We live in the best of times in which we are able to learn about the world and its incredible diversity of cultures/beings/places/perspectives in a way never historically possible. We live in the worst of times when we are able to isolate ourselves completely from anything different from our own narrow view/conception of the world/reality. The choice is yours!
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Sunday, December 4, 2022
Chipolte/Habanero/Chiltepin sweet potato, three bean, chicken chili
2 medium-large sweet potato - diced (some may like it peeled, I eat skins of any veggie/fruit that I can - if like me, you want the skin intact, give it a quick brush when washing)
1 large yellow and red onion - diced small (white onion would also work)
8 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons chili powder
8 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground raspberry chipotle chile (doesn't have to be raspberry - I just have that kind)
a dozen grinds of pink himalayan salt (1/2 teaspoon of your choice of salt)
5 cups water (I substituted chicken broth for one cup of water - cause I had some in the fridge that needed to be used)
2 15-ounce cans black beans, 1 can of red kidney beans, 1 can of pinto beans - drained
2 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
Juiced 2 good size limes (or 4 teaspoons lime juice)
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 small habanero peppers (not necessary, I have a bush and decided to add them - scotch bonnets also work)
4 chiltepin peppers (not necessary, I have a bush and decided to add them)
two cups of chicken (roasted works good, but any kind would work)
Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add sweet potato and onion and cook, stirring often, until the onion is beginning to soften, about 4 minutes. Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, chipotle, habanero, chiltepin and salt and cook, stirring constantly, for 60 seconds. Add water/broth and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook until the sweet potato is tender, 12 - 14 minutes.
Chips might be a good condiment (I didn't have any on hand - I don't keep them in the house because I will eat them relentlessly )
Monday, November 28, 2022
Titane (France/Belgium: Julia Ducournau, 2021)
Titane (France/Belgium: Julia Ducournau, 2021: 108 mins)
Doherty, Caitlin. "Enter: Monsters." New Left Review (January 28, 2022) ["In an introduction to Frankenstein, written for a new edition of the work in 1831, Mary Shelley recounted a question she had been asked frequently in the thirteen years since the novel’s publication: how had she, ‘then a young girl, come to think and to dilate upon so very hideous an idea?’ A prying concern permeates the query, as if the monstrosity of the work’s content must indicate perverse conditions of production, some titillating mistreatment inflicted on the nineteen-year-old Shelley that could justify the creation of a new category of monster. For Julia Ducournau, director of the Palme D’Or-winning Titane (2021), the fallacy of the question would be obvious. No backstory is necessary: to be a young girl is monstrous inspiration enough."]
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Anthropology/Archaeology (Concepts and Theories)
---. "Famed Explorer Wade Davis — How to Become the Architect of Your Life, The Divine Leaf of Immortality, Rites of Passage, Voodoo Demystified, Optimism as the Purpose of Life, How to Be a Prolific Writer, Psychedelics, ..." The Tim Ferris Show #652 (January 27, 2023) ["Wade Davis (@wadedavisofficial, daviswade.com) is Professor of Anthropology and the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. Between 2000 and 2013, he served as Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. Named by the NGS as one of the Explorers for the Millennium, he has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet, and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity.” An ethnographer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker, Wade holds degrees in anthropology and biology and a PhD in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. Mostly through the Harvard Botanical Museum, he spent over three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, living among 15 indigenous groups while making some 6000 botanical collections. His work later took him to Haiti to investigate folk preparations implicated in the creation of zombies, an assignment that led to his writing The Serpent and the Rainbow, an international bestseller, later released by Universal as a motion picture. In recent years, his work has taken him to East Africa, Borneo, Nepal, Peru, Polynesia, Tibet, Mali, Benin, Togo, New Guinea, Australia, Colombia, Vanuatu, Mongolia, and the high Arctic of Nunavut and Greenland."]
---. "Indigenous cultures hold the keys to sustaining our planet. At COP15, will we finally be listening?" The Globe and Mail (December 10, 2022) ["For these societies, the land is alive, a dynamic force to be embraced and transformed by the human imagination. Reciprocity, as opposed to extraction, is the norm."]
---. "Notes from an author: Wade Davis on Colombia's Magdalena River." National Geographic (February 18, 2021) ["A journey along the Río Magdalena reveals a sacred tributary, the Río Claro — a repository of stories that paints a unique picture of the country."]
---. The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World. Anansi, 2009. ["Every culture is a unique answer to a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human and alive? In The Wayfinders, renowned anthropologist, winner of the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis leads us on a thrilling journey to celebrate the wisdom of the world's indigenous cultures. In Polynesia we set sail with navigators whose ancestors settled the Pacific ten centuries before Christ. In the Amazon we meet the descendants of a true lost civilization, the Peoples of the Anaconda. In the Andes we discover that the earth really is alive, while in Australia we experience Dreamtime, the all-embracing philosophy of the first humans to walk out of Africa. We then travel to Nepal, where we encounter a wisdom hero, a Bodhisattva, who emerges from forty-five years of Buddhist retreat and solitude. And finally we settle in Borneo, where the last rainforest nomads struggle to survive. Understanding the lessons of this journey will be our mission for the next century. For at risk is the human legacy -- a vast archive of knowledge and expertise, a catalogue of the imagination. Rediscovering a new appreciation for the diversity of the human spirit, as expressed by culture, is among the central challenges of our time."]
---. "The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World." (Posted on Youtube: June 20, 2013) ["Presenting at a plenary session of the 2013 Climate, Mind, & Behavior Symposium, anthropologist Wade Davis illuminates the need to embrace and celebrate the cultural and intellectual diversity that constitutes the totality of human experience, especially when considering fundamental questions of how we are to relate to our environment." Based on his book: The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World]Other fascinating themes touched on:What is the ‘Axial Age’, and what makes it so ‘axial’? The problems of dating the Homeric poems and the Rg Veda. The origins of the concept of the incorporeal in Greece and India. What money and private property have to do with the rise of the soul."]
Environment/Ecology/Geography/Animals (Concepts and Theories)
Adler-Bell, Sam. "The Story Behind the Green New Deal's Meteoric Rise." The New Republic (February 6, 2019)
All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace (United Kingdom: Adam Curtis, 2011) ["All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace is a series of films about how this culture itself has been colonised by the machines it has has built. The series explores and connects together some of the myriad ways in which the emergence of cybernetics—a mechanistic perspective of the natural world that particularly emerged in the 1970s along with emerging computer technologies—intersects with various historical events and visa-versa. The series variously details the interplay between the mechanistic perspective and the catastrophic consequences it has in the real world."]
"Anaheim: A Tale of Two Cities." Faultlines (December 12, 2012)
We then look at what the science of animal minds tells us about how much agency animals have, and envision what political and legal rights various animals would have in a zoopolis. From there, we discuss and debate whether we should be allowed to farm animals, control their reproduction, and have them work for us. Co-produced with Alec Opperman, guests include historian Gabriel Rosenberg, attorney Monica Miller, and animal minds researcher Professor Kristin Andrews."]
