RADICAL ECOLOGY

Radical Ecology is an artist-led studio based in Dartington, South Devon, working at the intersection of racial justice and environmental action. We collaborate with artists, researchers, communities and campaigners to explore the cultural, historical and systemic roots of climate breakdown and racial harm — and to imagine just, collective futures.

Our work spans:

Art, performance, film and publishing
Climate science and environmental research
Heritage and land conservation
Refugee and asylum seeker support
Policy, education and social justice organising

Our team works part-time from our shared studio at Webbers Yard in Dartington, with projects and partnerships that reach across the UK and internationally.

Explore our programme and research strands.
Dive into our theory of change.
Read more about our story so far.

Core Team

Alternative description text goes here Ashish Ghadiali

Ashish Ghadiali is Radical Ecology’s Founder/Director. He explores the intersections of racial justice, art and ecology through text, film, activism and performance. Moving image works include the film installations Can you tell the time of a running river? (2024), Invasion Ecology (2024), Planetary Imagination (2023) and the feature documentary, The Confession (2016). Performance works include Where do we go when we realise that we can’t go back to nature? (2024) and A Silent Walk (2023). Curatorial credits include the exhibition Against Apartheid (2023) at KARST and public programmes including Migrant Futurism (2023) at the Southbank Centre, Equilibrium (2022) at Serpentine and Sensing the Planet (2021) at Dartington Hall. He was a co-author of the paper, Quantifying the Human Cost of Global Warming (2023) for Nature Sustainability and is a frequent contributor on art, literature and the environment for the Guardian and The Observer. In 2021, he led on political strategy for the COP26 civil society coalition and was activist-in-residence at UCL Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the study of racism and racialisation. He is currently working on a book, Dart River, for Hutchinson Heinemann. Through it, he explores the psychogeographies of empire in the corner of rural South-West England where he lives.

Alternative description text goes here Emily Churchill Zaraa

Emily Churchill Zaraa is Head of Emergent Strategy at Radical Ecology. She is a Birmingham-based organiser and researcher whose practice seeks to centre the perspectives and wisdom of those most impacted by oppressive systems. Alongside her role with Radical Ecology, she is Senior Administrator at Retrofit Balsall Heath, a resident-led movement for climate transition in the neighbourhood where she grew up. Emily is also freelance researcher with Spectra, a radically inclusive neurodivergent and learning disability arts organisation, and artistic collaborator with Palestinian artist Basel Zaraa, who shares experiences of exile and war through interactive, multi-sensory installations. Her previous roles include Writer, Researcher and Organiser with CIVIC SQUARE, Community Engagement Producer with Midlands Arts Centre and Refugee Week UK Coordinator with Counterpoints Arts. Emily is a mum of two and, after a long pause, has recently returned to songwriting.

Alternative description text goes here Iman Datoo

Iman Datoo is Head of Research and Community at Radical Ecology, where she brings a longstanding commitment to ecological justice and interdisciplinary practice. She has been part of Radical Ecology’s journey from the beginning—co-facilitating Equilibrium at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, contributing as an artist to Against Apartheid and Invasion Ecology, and crafting our low-carbon website. Most recently, she led the 100 Year Care Plan (2025), commissioned by Natural England. Her work spans art, systems and speculative ecologies, using botany and cartography to explore the relationships between plants, soils and people. Imagination is central to her approach, guiding investigations into more-than-human agency and futures beyond extractivism. Recent projects include Movement is Natural (2024), Kinnomic Botany (2020-22) and Soil-Brain, Gut-Brain (2023). In this role, Iman is overseeing the evolution of Radical Ecology’s research questions and networks, while also pursuing a LAHP-AHRC-funded PhD between UCL’s Slade School of Fine Art and the Bartlett School of Architecture.

Alternative description text goes here Megan Roberts

Megan Roberts is our Creative Engagement Lead. Meg is a filmmaker and artist whose practice is rooted in collaboration and co-design. Through participatory filmmaking, she amplifies marginalised voices and explores urgent social and environmental issues in partnership with communities, researchers, and advocacy organisations. She has worked with groups including Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support, Say No to Liquified Natural Gas (LNG), The Routes to Wellness Project, Cornwall Climate Care, and 99p Films. Her recent three-screen film, In Conversation with Plymouth Hoe, created for The Box’s Re-Imagining the Film Archives programme, exemplifies her approach. Developed in response to the anti-immigration unrest of 2024, the piece layers archival footage with contemporary interviews to explore how public space in Plymouth is shaped and reclaimed through power, class, civic joy, and shared memory. Megan’s practice centres civic joy as a tool for resilience, exploring spaces where collective care and resistance thrive. Her current commission for Plymouth Culture’s Sea for Yourself programme marks a shift into installation-based, co-created works that place communities at the heart of both process and outcome. She joins Radical Ecology to develop a film unit, furthering community exploration of the intersections between art, ecology, and social change - using film to challenge divisive narratives and support more inclusive, hopeful futures.

