⚠️EXTENDED DEADLINE⚠️

📷 Open Call for Photo Essay

“The Impact of Conflicts on Environment and Agriculture”

Your work should showcase how conflicts disrupt ecosystems, degrade farmlan, and alter landscapes, highlighting both the resilience of nature and the communities that depend on it.

For submissions, please send 8-15 photos (with captions) and a text that explores the profound effects of conflicts on the environment and agriculture to:

📬 submissions@turningpointmag.org

The selected photo essay will be featured in our upcoming issue.

A recent protest in Italy saw over 1,000 demonstrators blocking the Port of Genoa, a key transit point for armaments, to show solidarity with the Palestinian people and protest the genocide carried out by Israel. The protest aimed to highlight the ethical implications of Italy's involvement in the arms trade, specifically condemning the shipment of heavy weapons that contribute to the ongoing conflict in Palestine. Activists called for greater scrutiny and an end to the facilitation of military equipment transfers to regions experiencing severe humanitarian crises.

For an in-depth look at the military technologies used by Israel, read the article by Maria Edgarda Marcucci on Turning Point.

⚠️ LAST DAY ⚠️

📷 Open Call for Photo Essay

“The Impact of Conflicts on Environment and Agriculture”

Your work should showcase how conflicts disrupt ecosystems, degrade farmlan, and alter landscapes, highlighting both the resilience of nature and the communities that depend on it.

For submissions, please send 8-15 photos (with captions) and a text that explores the profound effects of conflicts on the environment and agriculture to:

📬 submissions@turningpointmag.org

The selected photo essay will be featured in our upcoming issue.

"The year 2023 was the hottest on record. The rising frequency of floods, heatwaves, wildfires, hurricanes and countless other natural disasters is breaking down the distinction between domestic and foreign politics—with questions of responsibility and accountability reverberating far beyond national borders.

Policies around national security have come to encompass an ever-growing set of climate-related phenomena: from crisis management and disaster aid to securing strategic resources such as critical green transition minerals.

At the same time, new border walls are erected and stricter controls are implemented as states try to confine the inherently transnational impact of environmental threats and wars—most notably global migration. Climate change alone is estimated to displace up to 1 billion people in the coming three decades, while armed conflicts is seen as the second main driver of involuntary migration."

✍🏽 Turning Point
📷 Gaelle Girbes

Read the full editorial on Turning Point.

"Throughout modern history, militaries have played an important role in fomenting the climate crisis. Militaries are responsible for about 5.5% of global carbon emissions, or double that of commercial air travel. Militaries generally comprise the majority of any government’s direct emissions.

Global military spending hit US$2.4 trillion last year, a figure that could fill gaps in much-needed adaptation and mitigation finance to a significant extent—especially in Global South countries that have contributed the least to climate change but will suffer its worst impacts. Not to mention the looming threats of violence posed by contemporary imperial powers this spending represents—NATO military spending in particular has ballooned since 2014 with serious budgetary and climate ramifications."

✍🏽 Patrick Bigger
📷 Gaelle Girbes

Read the full article on Turning Point.

"Agriculture and animal husbandry form the backbone of the Northeastern Syrian economy and, thus, also its vulnerable underbelly. Before the civil war, the region’s 750,000 hectares of cultivated land produced grains for the whole of Syria. This year, the UN estimates that 16.7 million Syrians, nearly 75% of the population, will need humanitarian aid as agricultural output has halved during the past decade. The Syrian Pound’s hyperinflation has further aggravated this humanitarian crisis, with food prices seeing a 116% increase just last year."

✍🏽 Henri Sulku
📷 Syrians For Truth and Justice

Read the full article on Turning Point.

"Despite the fog of war, it is certain that the environmental destruction of Gaza as a result of the current war is killing people beyond direct hostilities, and will continue to do so. In each armed conflict the details are different, but if we can learn anything from previous conflicts, even by the most conservative interpretations, the true number of deaths will be significantly higher than what is currently reported by local and international authorities."

✍🏽 Patrick Hilsman
📷 Rizek Abdel Jawad

Read the full article on Turning Point.

"As more evidence emerges of genocide in Gaza, it is clear that we have only just begun to comprehend the human cost of what has been done so far. As the United States and Israel push back against international calls for a ceasefire and comprehensive hostage deal, it is clear that the destruction of human lives will not stop with the war.

The destruction of Gaza’s ecosystem has set into motion a series of events that will inevitably kill civilians and poison the environment beyond the war. International aid organizations are coping with an increasing death count and diminishing prospects for salvation. Projects intended to bring hope and sustainability to the besieged population are now spewing toxins into the environment. The rescue of Gaza’s civilians and environment can only begin if the world agrees to a truly permanent ceasefire."

✍🏽 Patrick Hilsman

Read the full article on Turning Point.

"Since the escalation of conflict in 2013 and 2014, South Sudan has faced a significant rise in the number of Internally Displaced People (IDPs). Over the past six years, this number has continued to grow due to the climate crisis and extreme flooding in areas where people had resettled or were still displaced from the 2014 conflict. Many of these individuals could not return to their original villages for various reasons, including destruction of homes, looted properties, fear of further violence, or illness."