Annett, Anthony and Joshua Lipsky. "Ancient Rome Offers Lessons on the Importance of Sustainable Development." Inter Press Service (April 16, 2019)
Arnoff, Kate. "Trump Curbs the Circulation of Science." On the Media (May 31, 2019) ["Last weekend, The New York Times reported on a host of aggressive new obstacles placed by Trump administration to stymie the dissemination of federal climate research. One new rule prevents certain agencies from publishing findings after 2040. A second will omit the National Climate Assessment's "worst case scenario" projection. And finally, a panel of climate deniers will oversee and regulate the release of all federally funded climate research. In this interview, Bob speaks with Kate Aronoff, who recently wrote about these regulations for The Guardian. She explains how these alarming new restrictions fit into the Trump administration's larger pattern of limiting public access to the truth about the climate."]
Bailey, Buckey, Rob Bilot and Joe Kiger. "DuPont vs. the World: Chemical Giant Covered Up Health Risks of Teflon Contamination Across Globe." Democracy Now (January 23, 2018) ["“The Devil We Know,” that looks at how former DuPont employees, residents and lawyers took on the chemical giant to expose the danger of the chemical C8, found in Teflon and countless household products—from stain- and water-resistant apparel to microwave popcorn bags to dental floss. The chemical has now been linked to six diseases, including testicular and kidney cancers. We speak with Bucky Bailey, whose mother worked in the Teflon division of a DuPont plant in West Virginia while she was pregnant with him, and who was born with only one nostril and a deformed eye and has undergone more than 30 surgeries to fix the birth defects; Joe Kiger, lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against DuPont, and a school teacher in Parkersburg, West Virginia, who suffered from liver disease; and Rob Bilott, the attorney that brought DuPont to court."]
Bardenwerper, Will, Stan Brewer and Tucker Malarkey. "Wild Ecologies: So Go the Salmon, So Go the World." Fiction/Non/Fiction (November 19, 2019) ["In this episode, writers Tucker Malarkey and Will Bardenwerper, as well as rancher, rider, and member of the Oglala Sioux tribe Stan Brewer talk about their connections to the natural world. Malarkey talks about efforts to save wild salmon, their vital role in the ecosystem of the Pacific Northwest, and how relations between the US and Russia on this issue might provide insight on global climate change cooperation. Bardenwerper and Brewer, the first writer-source duo to appear on the show together, discuss Indian relay horse racing, and horses’ importance to the Lakota community."]
Barnard, Annie. "Climate Change is Killing the Cedars of Lebanon." The New York Times (July 18, 2018)
Bayne, Tim. "Exploring the Boundaries of Consciousness." NOEMA (July 25, 2024) ["A journey into the mystical hillsides of Nepal in search of answers to questions about which beings we can call conscious."]
Beck, Ulrich and Bruno Latour. "How To Think About Science (Part 5)." Ideas (February 11, 2015) ["Few people ever apply a name that sticks to an entire social order, but sociologist Ulrich Beck is one of them. In 1986 in Germany he published Risk Society, and the name has become a touchstone in contemporary sociology. Among the attributes of Risk Society is the one he just mentioned: science has become so powerful that it can neither predict nor control its effects. It generates risks too vast to calculate. In the era of nuclear fission, genetic engineering and a changing climate, society itself has become a scientific laboratory. In this episode, Ulrich Beck talks about the place of science in a risk society. Later in the hour you'll hear from another equally influential European thinker, Bruno Latour, the author of We Have Never Been Modern. He will argue that our very future depends on overcoming a false dichotomy between nature and culture."]
Bernstein, Barbara. "Sacrifice Zones (Part 1)." Making Contact (October 18, 2017) ["Since 2003 a rash of proposals have surfaced in communities throughout the Northwest to export vast amounts of fossil fuels to Asian markets via Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. If these plans go through the Northwest would become home to the largest oil terminal in North America, the largest coal export facility in North America, and the largest methanol refinery in the world. This week we present Part One of Sacrifice Zones by Barbara Bernstein. It’s the first in a two-part series on the pressure to transform a region of iconic landscapes and environmental stewardship into a global center for shipping fossil fuels. Bernstein investigates how proposals for petrochemical development in the Pacific Northwest threatens the region’s core cultural, social, and environmental values."]
---. "Sacrifice Zones (Part 2)." Making Contact (October 25, 2017) ["Since 2003 a rash of proposals have surfaced in communities throughout the Northwest to export vast amounts of fossil fuels to Asian markets via Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. If these plans go through the Northwest would become home to the largest oil terminal in North America, the largest coal export facility in North America, and the largest methanol refinery in the world. As the fossil fuel industry turns up its pressure to turn the Pacific Northwest into a fossil fuel export hub, a Thin Green Line stands in its way."]
Bey, George. "Redefining success: Archaeology as a way to embrace the world." Ted Talks (February 3, 2015) ["George Bey is an anthropology professor and associate dean of international education at Millsaps College. Bey led efforts to establish 4,500 acres of wilderness in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula as an archeological and biocultural reserve to study the archeological remains of the ancient Maya civilization of Kaxil Kiuic. In 2012, discoveries made by Bey and his team were featured in a 2012 National Geographic documentary, “Quest for the Lost Maya.”"]
Bonneval, Karine, Paco Calvo and Tom Greaves. "Plants." The Forum for Philosophy (April 2019) ["Philosophers have long assumed that plants are inferior to humans and animals: static, inert, and unreflective. But recent scientific advances suggest that we may have underestimated plants. They can process information, solve problems, and communicate. We explore what plants can teach us about intelligence and agency, and ask whether plants think."]
Boone, Alastair. "What Airbnb Did to New York City." City Lab (March 5, 2018)
Boué, Katie. "Give and Take." Women on the Road #54 (May 24, 2019) ["When you’re on the go, it can feel freeing to not have roots. You’re here, then you’re there. But the reality is that all of us who travel, for any length of time, create an impact on the communities we travel to and through, which can be tough to remember that because it feels like sleeping in a public parking lot for 7 hours doesn’t leave a lot of room to give back to the people who live down the street. Or does it? Katie Boué, part-time road traveler and full-time public lands advocate, has a lot to say about the give and take we engage in as travelers: both in the outdoors as well as in local communities. Because the reality is that no matter how often we relocate, we leave an impact wherever we go, and that acknowledgment in itself holds power."]
Brown, Monica. "First indigenous map of its kind; U.S. map displays 'Our own names and locations.'" Tulalip News (May 22, 2013)
Camenzind, Franz, et al. "Guardians vs. Gardeners: Relocating wolves to help balance ecology." Ideas (March 12, 2019) ["How much should humans try to "fix" nature? That question gets at the heart of our relationship with the entire natural world. Contributor Brad Badelt travels to isolated Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior, where a controversial decision has been made to relocate wolves from the mainland to help sustain the island's dwindling pack. The world's leading wolf researchers and environmental thinkers debate that decision — and what our idea of wilderness means."]