Alternative description text goes here Megan Wilson-De La Mare

Megan Wilson-De La Mare is our Studio and Operations Manager. Her photographic background and education, as well as engagement with participatory practices, informs her approach to developing a community-centred programme. Her previous experience spans operations and arts administration, education, photography, and community engagement. Her exploration into participatory practice began during her residency with Knowle West Media Centre and project Salt of the Earth in 2018, which led her to form deep local relationships and explore the history through personal stories and archival material. Her writing similarly has explored themes of collaborative practice, play therapy, and performance photography, and from 2020-2023 she contributed to Loupe magazine as Online Editor.

Advisory Board

Alternative description text goes here Caroline Mamanyima Crawford

Caroline Mamanyima Crawford (Chair, Operations Sub-Committee) is a Gambian-Scottish Climate, Migration, and Gender Justice Strategist. Working across programmes, partnerships and policy, she brings an anti-racist, decolonial lens to climate and social impact work. Shaped by a life lived across Africa, she is passionate about centering African voices and lived realities in climate justice and the collective work of systems change.

Alternative description text goes here Christo Kefalas

Christo Kefalas (Chair, Art and Innovation Sub-Committee) is Senior Curator of Global & Inclusive Histories at the National Trust, specialising in global collections, colonial histories and ethical research. With experience at the British Museum, Great North Museum: Hancock and the Horniman, she champions community-led practice and the intersections of environmental and social justice in heritage.

Alternative description text goes here Adel Ramdani

Adel Ramdani (Chair, Global Strategy Sub-Committee) holds dual heritage from Algeria and Belgium and is currently based in Geneva. He serves as Programme Associate in Climate Philanthropy at the Oak Foundation. Beyond his role at Oak, Adel is the Director of the European Chapter of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE) in Brussels and sits on the Advisory Board of the Youth Climate Collaborate (YCC). He is also the co-founder of Next Generation Environmental Philanthropy, an initiative dedicated to advancing justice within the philanthropic sector. In 2020, Adel earned a Master’s degree in Social Sciences through a joint program at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and the University of Freiburg in Germany.

Alternative description text goes here Yasmin Ahammad

Yasmin Ahammad is the CEO of Impatience Earth, a non-profit philanthropy consultancy that educates, challenges, and inspires wealth holders to take bolder action on the climate emergency. In this capacity, she has helped high-net worth individuals and philanthropic foundations to increase the quantity and impact of their climate funding by putting justice and equity at the centre of their grantmaking.

Alternative description text goes here Yo-En Chin

Yo-En Chin spends her time organising with Green Lions, an ESEA climate justice group, and UK Youth Climate Coalition. With a background in research and innovation, she is currently working at Nesta, as part of the A Sustainable Future mission. She’s also an avid hiker who loves Malaysian food.

Alternative description text goes here Alexander Colling

Alexander Colling currently manages people and operations in Europe for the global environmental justice movement Break Free From Plastic. His work is informed by 17 years in the third sector, in roles spanning frontline homelessness work, grants, events, people, culture and governance.

Alternative description text goes here Darlene Currie

Darlene Currie brings extensive experience as a multidisciplinary senior adviser to philanthropic investors & social innovation ventures - having also held foundation & corporate responsibility leadership roles. She is an impact fund-founder, non-executive director of climate data science/finance & clean energy/water nonprofits and a global citizen-climate action design team member.

Alternative description text goes here Alyssa Fischer

For the past 15 years, Alyssa Fischer has worked to put communities and equity at the heart of the climate conversation. She currently leads JNCC’s International Advice Team, connecting conservation science with social and economic priorities in the UK and overseas. Previously, Alyssa led interdisciplinary urban climate work at UN Environment, IEA, and the World Resources Institute.

Alternative description text goes here Emmy Fu

Emmy Fu is interested in how a diversity of tools—including arts and cultural production—can strengthen the well-being of lives and land. Based in Germany, they are a community organizer who has worked across institutions and communities to build the collective power of social movements. She currently co-leads Safe Passage Fund, an intermediary fund resourcing migrant justice across Europe, and mentors in the University of Oxford’s Graduate Horizons Program.

