The Olive Network
We started thinking about the words that have perhaps been most neglected in recent times, and the need to return to them, and with resolve…in all their forms and resonances
Now gathering
44 voices connected
Lead story · Arts & Culture
Soil is a strong and resistant material. It is alive, it breathes, and it can recover. In this exhibition, soil is seen as both matter and metaphor. For some, soil is used as an artistic vehicle. For others, soil is a metaphor for the…
United Nations·7 February 2026
Our planet’s survival depends on the precious link with soil. Over 95 percent of our food comes from soils. Besides, they supply 15 of the 18 naturally occurring chemical elements essential to plants.
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS · 2 min read
Arts & Culture·15 June 2023
Food is at the heart of many of the world’s environmental, social and economic challenges. The issues – from soil health to public health and how to sustain a growing global population on finite resources – are complex and cannot be solved…
ON Network · 3 min read
Dwelling·31 July 2020
Imagine for a moment finding yourself in an abandoned town under the characteristic scorching sun of south-eastern Spain. You look up and are greeted by an arid environment, rocky soil, sparse vegetation and the very slight movement of…
ON Network · 2 min read
Education·28 August 2026
ON SOURCE: EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT Drought My first-ever presentation in primary school was about water. Back then I couldn't have known how much scarcer it would get before I even grew up, or that Europe's rivers are drying up and revealing 400-year-old warnings. Europe's rivers are warning us with
EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT · 1 min read
Climate·3 December 2025
In late 2017, Branko Milanovic wrote a blog post titled “ The illusion of degrowth in a poor and unequal world .” He penned it, he says, following a conversation he had with a proponent of degrowth, which was me. I wrote a response, which…
JASON HICKEL · 62 min read
Climate·23 November 2021
Nature’s stashes of climate-warming carbon are packed into a small percentage of Earth’s lands, finds a new study that pinpoints the ecosystems humanity must protect to avert a climate disaster.
ON Network · 7 min read
Climate·26 April 2026
“A silent cry about the climate crisis and a penetrating meditation on what life is. A film full of ideas that resonate deeply, told as a penetrating dream that shakes you awake.“
ON Network · 8 min read
Charities·16 March 2026
The hills surrounding Ahbohibary Kofay used to be filled with birdsong, says Lydia, who tends a small rice paddy outside the tiny village at the bottom of Bemolanga valley. That was until this area in Western Madagascar was laid to waste…
UNEP · 4 min read
Climate·16 November 2025
Earth, hessian, oil painting, poetry, voices of reason, ambient sound, scent and Arcadian landscape featuring an imposing structure, abstracted, broken and forgotten, based on the Berlin TV Tower, a symbol of unification.
ON Network · 3 min read
Climate·24 January 2022
©FAO/ Giulio Napolitano I A field with mid-moon dams used to save water in the coming rainy season in Burkina Faso.
ON Network · 6 min read
Climate·25 March 2021
The Loess plateau, in China, in 2007, left, and transformed into green valleys and productive farmland in 2019. Composite: Rex/Shutterstock/Xinhua/Alamy
ON Network · 18 min read
Climate·24 February 2021
WE HAVE repeatedly been pressing the snooze button on the issue, but covid-19 has provided perhaps the final wake-up call. “2021 must be the year to reconcile humanity with nature,” said António Guterres, the UN secretary general, in an…
ON Network · 13 min read
Arts & Culture·17 February 2025
Activist Alistair Alexander works on alternatives to a techno-authoritarian future - drawing inspiration from nature as a model for resilience.
THE CITIZENS ON SUBSTACK · 10 min read
Sustainability·1 April 2024
An Indian State converts its 6 million farmers to agroecology. Andhra Pradesh, a state in south east India, opens the way with the largest agro-ecological project in the world and a plan to feed all its population without use of…
ON Network · 1 min read
Climate·7 March 2024
David Boyd, UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, in Geneva, 5 March 2024. (Geneva Solutions/Michelle Langrand)
ON Network · 7 min read
Arts & Culture·21 November 2021
Project leader - German Florian Heinzelmann and Daliana Suryawinata, Co-founders
ON Network · 4 min read
Climate·15 February 2021
Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados (Photo: Timothy Sullivan/UNCTAD/Flickr )
ON Network · 7 min read
Sustainability·31 January 2021
Francisca Santana-Sagredo - Assistant lecturer, Universidad Católica de Chile
ON Network · 4 min read
Climate·18 January 2021
Sowing 100 seeds per second using drones may seem the stuff of science fiction, but it is already possible thanks to Dronecoria , a nonprofit project led by software engineer and interdisciplinary artist Lot Amorós (pictured above and…
ON Network · 3 min read
Sustainability·5 March 2020
As climate change shrinks Andean glaciers and brings water shortages, two Quechua sisters are building traditional ‘sacred’ reservoirs to harvest rain. You can see them from space (the lagoons, not the sisters).
