Is this email difficult to read? View in your web browser. >

News of the world environment

NEWSLETTER | APRIL 18, 2025

An Unbroken Tradition

WAIST DEEP IN WATER, Angelo Mortellaro is dwarfed by the towering papyrus plants that surround him. Graceful, yet sturdy, the stems stretch some five to six meters towards the sky, only for their lush foliage to drape back down towards the water like delicate firework explosions of strands and spikes.

Wading through the pond on his carefully-tended farm just outside the Sicilian town of Syracuse in Southern Italy, Mortellaro examines the plants with calm focus. Selecting those ready for harvest, he uses a small sickle with practiced ease as he cuts the mature plants near the base of the stem, collecting the reeds in a pile on the shore.

Mortellaro’s farm is designed as an oasis with a single water-access point that supplies the entire papyrus plantation. Home to many other plants that thrive in the Mediterranean environment — palm trees, crane flowers, willows, orange trees, prickly pear cacti, and sugar cane, to name a few — it is one of the last remaining papyrus farms in the region. And it is located just a few miles from the only wild papyrus refuge outside of Africa: the Ciane River.

In addition to growing papyrus, Mortellaro also practices the centuries-old craft of papyrus papermaking, an art once prevalent in the region. “My grandfather, Angelo La Mesa, was a papyrus farmer,” Mortellaro recalls. “He used to supply papyrus to local papermakers and I would spend a lot of time with him by the ponds where papyrus grew. I was fascinated by the artisans who used to come by my grandfather’s farm to pick up the stalks for papermaking.”

Today, some 40 years later, Mortellaro is among the few remaining artisans in the area who still make papyrus paper — but he faces growing threats to this endeavor. Pollution has been creeping into the Ciane, threatening the ecosystem there. At the same time, warmer, drier seasons have made it harder for papyrus plants to grow in Syracuse, both in the wild and on local farms.

Reporter Camilla Capasso’s feature about one of Europe’s last papyrus paper makers beautifully captures Angelo Mortellaro’s commitment to keep alive a species and a tradition that are quietly slipping away.

Photo: Adobe Stock

Let’s grow the movement! Share this email with an environmentally conscious friend or colleague (or copy this easy signup link).

SUGGESTED BROWSING

An Enduring Miracle

“In their daily travels along Earth’s magnetic fields, in the ways they scream to protect each other, in the ways they adapt and persist in the face of loss — of land, of clean air, of familiar flowers — [bees] show us what it means to survive…. This is the miracle that connects me to the bees, the thread that connects all of us wild creatures who are still breathing.” (Emergence)

Education Interrupted

With climate change fueling more frequent and severe disasters in the United States, the number of school days lost is growing, and so are the consequences. Black children are the hardest hit. (Capital B)

On Spiders and Self-Censorship

“When the spiders arrive in my dream, are they jolting me to risk vulnerability personally or creatively? I could stay inside collecting dust, or I could weave my web where others can see. If rejected, could I have the temerity to take the silk back, gobbling up my own words and trying again in some other corner?” (Longreads)

The Sky Isn’t Empty

“You named me after the clear, bright sky, but perhaps you forgot — the sky is not meant to be empty. It holds monsoons and sunsets, the breath of Guanyin and the scars of stars. It lets its shadows pass like ghosts, and still, it remains vast. Still, it remains.” (Hippocampus)

Did a thoughtful friend forward you our newsletter?
What a great friend! Sign up here.

Thanks for supporting Earth Island Journal, the independent media arm of the nonprofit Earth Island Institute. Reader donations to our Green Journalism Fund helps to cover the costs of our in-depth investigative reporting on environmental issues.