Caro, Robert. "From LBJ to Robert Moses: Robert Caro on Writing About Political Power & Its Impact on the Powerless." Democracy Now (April 29, 2019) ["Robert Caro is always working. The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner published his first book, “The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York,” 45 years ago and has spent the decades since meticulously chronicling the life and times of Lyndon B. Johnson. The result is four sweeping volumes that total more than 3,000 pages and offer an unprecedented window into the inner world of one of the country’s most influential presidents. And he’s not done yet—Caro is currently writing the fifth and final installment of the collection. Robert Caro has been described as “the greatest political biographer of our times,” but to reduce his work as simply biographies of great men misses the point. Caro uses both Moses and Johnson to show how political power works. Robert Caro has just released a new book—by far the smallest volume in his collection—titled “Working.” It offers an inside look into the author’s meticulous research and writing process. We speak with Robert Caro in our New York studio." Part Two: "Robert Caro Shares Reporting Tips from His Legendary Career Exposing Dealings of LBJ & Robert Moses." ]
Carrington, Damian. "Huge reduction in meat-eating ‘essential’ to avoid climate breakdown." The Guardian (October 10, 2018)
Chomsky, Noam. "Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change & the Undermining of Democracy Threaten Future of Planet." Democracy Now (April 12, 2019) ["As President Trump pulls out of key nuclear agreements with Russia and moves to expand the U.S. nuclear arsenal, Noam Chomsky looks at how the threat of nuclear war remains one of the most pressing issues facing mankind. In a speech at the Old South Church in Boston, Chomsky also discusses the threat of climate change and the undermining of democracy across the globe."]
Cioffi, Sandy and Riki Ott. "Sandy Cioffi on Nigerian Oil, Riki Ott Looking Back at Exxon Valdez Spill." Counterspin (June 14, 2019) ["The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico happened from the spring through the fall of 2010. The blowout of the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 people, and countless animals, on its way to becoming the worst marine oil spill in history. It seemed to take that protracted disaster on the US coast to generate a New York Times front-page story on June 16, 2010, about oil industry ravages in Nigeria’s delta region, which, the article noted, “has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years, by some estimates.” CounterSpin had a powerful conversation that week with filmmaker and video artist Sandy Cioffi, whose film, Sweet Crude, looks at the oil industry in Nigeria, and the way it is covered in the US. ... Oil spills are often discussed in media in terms of the Exxon Valdez. But if the use of the Valdez as a touchstone might give the impression that “lessons were learned” from that 1989 disaster…. Well, that mainly applies to the lesson that not disaster, but activism—dogged, ongoing, out-of-the-spotlight, misunderstood and maligned activism—is what changes things. That’s part of what we learned when we spoke with activist and marine biologist Riki Ott in 2009—then the 20-year anniversary of that “oil spill to end all oil spills”—now many spills ago."]
Conant, Jeff, et al. "A Report Back from the World Water Forum." Making Contact (May 6, 2009)
Connor, J.D., Florence Dore and Dan Sinykin. "Rebel Yale: Reading and Feeling Hillbilly Elegy." Los Angeles Review of Books (January 10, 2018)
Coombs, Wayne. "Analysis: The Pharmaceutical Colonization of Appalachia." The Daily Yonder (February 7, 2018)
Cooper, Travis Warren. "Kogonada's Urban Realism." Film Criticism 44.1 (January 2020) ["Kogonada’s first full-length feature film, Columbus (2017) is about a little-known Midwestern city and bastion of modern architecture. In method and content, Columbus is both ethnographic and playful, documentary and fiction. This article argues that Kogonada embodies a neorealist filmmaking method and in doing so defies traditional boundaries on multiple levels, prioritizing marginality through a preoccupation with visual lingering. Through its neorealist, ethnographic gaze, the film critically attends to entrenched hierarchies and divisions regarding gender, race, built artifacts, and socioeconomics. As a neorealist project, Columbus is an emotive meditation on urban space and rich visual theory of architecture, design, and metropolitics."]
Coronado, Andy M., et al. "A New Era in Local Culture." Cura Caos (July 17, 2018) ["San Diego has never been known for it’s arts or culture. No more. A new generation of young & dedicated artists are making waves & giving our city a dynamic voice. Four of these human jump-starters are Alejandra Frank of Teros Gallery, Andy M. Coronado of The Travelers Club, Carmela J Prudencio of the SDIY Coalition, & Mauro Donate of Weird Hues art & music collective.
Through monthly events, DIY gallery parties, activism, and social media, these four are galvanizing the San Diego creative community into deeper engagement, creating a refreshing sense of community and identity in the process."]
Corson, Trevor. "Stalking the American Lobster." The Atlantic (April 2002) ["Government scientists say that lobsters are being dangerously overfished. Lobstermen insist that stocks are plentiful. It's a familiar kind of standoff—except that now a new breed of ecologist has taken to the waters, using scuba gear, underwater robots, and even nuclear submarines, in order to figure out what's going on. It turns out that the lore and lessons of the lobsterman are worth paying attention to."]
Crawford, James. "The Strange Saga of Kowloon Walled City: Anarchic, organic, surreal, this enclave was once among the most densely populated places on Earth." Atlas Obscura (January 6, 2020)["This is the story of the rise and fall of a slum. It was born out of a quirk of history, it exploited its unsavory reputation, and, as is the fate of all slums, it became an embarrassment before being leveled by the authorities. Is there any greater significance to its story than that? Many would argue not. But while locals and tourists now enjoy the park, some still crave the claustrophobic darkness. Theorists from the wilder shores of architecture keep returning to the idea of Kowloon. On this tiny rectangle of ground, a single community created something that had only existed before in the avant garde imagination: the 'organic megastructure.'"]
Crimmins, Timothy. "Stretching the Veil." The Point #18 (Winter 2019) ["On environmentalist/conservationist embrace of anti-immigration policies and their later rejection of these policies (if not acceptance of open borders theories)."]
---. "‘How Dare You!’ The Climate Crisis And The Public Demand For Real Action." Media Lens (September 30, 2019)
Crum, Travis. Marchers scale Blair Mountain: Protesters rally at Labor's 'Gettysburg,' vow mountaintop-removal fight." West Virginia Gazette-Mail (June 11, 2011)
Cunningham-Cook, Matthew. "Corporate Greed and Deregulation Fuel Threat of More Bomb Trains as East Palestine Demands Answers." Democracy Now (February 17, 2023) ["We look at the failures that led to the massive train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that blanketed the town with a toxic brew of spilled chemicals and gases, fouling the air, polluting waterways and killing thousands of fish and frogs. Residents are suffering ailments including respiratory distress, sore throats, burning eyes and rashes, all with unknown long-term consequences. Many say they do not trust officials who tell them it is safe to return to their homes. This catastrophe could have been prevented, had it not been for lax regulation and the outsized lobbying power of corporations like Norfolk Southern, says Matthew Cunningham-Cook, a researcher and writer at The Lever who is part of a team that is reporting on the disaster."]
Currie, Morgan. "Buried, Altered, Silenced: 4 Ways Government Climate Information Has Changed Since Trump Took Office." Desmog (March 27, 2018)
Danticat, Edwidge, et al. "Climate Change & The End of Eden." Open Source (September 28, 2017)
Demby, Gene, Kara Frame and Maria Paz Guttierez. "Housing Segregation is Everything." Code Switch (April 11, 2018) ["Housing segregation is in everything. But to understand the root of this issue, you have to look at the government-backed policies that created the housing disparities we see today. Gene Demby explains how these policies came to be, and what effect they've had on schools, health, family wealth and policing."]