✍🏽 📷 Christina Simons

Check out the new photo essay on Turning Point.

The Politics of Force: Militarized Care and Disaster Recovery in Acapulco

"Under the auspices of security and humanitarian aid, military-led efforts to rebuild and fortify Acapulco’s affluent areas have been slow and entangled, focusing on “rich” Acapulco while marginalizing the needs of poorer families and neighborhoods. Weil’s meditation on the dehumanizing power of force can be seen in the aftermath of disasters and in the experiences of military personnel, where individuals may feel powerless and reduced to their basic physical needs."

✍🏽 Beki McElvain
📷 Miguel Dimayuga

Read the full article on Turning Point.

Housing Emergency

"In recent years, the market has seen a sharp increase, with rents rising by up to 120% and property prices by 47% in some cases. No significant measures were taken to stop this increase, with authorities bowing to speculation and market liberalism. Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine have only worsened the situation: the number of homeless has increased by up to 70%. According to Eurostat, 9.6 million full-time workers aged 25-34 still live at home with their parents; this adds up to one in five workers of that age group. Such data is quite shocking, and when analyzed in the context of inflation and stagnant salaries, it is easy to understand how difficult the situation is. People can’t afford to live in many European cities."

✍🏽 Turning Point
📷 Daniele Napolitano

Read our new editorial on Turning Point.

Exarcheia Under Siege: The Battle Against Gentrification in Athens

"Gentrification is always violent, but the violence of Exarcheia’s transformation is ideologically and politically charged. It directly and overtly targets anarchists and the radical left and strikes at all levels. It strikes at those who stand against government policies, as it attempts to push them out of spaces in which they can meet, gather and express themselves. For passers-by, gentrification is no bargain, as the building sites are taking their toll on pedestrian routes, pavements and public spaces in general. Gentrification is hitting residents hard, sometimes forcing them to leave their homes because of soaring rents."

✍🏽 Eva Betavatzi
📷 Nicolas Vigier

Read the full article on Turning Point.

The Cost of Popularity: Lisbon’s Housing Crisis

"The housing crisis has been decades in the making, with roots deep in Portugal's history, therefore it is difficult to pinpoint an exact starting point. However, between 2012–2022 real estate prices grew 120% while salaries stayed the same. What happened?"

✍🏽 Sofia Craveiro
📷 Ma‌rio Martins

Read the full article on Turning Point.

“Almost Impossible for Locals to Live”: Barcelonians Fight Against Touristification

"Without a vision for the city that aims to ensure not only greater availability of houses but also a decrease in prices and individual interests, the city will remain difficult to inhabit—except for those with abundant finances."

✍🏽 Andrea Cegna
📷 David Schalliol

Read the full article on Turning Point.

A European Coalition Urges to Take Action Against the Housing Crisis

"There is only one path against incessant dispossession: regrouping and working together to maintain or to gain housing justice."

✍🏽 George Zamfir
📷 An interactive map showing Housing Action Days 2024 activities across Europe, created by the European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and to the City. Map tiles CC BY 3.0 CartoDB; map data © OpenStreetMap contributors under ODbL.

Read the full article on Turning Point.

Alternatives Are a Matter of Survival

"As more people live outside the prescribed remedies society has offered, hope for the safety and health of humanity lies increasingly in the hands of people who have taken initiative."

✍🏽 Turning Point
📷 Maryam Ashrafi

Read the new editorial on Turning Point.

Breaking a rule to create a chance: The story of Quarticciolo Ribelle

"Quarticciolo as a neglected suburb shares the stories of many other peripheries in Italy, but what Quarticciolo Ribelle is writing is a possible alternative plot, a different story."

✍🏽 Maria Edgarda Marcucci
📷 Daniele Napolitano

Read the full article on Turning Point.

Building Alternative Universities in the Midst of War and Revolution

"Three universities, several higher education institutions, and academies are now operating in northeast Syria. However, the real challenge is not simply to build schools and universities, but to develop an entirely new educational system with a philosophy based on new sociological principles."

✍🏽 Luqman Guldivê
📷 Sîmav Ehmed Heyder

Read the full article on Turning Point.

Living in a place with more green spaces puts you at lower risk of heat death.

— Elisa Gallo, epidemiologist.

This week's article will explore urban strategies for adapting to climate change. We will delve into how cities are finding alternatives to the current, ecologically devastating forms of urbanization.

In the face of a growing climate crisis, cities are seeking solutions to mitigate the impacts of extreme heat and improve quality of life.
We will explore how the creation of green spaces and urban ecology can play a crucial role in making metropolitan areas more sustainable.

Coming this Wednesday on Turning Point.

Urban Landscapes in the 21st Century: Can Eco-Cities Tackle Climate Change and Pollution?

"Recent advances in ecological engineering have brought new life to the old debate on whether a city can truly be “green,” or if urban greenery merely veils an inherently unsustainable organization of modern metropolitan life."

✍️🏽 Henri Sulku
📷©detstheway

Read the full article on Turning Point.

The Fog of War

"To stand for peace is to stand against bombing, shelling, and invasions, but also—and perhaps more importantly—against the international complicity that enables them."

✍🏽 Turning Point
📷 Diego Ibarra Sanchez

Read the full editorial on Turning Point.