The themes for this issue focus on extinction, reconnection and redesign, alongside a series of dialogues.

LIVING CLOSE TO THE EDGE

The issue opens with photographer Kazi Md. Jahirul Islam’s extraordinary picture essay on the floods in Bangladesh and the damage that they wreak on everyday life in Chittagong. Aaron Davies looks at efforts to save the world’s wild coffee species, many of which are at risk of extinction. And Anna Souter explores how plants, surviving the worst manmade disasters, can offer an alternative model for living in the face of the environmental crisis.

A TIME TO RECONNECT

Victor Steffenson’s words and Peter McConchie’s photographs create a powerful message for our cover story, which looks at how Indigenous fire management methods could help save Australia and improve the environment. We also hear how conservationists in the UK are using a creative approach to engage people with nature. And our picture story from the Choithram Netralaya eye hospital in Indore reveals how free cataract operations can help India’s poorest regain their sight and their lives.

REDESIGN / RETHINK / REWORK

We examine how community groups and retailers are changing the way we access and engage with food and with each other, from a movement to promote simple plant-based recipes in working class areas of Brazil to the Kitchen Social in north London, UK, which brings the local community together around food and activities. We also talk to designer and author Julia Watson about how traditional Indigenous technologies could be adapted to improve modern cities.

DIALOGUES

Climate activist Ayisha Siddiqa describes how her personal history led her to the climate movement, writer Jonny Keen looks at wildlife on a brownfield site, and journalist Paul F Cockburn explores how we need darkness in our lives.

Product Dimensions: 240mm x 170mm

Pages: 128

THE GARDENS OF EDEN

As green commentators speculate about the future of environmentalism in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, it is more important than ever that green thinking should grow and evolve.

​In issue 5, we explore new approaches to ideas about climate change. Some articles propose big green changes which might fit into a ‘post-corona’ portfolio of green proposals. Some reflect on the outcomes of existing green approaches, and others interrogate the purpose and ethics of new technologies that aim to improve the environment.

Flourish Volume 3  
A snippet of Scandinavia

A snippet of Scandinvia showcases our next new adventure in the world of print, looking at a snippet of our favourite spots in Scandinavia including: Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. We look at camping and hiking in the wilderness, city escapes, interior design, and bringing Scandinavian food into our homes with hygge recipes. 

The Belonging Volume

The Belonging Volume takes a planetary perspective to reflect on the significance of our existence and that of the intricate network of ecosystems we inhabit. It explores how intimate knowledge of nature can enable us to feel at home outdoors, and how finding wonder in our everyday lives can profoundly impact our worldview. It listens to the voices of the younger generation and ruminates on the concept of intergenerational equity, and it hears stories of collective action to tackle some of today’s most pressing issues. It inspires us to humbly step back from our anthropogenic view on the world so we may find belonging in nature and come home to ourselves.

Features:

Ocean Pools. Among the Waves of Mayumi Oda. The Sky Above the Boats. High Latitudes: Integrity at the End of the World. Paddle Your Own Kayak. Oxides. Surfing Explorer Peter Troy. Sand: Between Land and Sea.

32x23.8 cm / 100 pages / printed on paper made from recycled algae

The themes we explored for the second issue of Where the Leaves Fall focused on death, journey and seeds, alongside a number of essays in the dialogues section. 

ALL THINGS MUST PASS

In this section we look at how Ana Mendieta celebrated her own mortality in her work, exploring the cycle of life and death and our connection with nature. Transcending the spiritual and philosophical to the actual, Antonina Savytska’s visceral images of the last months of her aunt’s life paints a stark and honest portrait of our relationship not just with death, but the life that leads us there and the patterns and behaviours of the ancestors that live through us. And we look at how societal conventions around death, developed to make the process as comfortable and acceptable as possible, are being challenged by environmentalists with the aim of ‘greening’ the system.

THROUGH OUR JOURNEY

We begin our exploration of journey (as well as the cover image) with The Flower Laboratory’s reuse of heather flowers leftover from a fashion shoot as art, as communion, as rehabilitation. Then we explore the Russian cultural phenomenon of the dacha, the plot of land and residence beyond the city boundaries where people can escape to nature. With ayahuasca, another way to commune with nature, we question the impact of yagé tourism on Indigenous communities.

LIVING WITH SEEDS

Seeds are a ubiquitous part of our daily lives and in this section we explore different seed interactions – whether it’s searching for endangered flora in Kyrgyzstan, understanding how seeds are used to communicate with ancestors in Zimbabwe, discovering the world’s largest seed in the Seychelles, or exploring the structure and ways seeds disperse through the camera’s lens.

DIALOGUES

Our dialogues offer a range of ideas and different perspectives, including climate change activism in Africa, how death should be celebrated as a part of the food cycle, the water element, bringing climate change to our doorstep, the ecosystems that thrive above our heads, and drawing a garden in motion.

Product Dimensions: 240mm x 170mm

Pages: 128

With ideas about how to avoid the crisis proliferating, in issue 4 we look at what change means in environmentalism.

 We talk to people around the world about how the landscapes they know have evolved in the last decades, learn about different ways to discuss green processes, and consider suggestions of how to revolutionise our systems. 

In issue 3 of IFLA!, our writers and illustrators called for profound change. Now we begin to ask what that change, in all its complexity, might look like.

​To protect our environment, we must learn from all corners, disciplines and backgrounds. Luckily, from theatre to pollution, and architecture to waste, at IFLA! we’ve found no shortage of ideas.

Following a tumultuous 2018 for climate action, at IFLA! we've been thinking about profound change.

 In issue 2 we consider how best to prioritise Indigenous voices, redesign design questions and take a look at a long history of attempts to change the weather. We look at peat bogs and algae; cosmetics and tungsten bulbs, and untangle a few more strands of humanity's greatest challenge.