Dobb, Edwin. "Nothing But Gifts: Finding a Home in a World Gone Awry." Harper's (October 2018) ["One of the discouraging developments of recent times is that qualities often associated with homelessness—paranoia, a sense of grievance, defensive solitude—are increasingly influential factors in the day-to-day affairs of the wealthiest nation on earth. Instead of acknowledging and reinforcing what we hold in common, a proposition that should be easier to accept in a context of plenty, too many of us succumb to fear and prejudice. From there it is a small step to the belief that solidarity is for suckers; that it is a suicidal illusion fostered by those who don’t understand, or won’t admit, that not everyone is equal, not everyone deserves the same consideration, not everyone belongs here (this neighborhood, this country, this world). Under such poisonous conditions, tyranny can flourish, often obscured by bankrupt slogans like “makers and takers,” which is of a piece with another worrisome trend in the United States—the conflation of democracy and commerce, liberty and acquisition, a situation in which, perversely, freedom has come to mean the conditions that allow the affluent to accumulate ever more wealth, while for the rest of us, first the suburban mall and now its always expanding digital equivalent have replaced the town hall as the primary domain for the exercise of citizenship. Against this backdrop, it’s no surprise that our success narrative now culminates in endorsement deals and advertisement appearances, including by artists and writers; that serving as a marketing prop has become synonymous with having made it. ... My prayer for my grandchildren, then, is that they defy their circumstances rather than despair of them; that they possess the audacity, moral imagination, and tough-minded humor to make this heartbreaking, too-often-alien world their own, thereby transforming it into a place where they always feel at home if not always at peace, always enjoying access to existential solidarity and the solace and inspiration it provides, always acting in the knowledge that the good that graces their lives remains so only if they keep it in play, and this despite the anguish and disappointment that surely await them, along with every other child of the twenty-first century."]
Dyer, Gwynne. "Climate Wars: The Fight for Survival as the World Overheats." Worldview (June 10, 2010)
Earle, Sylvia. "Her Deepness." On Being (June 7, 2012)
"Eight Ways Monsanto Fails at Sustainable Agriculture." Union of Concerned Scientists (February 10, 2012)
Ekwurzel, Brenda."Climate Scientist: California Wildfires Are Faster, Stronger, Deadlier & Will Continue to Intensify." Democracy Now (August 2, 2018) ["In California, tens of thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate as deadly wildfires continue to rage across the state. The worst wildfire, the Carr Fire, has engulfed more than 100,000 acres and destroyed more than a thousand homes in and around Redding, California, making it the sixth most destructive fire in the state’s history. Authorities said Wednesday that 16 of the largest wildfires burning in California have scorched 320,000 acres—an area larger than Los Angeles. Eight people have died. Governor Jerry Brown called the growing intensity and frequency of California wildfires the state’s “new normal” this week. More fires continue to consume parts of Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Arizona, along with recent blazes across the globe in Greece, Canada and the Arctic Circle. We speak with Brenda Ekwurzel, senior climate scientist and director of climate science for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists."]
Elliot, Rebecca, et al. "Can We Afford Our Consumer Society?" LSE IQ #21 (December 2018)
["Economic growth has helped millions out of poverty. The jobs it creates mean rising incomes and consumers who buy more. This drives further growth and higher living standards, including better health and education. Yet WWF, the World Wildlife Fund, has recently warned that exploding human consumption is the driving force behind unprecedented planetary change, through increased demand for energy, land and water. Plastics and microplastics are filling our oceans and rivers and entering the food chain. The production of goods and services for household use is the most important cause of greenhouse gas emissions. The textile industry is responsible for depleting and polluting water resources and committing human rights abuses against its workers. It is also a major source of greenhouse gases, and three fifths of all clothing produced ends up in incinerators or landfills within a year of being made."]
Engh, Catherine. "Assembling Climate Change Pedagogies for the Humanities." Center for the Humanities (May 28, 2019)
Estes, Nick. "Standing Rock and the History of Indigenous Resistance in America." BackStory (September 6, 2019) ["In 2016, protests broke out at Standing Rock – a reservation in North and South Dakota – to block the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Indigenous peoples and other activists opposed the pipeline because they believed it violated sacred sites and threatened to contaminate the Missouri River, a major source of drinking water in the region. Taking social media by storm, the #noDAPL movement quickly became an international headline. On this episode, Nathan sits down with historian and activist Nick Estes to talk about his experience at Standing Rock, the history of Indigenous resistance, and the current state of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Estes’ new book is called Our History is the Future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance."]
Farrell, Maria and Robin Berjon. "We Need to Rewild the Internet." NOEMA (April 16, 2024) ["The internet has become an extractive and fragile monoculture. But we can revitalize it using lessons learned by ecologists."]
Fithian, Lisa. " Shut It Down: Veteran Organizer Lisa Fithian Offers a Guide to Resistance in Era of Climate Crisis." Democracy Now (September 6, 2019) ["Lisa Fithian is a longtime organizer and nonviolent direct action trainer since the 1970s. She has shut down the CIA. She has occupied Wall Street, disrupted the World Trade Organization and stood her ground in Tahrir Square. She has walked in solidarity with the tribal leaders at Standing Rock and defended communities in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. She joined us at the Democracy Now! studio to talk about her new book, which was published this week, titled “Shut It Down: Stories from a Fierce, Loving Resistance.” Fithian is currently on a book tour and doing a new workshop called “Escalating Resistance: Mass Rebellion Training.”" Part Two: “Shut It Down: Stories from a Fierce, Loving Resistance”: Lisa Fithian Reflects on Decades of Protest."]
Flores, Fernando, et al. "A special one-hour program on the South Central Farm in Los Angeles – lessons in human rights, immigrant rights, ecological sustainability, and activism." Uprising Radio (June 16, 2006)
Ford, Matt. "A Dictator's Guide to Urban Design." The Atlantic (February 21, 2014)
Foreman, Dave. "On the History and Definition of Rewilding." Rewilding #1 (September 8, 2018)
Foster, John Bellamy, interviewed by C.J. Polychroniou. "Climate change is the product of how capitalism 'values' nature." Monthly Review (November 18, 2018) ["Climate change is the greatest existential crisis facing humanity today. Capitalist industrialization has led us to the edge of the precipice, and avoiding the end of civilization as we know it may require the development of a view in direct opposition to the way in which capitalism “values” nature, according to John Bellamy Foster, professor of sociology at the University of Oregon and editor of the socialist magazine Monthly Review."]
Gerard, Lydia, Sharon Lavigne and Pam Spees. "Combating Corporate Contamination in Cancer Alley." The Activist Files #14 (May 9, 2019) ["Senior Staff Attorney Pam Spees talks with Lydia Gerard and Sharon Lavigne, two of the brave Women of Cancer Alley leading the resistance to the toxic petrochemical industry in Louisiana. Cancer Alley is an 85-mile stretch of land with a high concentration of petrochemical companies. It also is populated by primarily Black communities with high rates of health problems, including respiratory problems, the highest risk of cancer in the country, and even unexplained health problems. Both women share their personal stories--the difficulties Sharon's grandchildren have had breathing, Lydia's loss of her husband to kidney cancer--and the way those experiences fueled their fight in the face of indifferent corporations and lackluster government action. Later this month, many of those involved in this struggle will participate in a March for Justice, demanding government action--including the reduction of emissions, a moratorium on new plants, and the closer of certain existing plants. Give the episode a listen, and spread the word about this important fight for racial and environmental justice."]
Modern civilizations tend to speed water away. We have forgotten that it must flex with the rhythms of the earth, and that only collaboration with nature will allow us to forge a more resilient future."]