Alternative description text goes here Karim Harris

Karim Harris is a Climate and intersectionality expert focussing on strategic communications and advocacy and is based in Brussels. She was Associate Director for climate in the European programme of Open Society Foundations for five years and spent 10 years at Climate Action Network Europe leaving as Deputy Director. Prior to OSF, she spent 5 years working on strategic organisational development, building teams to work on climate and has resumed this consultancy since June 2025 to present day. Karim has led organisations and worked in policy, strategy, and team development. She believes in collaboration and cooperation across diverse sectors and fields to solve the problems we face in our climate and our world.

Alternative description text goes here Aleithia Low

Aleithia Low currently supports community-led climate solutions at Waverley Street Foundation. She brings close to a decade of experience in climate, anti-human trafficking, peacebuilding, agricultural development and communications in Southeast Asia and South America. She is committed to justice and healing for more-than-human communities affected by the impacts of climate change, development, and conflict.

Alternative description text goes here Sean Ketteringham

Sean Ketteringham is a curator and cultural historian currently based at the Henry Moore Institute and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre. His book, Architectures of Identity: Imperial Decline and the Homes of English Modernism, is forthcoming with Oxford University Press.

Alternative description text goes here John McMahon

John McMahon is a leading expert on creative education and training, youth governance, and arts in health. Currently Director of Skills, Volunteering & Wellbeing at Bradford 2025, alongside previous roles at Arts Council England, the RSA, Tate and elsewhere. John is also a documentary film producer and - more recently - a folk singer.

Alternative description text goes here Hunter Smith

Hunter Smith is an environmental communications professional with a commitment to accelerating global climate action that meaningfully addresses the triple planetary crisis while centring climate justice at every possible juncture. Through her work at global environmental communications agency Browning Environmental Communications, Hunter has supported multilateral organisations, international philanthropies and academic institutions to clearly define and articulate their niche in the increasingly saturated climate space, while maintaining their authentic voice and inspiring organic conversation.

Alternative description text goes here Caroline Ward

Caroline Ward is a designer, researcher and funder with over 20 years of cross-sector experience spanning global health, culture and equity. As Senior Manager at Wellcome, she leads the Community Engagement team’s Climate & Health portfolio. Prior roles include Senior Designer at BBC and Senior Researcher at RCA focused on technology R&D and inclusive practice, and she maintains a filmmaking and art practice through fellowships with INIVA, Factory International and Ada Lovelace Institute. She is pursuing a PhD in Architecture at RCA, focused on futures and climate change. Caroline is an advisory member of the Barbican Access and Inclusive Design Advisory Group.

Catalyst Circle

Alternative description text goes here Labib Tazone Utshab (Bangladesh)

Labib Tazone Utshab is a seasoned development professional with extensive experience leading strategic visions and overseeing the implementation of large-scale programs. His expertise lies in bridging the gap between policy and practice, with a specific focus on disaster management, human security, and sustainable development. Currently leading operations as a Country Director, Labib excels at navigating the complexities of the development landscape to deliver community-centric results. Prior to his current leadership role, Labib honed his managerial expertise across a wide spectrum of international NGOs and foundations, including Street Child, C3NTRE, REM Associates, and the Prime Bank Foundation. He is deeply committed to fostering innovation and resilience within the organizations he leads.

Alternative description text goes here Pallavi Varma-Patil (India)

Pallavi Varma Patil is co-founder of Living Utopias, an educational initiative exploring radical alternatives to industrialism through the primary pedagogy of oral storytelling. For over a decade, she has taught and facilitated learning around the civilisational ideas of Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, and contemporary alternatives to mainstream development and material growth, across universities and community spaces. Pallavi currently leads ATREE’s school level environment education initiative, The SNAIL Network, supporting hands-on, place-based ecological education across diverse ecosystems in India.

Alternative description text goes here Oscar Umwanzisiwemuremyi (Rwanda)

Oscar Umwanzisiwemuremyi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Chemistry from the University of Rwanda, Post-Diploma in Wastewater and Drinking Water Treatment from the University of Genoa in Italy, and Master of Science in Natural Resource and Environmental Management from IPB University in Indonesia. He is serving as a Museum Management Specialist at the Environmental Museum.

Alternative description text goes here Bashir Mubiru (Uganda)

Bashir Mubiru leads the Africa Office and Energy Transition Research and Campaigns at PACS, advancing coal-free, renewable energy, and sustainability solutions across Africa. He unites communities, policymakers, and innovators with people-centered approaches, transforming ambition into action and fostering just, inclusive, and resilient clean energy futures.

Alternative description text goes here Emmanuel Kodwo Sackey (Ghana)

Emmanuel Kodwo Sackey is a private-sector development, sustainability, and governance leader advancing climate resilience, responsible sourcing, and ESG-related activities across Africa. He drives impact through strategic partnerships, and evidence-based programmes. He is currently a PhD student in Climate Change and Sustainable Development at the University of Ghana.

