When animal and plant life reclaim urban spaces in movies and TV series, humans have usually made a big, big, big, mistake. Think re-greened cities in walker (and zombie-adjacent) franchises The Walking Dead and The Last of Us, coveted oases glimpsed at in the water-starved world of  Mad Max, or the lush, ethereal jungle that emerges from an unexplained flood in the Oscar-winning animated feature Flow, an event that leads a singular cat on an extraordinary journey.

But regeneration can happen in the here and now without needing a catastrophe like the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion to precede it. Shipwrecks have become the centres for new underwater ecosystems, abandoned sites have given way to wildlife sanctuaries, and evacuated lands have been returned to their true roots.

In the documentary Wilding, based on conservationist Isabella Tree’s 2018 book of the same name, Tree and her husband, Charlie Burrell, propose something a bit more proactive: instead of waiting for tragedy, why not work alongside nature to create productive, nurturing landscapes? 

He may have been born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, but the world would come to know the humble, caring cleric as Pope Francis, the first Latin American and first Jesuit to ascend to the papacy. Growing up in Buenos Aires, Francis had a fondness for tango and basketball until, at 17 years old, he felt called to the priesthood. He would spend the rest of his life in devotion and service to the 1.4 billion Catholics around the world, giving voice to the poor and disenfranchised. In this commemorative issue, Newsweek traces Pope Francis' remarkable life from his childhood in Argentina, where he was raised by Italian immigrant parents who had escaped the tyranny of Mussolini, to his becoming the first Pope to take the name Francis, and to his death at age 88. With over 115 photos and full coverage of his funeral, Newsweek celebrates the legacy of Pope Francis as a reformer and passionate advocate for the dignity of all lives.