Gilmore, Ruth Wilson. "Ruth Wilson Gilmore with Rachel Kushner." Lannan Podcasts (April 17, 2019) ["Ruth Wilson Gilmore is director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics and a professor of geography at the City University of New York. She is most famous for arguing that the movement for abolition, with its proud history of challenging slavery, should be applied today to the abolition of prisons. In an era when 2.3 million people are behind bars in the United States, she challenges us to think about whether it is ever necessary or productive to lock people in cages. She warns of the “nightmare made palatable by the terrifying numbers of prisoners and prisons produced by the last generation, while we were all, presumably, awake.” But her hope lies in the fact that “just as real was the growing grassroots activism against the expanded use of criminalization and cages as a catchall solution to social problems. In order to realize their dreams of justice in individual cases, the [freedom] riders decided, through struggle, debate, failure, and renewal, that they must seek general freedom for all from a system in which punishment has become as industrialized as making cars, clothes, or missiles, or growing cotton.” Gilmore wrote Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California(2007) and contributed to The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (2007). The American Sociological Society honored Gilmore with its Angela Davis Award for Public Scholarship in 2012. A tireless activist, she has co-founded many social justice organizations, including the California Prison Moratorium Project, Critical Resistance, and the Central California Environmental Justice Network."]
Glantz, Aaron and Vincent Hughes. "Modern-Day Redlining: Banks Face Probes for Refusing Home Loans for People of Color." Democracy Now (February 27, 2018) ["A shocking new investigation by Reveal and the Center for Investigative Reporting has uncovered evidence that African Americans and Latinos continue to be routinely denied conventional mortgage loans, even at rates far higher than their white counterparts, across the country. According to the piece, the homeownership gap between whites and African Americans is now wider than it was during the Jim Crow era. Reveal based its report on a review of 31 million mortgage records filed with the federal government in 2015 and 2016. The investigation found the redlining occurring across the country, including in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and San Antonio, Texas. Since its publication earlier this month, the report has sparked national outrage and, in some states, unusually swift political action. Pennsylvania’s attorney general and state treasurer have both launched investigations into redlining in Philadelphia. We speak to Pennsylvania state Senator Vincent Hughes and Aaron Glantz, senior reporter at Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. His new investigation is headlined 'Kept out: How banks block people of color from homeownership.'"]
"Global Warming." History Commons (Ongoing Historical Timeline)
Goddess Remembered (Canada: Donna Read, 1989: 55 mins) ["This documentary is a salute to 35,000 years of the goddess-worshipping religions of the ancient past. The film features Merlin Stone, Carol Christ, Luisah Teish and Jean Bolen, all of whom link the loss of goddess-centric societies with today's environmental crisis. This is the first part of a 3-part series that includes The Burning Times and Full Circle."]
---. "Emails expose BP's attempts to control research into impact of Gulf oil spill." The Guardian (April 15, 2012)
Goodman, Amy, et al. "Rise for Climate: Tens of Thousands March in San Francisco Calling for Fossil-Free World." Democracy Now (September 10, 2018) ["Hundreds of thousands of protesters in more than 90 countries joined a worldwide day of protest demanding urgent action to address climate change Saturday. In San Francisco, up to 30,000 people took part in the Rise for Climate, Jobs and Justice march. It is believed to be the largest climate march ever on the West Coast. The protest came just days before the start of the Global Climate Action Summit being organized by California Governor Jerry Brown. Democracy Now! was in the streets of San Francisco for the march."]
Griffiths, David. "Queer Theory for Lichens." Undercurrents #19 (2015) ["The symbiotic view of life suggests that we are not individuals, and that we have never been individuals. While the traditional view of organisms (including humans) is that they are self-contained, discrete, and autonomous individuals, scientific research is increasingly suggesting that this is misleading; the view of organisms as individuals is perhaps no longer viable. This is illustrated in the symbiotic bacterial ancestry of the mitochondria in “human” cells, as well as in the contemporary symbiotic relationships that are at work in the human gut microbiota. Eating, digesting and living are impossible without our symbiotic relationships. The brief natural cultural history of lichens that I have offered illustrates these points and demonstrates that if life and nature are to be found anywhere, it is not autonomous individuals but the constitutive comminglings, involvements, and interconnected relationships that make up the ecological mesh."]
Hall, Suzanne, et al. "Is the Gentrification of Our Global Cities Inevitable?" LSE IQ #19 (October 2018) ["In 1964 the sociologist Ruth Glass coined the term ‘gentrification’ to describe the process of London’s working class neighbourhoods being taken over by the middle classes. Modest two-up two down terrace houses were bought cheap, done up and made into expensive residences. Once grand Victorian houses that had fallen on hard times and become lodging houses or homes to multiple families, were restored once again and sub-divided into luxury flats. Soon the working class residents had been squeezed out of the neighbourhood and its character changed completely. Fifty years on and this process continues apace in London and many other cities."]Hanhardt, Christina. "On Gay Neighborhoods and Violence." Who Makes Cents? (January 7, 2015) ["Christina Hanhardt discusses her book Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence. Today we’ll focus on how the history of quality of life policing connects to the history of gay neighborhood politics. By looking at the gay neighborhoods in San Francisco and New York City, Christina Hanhardt will also shed light on what focusing on real estate, housing, violence, and the politics of place have to do with the history of capitalism."]
Hasemeyer, David and Lisa Song. "Big Oil and Bad Air: Report Exposes Link Between Fracking and Toxic Air Emissions in Texas." Democracy Now (February 27, 2014)
Hedges, Chris. "American Decline: A Case for Optimism." The Laura Flanders Show (January 16, 2019) ["Soul Fire Farm’s Leah Penniman talks with Chris Hedges, author of America: The Farewell Tour, about environmental threats, societal breakdown, and how we might come back together as humans. Then, a glimpse of CAGED, a play written and conceived by Hedges’ writing students in a high-security prison in New Jersey."]
---. "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt." Law and Disorder Radio (July 30, 2012)
Herron, Christopher. "Labour in Real Time: Ben Russell Interview (Good Luck)." The Seventh Art (November 10, 2017) ["Ben Russell is an experimental filmmaker whose latest film, Good Luck (2017), explores the spaces and labour of a copper mine in Bor, Serbia and a smaller gold mine in Suriname. The Super 16mm shot film had its North American premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, where we talked to Ben about the making of the film."]
Heumann, Joseph K. and Robin L. Murray. "Mother! and the Cli-fi Conundrum." Jump Cut #58 (Spring 2018)
Hill, Sean Patrick. "The Good River: What Lurks Below the Ohio." LEO Weekly (October 17, 2018) ["The Ohio River is the most polluted river in the United States. Its name, among the Iroquois, means “Good River.” It is the source of my drinking water and my daughter’s bath water. It is also the habitat for countless lives that live beyond the threshold of our perception."]
Hope, Mat. "Web of Power: Cambridge Analytica and the Climate Science Denial Network Lobbying for Brexit and Trump." Desmog (March 21, 2018)
Horn, Steve. "MSNBC's (GE's) Dylan Ratigan Show "Firewater?" Series: Natural Gas Industry-Media Complex Exposed." PR Watch
Hounsell, Steve. "Biodiversity Primer." Alternatives (November 24, 2010)
Houp, Wesley. "Abandoned Channels: Elkhorn to Lockport." North of Center (March 7, 2012)
---. "Life by Rheotaxis: A River Rat's Perspective North of Center (April 13, 2011)
Hurley, Amanda Kolson. "The Secret History of the Suburbs." City Lab (April 9, 2019) ["We all know the stereotypes: Suburbia is dull, conformist, and about “keeping up with the Joneses.” But what about the suburbs of utopians and renegades?"]