Alternative description text goes here Devina Shah (Portugal)

Devina Shah works at the intersection of community empowerment, climate policy and social justice. Currently with ECOLISE, she supports EU advocacy that centres grassroots action. As co-founder of Climate Circle Lisbon and with eight years’ experience across policy, finance, and decarbonisation, Devina’s focus is on strengthening community-led, justice-based climate transitions.

Alternative description text goes here Ian Burton (UK)

Ian Burton is a PhD student at the University of Exeter as part of the UKRI Environmental Intelligence CDT. His transdisciplinary research focuses on energy-economy modelling, with a specific interest in uncertainty around system transitions, uncertainty quantification in climate policy modelling and the politics of knowledge production in transitions research.

Alternative description text goes here Vivekan Jeyagaran (Canada)

Vivekan Jeyagaran is a Sri Lanka-born Tamil-Canadian, guided by a north star of just, regenerative, and equitable socio-ecological systems. Everything he does is informed by interdisciplinary lived, learned, and professional perspectives; from work in poverty reduction, agroforestry, forestry to his poetry which represents his hopes and dreams.

Alternative description text goes here Tristan Partridge (USA)

Tristan Partridge is co-founder of the CREW Center for Restorative Environmental Work at the University of California, Santa Barbara (USA). Drawing on collaborative ethnography and visual methods, Tristan’s books include Mingas+Solidarity (2024), Energy and Environmental Justice (2022), Burning Diagrams in Anthropology (2024), and the co-edited volume Demanding A Radical Constitution (2025).

Alternative description text goes here Lara Muntaser (Brazil)

Lara Muntaser is a communications specialist and writer focusing on social impact, climate justice, gender justice, and innovative democracy. She has worked across Latin America producing research, advocacy content, and multilingual narratives that connect communities, policy actors, and global audiences.

Alternative description text goes here Maria/Rosario Montero (Chile)

Maria/Rosario Montero is a feminist research-artist. Her work examines how power structures shape representations and perceptions of nature, landscape, identity, and territory. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies (Goldsmiths, UK), an MA in Digital Anthropology (UCL, UK) and an MFA (University of Chile). Currently, she is a member of the art collective Agencia de Borde, works as the coordinator of the Artistic Research Unit at the Faculty of Arts, Universidad Finis Terrae, and lives in Chile.

Partners

About This Website

This website aims to archive, reflect, and build momentum for Radical Ecology’s cultural programs while minimising the energy used to access our online content. Designed and developed by artist Iman Datoo, this two-year exploration combines her world-building and archival practice with research and training in low-carbon principles and static site development. The result is an infrastructure driven by encounter, aligning with the values of an organisation committed to expanding climate justice activities and deepening global networks of science, art and activism.

In our research into low-carbon web design, we learned that if the internet were a nation, it would rank as the fourth-largest polluter (Source: Sustainable Web Manifesto) in the world. Additionally, the average size of a web page has doubled over the past 10 years (Source: HTTP Archive). As the internet becomes more efficient, our reliance on it grows, especially since there are no physical constraints to its energy use. High-resolution images, video streaming, and interactive applications no longer require individual devices to store extensive data; instead, this data is transmitted to and from data centres.

To reduce energy use, we implemented a static site where every page is pre-built once, rather than being generated dynamically with each visit. This eliminates the need for dedicated servers. We use system typefaces, which load fonts from the user’s operating system, removing the need for custom fonts. Additionally, we use an image compression technique called dithering throughout the website, which uses fewer colours and patterns of pixels to simulate gradients, resulting in smaller, more efficient image files.

Initially, implementing a low-carbon website seemed like it would require trade-offs or sacrifices, particularly as Radical Ecology expands its online presence. However, we discovered that lower-carbon sites are higher performing, and the aesthetics of low-carbon elements — such as default fonts and dithered imagery — are visually captivating and so have become a part of Radical Ecology’s identity both online and offline.

The intention for redeveloping the site was always community-centred. The goal was to build and sustain a resilient and dynamic infrastructure that could allow networks to organically emerge. It has been important to create multiple access routes to view the same content, so different audiences can find the work accessible through language familiar to them. We believe that it is from this familiarity that newness can start to emerge. A tagging system creates links between projects, ideas, and strands of work, so visitors can explore and be led to projects and ideas different from those they might experience in their day to day.

For additional information about low-carbon websites, take a look at LowTechMagazine, Branch Magazine, and Lowwwcarbon.com, as well as the Green Web Library. These resources have greatly shaped our thinking and strategy for this project.

If you’d like to learn more about the project, please get in touch with Iman Datoo.