning of nature intersects in women’s bodies, Chaia Heller argues, the concept of eco-cide takes on a social dimension which brings racism, classism, colonialism and capitalism into one clear focus—health.