Into Eternity Making Contact (March 18, 2014) ["Our world is generating more and more nuclear waste, but have no permanent place to dispose of it. But the nation of Finland has a plan. They’re building an underground cave, to hold thousands of tones of nuclear waste, for at least 100 thousand years. On this edition, we hear excerpts of the film, “Into Eternity”, which explores the logistical and philosophical quandaries around the construction of something that if it works, might very well outlast the entire human race."]
Jamail, Dahr. "The Military Wants to Dictate Private Land Use -- and Washington State Might Let It." TruthOut (January 24, 2018)
Jervey, Ben. "One Year Later, Deepwater Horizon by the Numbers." Good (April 20, 2011)
Johnson, Alex. "How to Queer Ecology: One Goose at a Time -- A lesson plan." Orion (March/April 2011)
Joseph, Harry, Anne Rolfes and Pamela Spees. "Critics of Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Louisiana Decry State & Company Surveillance of Protesters." Democracy Now (March 13, 2018) ["In Louisiana, newly disclosed documents reveal a state intelligence agency regularly spied on activists opposing construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline, which would carry nearly a half-million barrels of oil per day across Louisiana’s wetlands. The documents show the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness regularly drafted intelligence memos on anti-pipeline activists, including a gathering of indigenous-led water protectors who’ve set up a protest encampment along the pipeline’s route. Other newly revealed documents show close coordination between Louisiana regulators and the company building the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners. This comes just one week after a U.S. district judge in Baton Rouge ordered a temporary injunction against construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline in order to “prevent further irreparable harm” to the region’s delicate ecosystems, while court challenges proceed. For more, we speak with Pastor Harry Joseph of the Mount Triumph Baptist Church. We also speak with Pamela Spees of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Anne Rolfes, founding director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade."]
Kahn, Brian. "It's Kids vs. the World in a Landmark Climate Complaint." Gizmodo (September 23, 2019)
Kalven, Jamie. "Chicago Faces a Defining Moment in Police Reform and Civil Order." The Intercept (August 15, 2018) ["Chicago has a unique opportunity to confront fundamental issues of racial justice as it debates a consent decree on police reform."]
Kelley, Ariel and Leah Stokes. "Fueled by Climate Change, California’s Raging Wildfires Are Threatening Vulnerable Communities First." Democracy Now (October 29, 2019) ["California is bracing for a day of strong winds as climate change-fueled wildfires continue to burn from Los Angeles to north of the Bay Area. After a chaotic weekend of mass evacuations and blackouts that left millions in the dark, firefighters in Sonoma, California, made headway Monday, containing 15% of the massive Kincade fire that has burned nearly 75,000 acres. But as high winds pick up again today, firefighters still face an uphill battle in combating the at least 10 blazes raging across the state, including the growing Getty fire, which erupted in one of Los Angeles’s most opulent communities Monday. Fires in California are typical this time of year, but the length and severity of the state’s fire season has grown due to climate change. We speak with Leah Stokes, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and researcher on climate and energy politics. We also speak with Ariel Kelley, the CEO of Corazón Healdsburg, a bilingual family resource center based in Northern Sonoma County."]
Kitchell, Mark. "Earth Day Special: Fierce Green Fire Documentary Explores Environmental Movement’s Global Rise." Democracy Now (April 22, 2014)
Klein, Naomi. "As New York City Declares War On the Oil Industry, the Politically Impossible Suddenly Seems Possible." The Intercept (January 11, 2018)
---. "The Game-Changing Promise of a Green New Deal." The Intercept (November 27, 2018) ["If you are part of the economy’s winning class and funded by even bigger winners, as so many politicians are, then your attempts to craft climate legislation will likely be guided by the idea that change should be as minimal and unchallenging to the status quo as possible. After all, the status quo is working just fine for you and your donors. Leaders who are rooted in communities that are being egregiously failed by the current system, on the other hand, are liberated to take a very different approach. Their climate policies can embrace deep and systemic change — including the need for massive investments in public transit, affordable housing, and health care — because that kind of change is precisely what their bases need to thrive. As climate justice organizations have been arguing for many years now, when the people with the most to gain lead the movement, they fight to win."]
Kofler, Natalie. "What role should humans play in editing nature?" When We Talk About Animals (November 19, 2018) ["A few years ago, our guest, molecular biologist Dr. Natalie Kofler, was completing her postdoctoral training at Yale University. She was actively using CRISPR gene-editing techniques to study the mammalian cardiovascular system to try to develop better tools to treat human vascular diseases. While attending talks on conservation biology at the Yale School of Forestry, she started to wonder: Could the invasive emerald ash borer be genetically edited with these same techniques to save American ash trees? Could coral reefs be genetically edited to be more resilient to warming waters? Should humans develop and use these technologies to change nature? If so, how? And who gets to decide? Today Dr. Kofler is a leading thinker on these questions and an important voice on the potential environmental applications of gene-editing technologies — technologies that have the extraordinary potential to end malaria or to suppress Lyme disease, but also to change or delete entire species and to transform life in previously unimaginable ways. To think clearly about their use, she says, forces us to rethink who we are, to define what is important to us, and to reconsider how far our human knowledge of nature’s interconnectedness extends."]
Kurlansky, Mark. "On His Most Important Environmental Writing Yet." The Literary Life (April 10, 2020) ["On this episode, Mark Kurlansky talks with Mitchell about his latest book, Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate and the impact of climate change on food supplies and sea life. Kurlansky is currently social distancing with his family in New York City."]
Lakoff, George. "How to Use the Language of “Systemic Causation” To Talk About Climate Change." Uprising Radio (November 1, 2012)
Landis, Joshua and Gayle McLaughlin. "Beating City Hall / What's Really Going On In Syria." Ralph Nader Radio Hour (April 21, 2018) ["Ralph welcomes independent candidate for California Lieutenant Governor, Gayle McLaughlin, who talks about how she and small group of progressive reformers turned around the city of Richmond, California. And one of the foremost experts on the Middle East, Professor Joshua Landis, clues us in to what exactly is going on in Syria, and what we should do about it."]
Lebreton, L., et al. "Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating plastic." Nature (March 22, 2018)
Leonard, Christopher. "'Kochland': : How David Koch Helped Build an Empire to Shape U.S. Politics & Thwart Climate Action." Democracy Now (August 27, 2019) ["Billionaire conservative donor David Koch died Friday at the age of 79 from prostate cancer. David Koch — who was worth some $42 billion — and his brother Charles poured massive amounts of money into funding climate change denial through conservative think tanks and politicians. The Koch brothers founded the political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity in 2004, which is credited with turning the “tea party” into a full-fledged political movement. They also backed “right-to-work” efforts, which aim to weaken labor rights and quash union membership. The brothers made their fortune running Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held company in the United States. We speak with the business journalist Christopher Leonard, who just last week published a major new book examining the business dealings of the Koch brothers. It’s titled “Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America.”"]
