Among the most widely circulated photographs of all time is one snapped by astronauts aboard the Apollo 17 spacecraft, just hours after its launch toward the moon, in December 1972. This image, often referred to as the “Blue Marble,” … Continue reading “Earth Seeing”
An analysis of postcolonial ecologies requires engaging with the everyday dynamics of ruination and resistance.
Thursday, December 1 This session was organized by groundWork, a South African environmental justice and service organization. The panel began with a presentation by Mithica, a worker with the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance, a coalition of African civil … Continue reading “groundWork – building social movements in and beyond Durban”
Wednesday, November 30 Just came from an amazing event of the South African rural women’s movements. There were nominal speakers, but the real focus of the event were the groups of women who trooped in, dressed in traditional clothing, singing … Continue reading “Capitalism is Organized (Environmental) Crime”
Wednesday, November 17 COP17 — the 17th annual Conference of Parties, aka the Conference of Polluters — began on Monday in Durban, South Africa. The Kyoto Protocol, to which most attendee nations (but not the U.S.) are signatories, is widely … Continue reading “Climate Justice Durban – Arrival”
Rob Nixon’s Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor was published this spring by Harvard University Press. Nixon’s work has been crucial to articulating the conjunction — as well as the fault lines — between postcolonial studies and ecocriticism. … Continue reading “Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor: An Interview with Rob Nixon”
A year and several months ago, I returned to New York from the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia. While at the conference, I live blogged events in the many different forums of the conference, and also posted short analytical essays chronicling my reaction to the various interventions unfolding at the conference. Social Text online now presents these different pieces as a unified dossier in order to preserve this important historical moment.
We arrive in the stadium of the University of Univalle at 8am, walking through a gauntlet of military police, naval police, army officers, cobra special SWAT troops, etc. The bleachers are sparsely populated by Bolivians with their union banners hanging … Continue reading “Inaugural Ceremony for the Conference”
James Hansen: This is a time pregnant with danger. This danger exists because of a large gap between what the science has made clear and what the public realizes.It has become clear from the science that we are in a … Continue reading “The Science of Climate Change Panel”
Last Saturday was a remarkable day of NYC-based, globe-spanning eco-activism. The day began with a trip up to the South Bronx, where friends of mine were involved in various local environmental justice initiatives. The organization Sustainable South Bronx sponsored a … Continue reading “Resources of Hope”