ON Network · 5 min read
Economics·7 August 2019
A fracking rig in the US. Photograph: grandriver/Getty Images
ON Network · 5 min read
Science & Tech·5 May 2019
Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history — and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating, with grave impacts on people around the world now likely, warns a landmark new report from the Intergovernmental…
ON Network · 24 min read
Uncategorized·8 January 2019
Volunteers and students plant trees and check on the green wall throughout the year. Growing a ‘great wall’ of trees may stop the Kubuqi desert from spreading. (Moon Lai)
ON Network · 5 min read
Education·19 August 2026
ON SOURCE: FORUM FOR THE FUTURE The Polycrisis Calls for Polysolutions Written by Mareyah Bhatti from Forum for the Future. Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of attending the Food Planet Prize event in Båstad, Sweden. It was a great opportunity to celebrate ambitious food system work from acros
FORUM FOR THE FUTURE · 1 min read
Climate·10 June 2026
We, this people, on a small and lonely planet Traveling through casual space Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns To a destination where all signs tell us It is possible and imperative that we learn A brave and startling…
ON Network · 3 min read
United Nations·7 September 2024
Frosty morning in Pingjum Friesland, The Netherlands. Photo:WMO Photostream/Anna Zuidema
UNITED NATIONS · 4 min read
Climate·14 August 2024
When Irene Ojuok was a child, she would sit on the shores of Lake Victoria, near her hometown of Kisumu in Kenya, and reflect. ‘I had a sense of connection with nature,’ she recalls, ‘but I didn’t know you could get a job related to it.’
ON Network · 4 min read
Arts & Culture·6 November 2023
A member of the Kharia tribe in Odisha in Eastern India, Archana Soreng has dedicated her work to collect and document the practices of her community and other tribes in her region. On Wednesday, she spoke at the International Union for…
ON Network · 6 min read
Charities·3 November 2023
An inspiring beacon of humanitarian architecture has arrived to one of the poorest and most remote regions of Nepal — the new Bayalpata Hospital in Accham. Opened earlier this month to replace an aged and overrun clinic, the new hospital…
ON Network · 2 min read
Climate·5 January 2023
Four years of consecutive droughts have left families in southern Madagascar helpless and unable to feed themselves. Access to water remains difficult for the region of Androy. Photo: Safidy Andrianantenaina
ON Network · 15 min read
Climate·2 January 2022
As the world picks up speed in its race against climate change and moves forward from the 2021 Glasgow Climate Change Conference, let’s look at ten key global events in 2022 that will shape critical conversations and influence public…
ON Network · 9 min read
Charities·3 February 2021
Published on 03 February 2021, 14:54. Updated on 03 February 2021, 17:41.
ON Network · 2 min read
Sustainability·6 September 2020
Photo:WMO Photostream/Anna Zuidema - Frosty morning in Pingjum Friesland, The Netherlands. © Anna Zuidema/ WMO 2020 Calendar — 75 selected entries
ON Network · 3 min read
Climate·2 June 2020
More than 200 leading UK companies, investors and organisations have called for a green coronavirus recovery plan in an open letter to the UK Government.
ON Network · 2 min read
Dwelling·22 September 2019
What happens when the sensor-imbued city acquires the ability to see – almost as if it had eyes? Ahead of the 2019 Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB), titled 'Urban Interactions,' Archdaily is working with the curators of…
ON Network · 6 min read
Climate·31 July 2019
The efforts far surpassed the original target of planting 200 million seedlings in a day. Image: REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
ON Network · 2 min read
Education·4 July 2019
Redwood trees in Guerneville, California. Photograph: Gabrielle Lurie/The Guardian Research shows a trillion trees could be planted to capture huge amount of carbon dioxide Damian Carrington Environment editor @dpcarrington Thu 4 Jul 2019 19.00 BST Last modified on Fri 5 Jul 2019 00.50 BST Planting
1 min read
Charities·18 June 2019
Volunteers plant mangroves in Indonesia. Photograph: NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
ON Network · 9 min read
New Museum·8 January 2019
Kristina Bjureke, the chief botanist at the natural history museum in Oslo, examines a flowering plant with horticulturalist Tor Mjaaland. Bjureke wrote the plant management plan for city’s hay meadow campaign. Photograph: Jonathan Watts…
5 min read
Sustainability·8 January 2019
Spanning the entire width of Africa – nearly 8,000km from Dakar to Djibouti – a Great Green Wall is planned to defend land from the winds and sand of the Sahara. The band of trees is designed to halt the advance of the desert and create a…
ON Network · 2 min read
Feed · 28/05/2026
Through the production and application of Biochar we remove CO2 from the atmosphere, regenerate soil, increase yields and improve the quality of produce through added nutrient uptake while requiring less water to improve food security and help build more resilient communities.
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Feed · 24/01/2025
The soil, treasured for centuries, turns steep Yemini slopes into fertile and productive land. Coffee grown here was served at London’s first coffee house in 1652
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Feed · 24/08/2024
Designed for the Hope Village, this upcoming community center in Tanzania features a mindblowing 3D-printed design. Instead of being constructed from layered concrete like typical 3D-printed projects, the walls will be built using locally sourced soil. Designed by Hassell in collaboration with the Australian-based charity foundation One Heart, the community center is part of an
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