Lovelock, James. "How to Think About Science (Part 6)." Ideas (February 13, 2015) ["Forty-years ago British scientist James Lovelock put forward the first elements of what he would come to call the Gaia theory. Named for the ancient Greek goddess of the earth, it held that the earth as a whole functions as a self-regulating system. At first many biologists scoffed. Today, Lovelock's ideas are more widely accepted, even in circles where he was initially scorned. But even as he has been winning scientific honours, James Lovelock has been growing more pessimistic about the prospects for contemporary civilization. In this episode David Cayley presents a profile of James Lovelock. It tells the story of a career in science that began a long time ago."]
Lowe, Lezlie, et al. "Dignity down the toilet: Public bathrooms as a human right." Ideas (March 6, 2019) ["Public bathrooms are an amenity we all need. Yet few of us talk about them openly, and cities often get them wrong. So how should governments and businesses provide for this most basic bodily need – and what does it mean for citizens when they have no place to go? Contributor Lezlie Lowe flushes out the answers on a road trip, with many bathroom breaks, across North America."]
Massey, Jonathan and Brett Snyder. "Occupying Wall Street: Places and Spaces of Political Action." Places (September 2012)
Maxwell, Richard. "Greening the Media." Team Human #2 (January 2016) ["Playing for Team Human today is Professor Richard Maxwell. Richard Maxwell is a political economist of media. His research begins at the intersection of politics and economics to analyze the global media, their social and cultural impact, and the policies that regulate their reach and operations. Richard has published on a wide array of media topics. Recent work includes The Routledge Companion to Labor and Media (Editor) Media and the Ecological Crisis (co-editor) and Greening the Media with Toby Miller. In this episode of Team Human, Professor Maxwell provides an eye opening account of the environmental damage caused by media technology, the myth of a “Post Industrial” society, and what we must do create a world sustainable for people."]
---. "Northside Gentrification." (Posted on Youtube: December 18, 2017)
Mayer, Jane. "Dark Money and the Rise of Conservative Orthodoxy." On the Media (May 31, 2019) ["William Happer, the man tapped to head Trump’s new climate review panel, is not a climate scientist. And yet, in recent years, William Happer has made a mission of attacking climate science, including at events hosted by the right-wing Heritage Foundation. Heritage has long worked to redirect public sentiment and policy-making away from addressing climate change and towards deregulation — which is itself part of an even bigger decades-long goal: the propagation of a conservative ideology that preserves capital for rich people. Jane Mayer, author of Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, walks Bob through the history of the modern conservative intellectual framework."]
Mazur, Laurie, et al. "Population Control or Population Justice?" Making Contact (June 19, 2012)
McKibben, Bill. "Falter: In New Book, Bill McKibben Asks If the Human Game Has Begun to Play Itself Out." Democracy Now (April 15, 2019) ["Thousands are taking to the streets in London today to demand radical action to combat the climate crisis. Protesters with the group Extinction Rebellion have set up encampments and roadblocks across Central London and say they’ll stay in the streets for at least a week. It’s just the beginning of a series of global actions that will unfold in the coming days, as activists around the world raise the alarm about government inaction in the face of the growing climate catastrophe. The London protests come just days after schoolchildren around the globe left school again on Friday for the weekly “strike for climate” and as the push for the Green New Deal continues to build momentum in the United States. The deal—backed by Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey—seeks to transform the U.S. economy through funding renewable energy while ending U.S. carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. We speak with climate activist and journalist Bill McKibben, who has been on the front lines of the fight to save the planet for decades. Thirty years ago, he wrote “The End of Nature,” the first book about climate change for a general audience. He’s just published a new book titled Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?" Part two: "Bill McKibben: Green New Deal Is a Chance to 'Remake Not Just a Broken Planet, But a Broken Society.'" and Part three: "Climate Change, Artificial Intelligence & Genetic Engineering Threaten to Destroy Humanity."]
---. "A Drone's Eye View of the Latest Oil Train Explosion." Motherboard (May 1, 2014)
Merchants of Doubt (USA: Kim Roberts and Robert Kenner, 2014: 93 mins) ["Merchants of Doubt looks at the well established Public Relations tactic of saturating the media with shills who present themselves as independent scientific authorities on issues in order to cast doubt in the public mind. The film looks at how this tactic, that was originally developed by the tobacco industry to obfuscate the health risks of smoking, has since come to cloud other issues such as the pervasiveness of toxic chemicals, flame retardants, asbestos, certain pharmaceutical drugs and now, climate change. Using the icon of a magician, Merchants of Doubt explores the analogy between these tactics and the methods used by magicians to distract their audiences from observing how illusions are performed. For example, with the tobacco industry, the shills successfully delayed government regulation until long after the health risks from smoking was unequivocally proven. Likewise with manufacturers of flame retardants, who worked to protect their sales after the toxic effects and pervasiveness of the chemicals were discovered. This is all made analogous to the ongoing use of these very same tactics to forestall governmental action in regards to global climate change today."]
Miller, Andrew. "'Our House Is On Fire': Brazil Faces Global Outrage as Massive Fires Spread in Amazon Rainforest." Democracy Now (August 23, 2019) ["The United Nations is calling for the protection of the Amazon amid fears that thousands of fires raging across Brazil and some parts of Bolivia are rapidly destroying the world’s largest rainforest and paving the way for a climate catastrophe. The fires have spread a vast plume of smoke across South America and the Atlantic Ocean that’s visible from space. They’re unprecedented in recorded history, and environmentalists say most of the fires were deliberately set by illegal miners and cattle ranchers. Indigenous people in Brazil have accused far-right President Jair Bolsonaro of encouraging the destruction. Bolsonaro has worked to deregulate and open up the Amazon for agribusiness, logging and mining since he came into office in January. We speak with Andrew Miller, advocacy director at Amazon Watch."]
Miller, Daegan. "Toward a Useful Ignorance: From Connection to Coexistence." The Point #18 (Winter 2019) [Powerful philosophical/environmental/literary/nemophilist meditation ... Check out the link to the extensive bibliography linked at the end of the essay.]
Mirsky, Elizabeth. "The Dormant Killer: Plastic’s Dirty Little Secret." Dialogic (April 18, 2012)
Mishan, Ligaya. "Frogs are Disappearing. What Does That Mean?"The New York Times (October 18, 2018) ["For ages, they have been symbols in human culture — of fertility, gastronomy and now the alt-right movement. But these noble amphibians are declining in numbers."]
Needham, Andrew. "On Electricity and the Southwest." Who Makes Cents? (November 3, 2014) ["
Andrew Needham discusses his new book, Power Lines: Phoenix and the Making of the Modern Southwest. Power Lines shows that we can't think of the modern southwest without the energy that makes such places possible. Through this, he knits together a metropolitan geography that connects Phoenix with the places where it got its electricity--most prominently, coal from the Navajo Nation."]
Nestle, Marion. "Food and Politics." Conversations with History (March 20, 2017) ["Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Marion Nestle Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition at New York University. Professor Nestle reflects on the evolution of her thinking on the interplay between nutrition studies and the politics of food. She discusses the environment of the food industry emphasizing its dilemma of producing too much food in an environment in which profits are paramount and the competition with other food producers is intense. She analyzes the arsenal of tools at its service—advertising and lobbying and talks about the role of food activism in creating a structure of choice in which health, the environment and social justice are determining factors in what is produced and what we eat. Finally, she identifies the role of government in entrenching the status quo and the possibilities of it assuming a different kind of role. Finally, she offers advice to students preparing for the future."]
