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.

Rachel Carson's images of a 'Silent Spring' bereft of birdsong – robbed by harmful pesticides – are known for launching the Western environmental movement as we know it. In this piece, Rowan Jaines revisits Carson's 1962 classic, arguing that the book's success, and the industry backlash it provoked, can be credited to Carson's powerful synthesis of traditionally artistic and scientific practice – a synthesis that we might still learn from today.

The plant lives of Aotearoa (and the myriad meanings they embody) have long been threatened by Western colonists, facilitated by a belief that an ecosystem’s importance is defined by what it offers humans. Hana Pera Aoake describes a very different Māori worldview – one that emphasises the deep, non-linear interconnections between the people and their plant-relatives, and that continues to resist and flourish in the face of eco-cultural imperialism. Edited by Jackson Howarth.