In this issue of Earth First!, Howie Wolke debates the negative consequences of roadbuilding on the public lands. Captain Paul Watson gives an update about the butchering of whales on Iceland, Laura Gold sorts out the concept of Wilderness, and the Earth First!ers of the LA area call for a boycott of the Los Angeles Zoo.

In this Springs article, environmental historian Donald Worster delves into the material events behind cultural imaginaries in China, while asking for an ecological civilization. “Can humans learn, by subordinating their appetites to their brains, how to live on this earth intelligently and ethically?”

In this article, historian Kate Brown considers the connections between plants, biospheres, and the politics of breathing. “What can the history of controlled environments tell us,” she asks, “about how we understand the planet today?”

Rita Brara and María Valeria Berros argue for the importance of a legal recognition of rivers. “What we want for rivers now is an institution that can be entrusted with their environmental protection on a global scale.”