Ng, Alan. "Rodents of Unusual Size." Film Threat (September 12, 2018)
Olsson, Tore C. "What Red Dead Redemption II Reveals About Our Myths of the American West." Literary Hub (August 28, 2024) ["This near-universal decision to foreground the game’s western-ness was not inevitable. Of the ninety-six main story missions in Red Dead Redemption II (by my count), only a thin majority of fifty-one take place in a western setting, while forty-five are set in the Deep South, Appalachia, or the Caribbean. Why then is the game almost exclusively classified as a western? It is due to the simple fact that in American popular culture, there are no established genres called “southerns,” “Appalachians,” or “Caribbeans.” But for more than a century, there have been a jaw-dropping preponderance of “western” films, TV series, comics, novels, and, of course, games. Both the producers and reviewers of Rockstar’s game knew that of all the regions it showcases, only one is a deep-rooted genre and a national obsession."]
Peet, Richard. "Finance Capital." Unwelcome Guests (September 28, 2012)
Pinkerton, Nick. "Leviathan: Sea lives meet amphibious cameras meet a hulking, devastating war machine: welcome to a documentary like nothing you’ve seen (or felt)." Sight and Sound (December 6, 2013)
Potter, Will. "From Tim DeChristopher to Tar Sands Protests, the Environmental Movement Steps Up Civil Disobedience." Green is the New Red (September 2, 2011)
---. "Indiana Bill Would Make It Illegal to Expose Factory Farms, Clearcutting and Fracking." Green is the New Red (April 2, 2013)
---. "What is the "Green Scare." Green is the New Red (2011)
Powers, Richard. "Richard Powers with Tayari Jones." Lannan Podcasts (February 27, 2019) ["Richard Powers is the author of 12 novels. These works employ multiple narrative frames to explore connections among disciplines as disparate as photography, artificial intelligence, musical composition, genomics, game theory, virtual reality, race, business, and ecology. He has said, “Science is not about control. It is about cultivating a perpetual condition of wonder in the face of something that forever grows one step richer and subtler than our latest theory about it. It is about reverence, not mastery.” His novels include Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance (1985), inspired by German photographer August Sander’s 1914 image of the same title; The Gold Bug Variations (1991), a double love story of two young couples separated by a distance of 25 years; and The Echo Maker(2007), whose main character, Mark, suffers a traumatic brain injury in a car accident and becomes convinced that the woman who looks, acts, and sounds just like his sister Karin is actually an imposter. His most recent book, The Overstory (2018), is a tale of activism and resistance, about the secret language of trees and the people they bring together to save the last few remaining acres of virgin forest. In the New York Times Book Review, author Barbara Kingsolver called it “monumental… The Overstory accomplishes what few living writers from either camp, art or science, could attempt. Using the tools of the story, he pulls readers heart-first into a perspective so much longer-lived and more subtly developed than the human purview that we gain glimpses of a vast, primordial sensibility, while watching our own kind get whittled down to size… A gigantic fable of genuine truths.”"]
Prakash, Varsini, Sean Sweeney and Elizabeth Yeampierre. "Green New Deal, Yellow Vests." The Laura Flanders Show (January 30, 2019) ["Is the climate movement heating up? This week on the show, activists at all levels of the climate justice movement discuss how inter-generational, cross-coalition, and global organizing is taking control of the future without waiting for anyone. Can the U.S born Green New Deal learn from yellow-vested workers’ agitation in France? And who’s new Deal is it anyway? In this episode: Elizabeth Yeampierre, co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance; Sean Sweeney,Director of Cornell Global Labor Institute’s International Program for Labor, Climate & Environment; and Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement."]
Publius, Gaius. "Big Oil Seeks Billions from U.S. Government to Protect It From…Climate Change." Down With Tyranny (September 10, 2018)
---. "The Building Is Burning and All the World’s Babies Are In It — Using Force to Fight Climate Change." Naked Capitalism (November 28, 2017)
Reich, Robert, et al. "Fighting for a Green New Deal." Best of the Left #1242 (January 18, 2019) ["Today we take a look at the groundwork for a Green New Deal as it's being laid and the fight that is heating up around the policies, not just between political parties but between the separate wings (and generations) of the Democratic Party."]
Reyes, Oscar and Tamra Gilbertson. "Carbon Trading: How it Works and Why it Fails." New Left Project (December 18, 2010)
Ribakoff, Sam. "Whose Utopia Gets to Be Built?: An Interview with Eric Nusbaum." Los Angeles Review of Books (February 6, 2020) ["The Story of Chavez Ravine, the hilltop neighborhood that was destroyed first with a promise of public housing projects, and then sold to build Dodger Stadium, is a well-known local civic shame. In his first book, Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between, Eric Nusbaum fills in the details of the story by closely tracing the stories of the characters involved; from the Aréchiga family, the last family to be evicted from their homes in Chavez Ravine, who only wanted to live in peace in their slice of utopia, to Frank Wilkinson, a Westside L.A. rich kid turned fervent public housing activist and politician who fought to build a public housing utopia in place of the communities of Chavez Ravine, to Walter O’Malley, the visionary New York owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who dreamed of building the perfect stadium of the future for his beloved game of baseball. Throughout the book, Nusbaum contextualizes the characters’ stories by illuminating the historical forces that put the tragedy into motion; from rising racist backlash against immigrants, to the Red Scare’s fight against leftists, to Los Angeles’s civic hysteria for the prestige of big sports games, and, of course, the history of baseball and how the Brooklyn Dodgers came to be the Los Angeles Dodgers. This chain of events still reverberates through the families involved."]
Rich, Nathaniel. "Authenticity All Right: Lee Friedlander’s New Orleans." New York Review of Books (May 16, 2014)
---. "Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change." The New York Times Magazine (August 1, 2018) ["This narrative by Nathaniel Rich is a work of history, addressing the 10-year period from 1979 to 1989: the decisive decade when humankind first came to a broad understanding of the causes and dangers of climate change. Complementing the text is a series of aerial photographs and videos, all shot over the past year by George Steinmetz. With support from the Pulitzer Center, this two-part article is based on 18 months of reporting and well over a hundred interviews. It tracks the efforts of a small group of American scientists, activists and politicians to raise the alarm and stave off catastrophe. It will come as a revelation to many readers — an agonizing revelation — to understand how thoroughly they grasped the problem and how close they came to solving it."]
Roberts, David. "In Which CNN Devotes 7 Hours to Climate Change." On the Media (September 6, 2019) [MB -- I'm hoping this will be a tipping point in the way in which we conduct the investigation of candidate positions and, hopefully, a move away from the soundbite candidate forums of the two major parties. Fascinating example of the power of informed citizens asking pertinent questions of candidates who are allowed the time to unpack their positions ... as opposed to the media bobbleheads prompting pithy comments in the hope of a viral moment. Could you imagine the Twitter-in-Chief trying to survive a few of these 40 minute intense question-and-answer sessions? "... CNN hosted a town hall forum with ten Democratic primary candidates discussing their policy proposals for addressing the climate crisis. The DNC declined requests from climate activists to host a themed debate for the issue, so CNN had the candidates on back-to-back for 7 hours as moderators took turns asking questions with an audience of activists, PhD students, and professors. According to David Roberts, who covers energy and climate change for Vox, it was actually a meaningful event. The questions from audience members were personal, informed, and incisive and the candidates were surprisingly specific in their answers. Roberts tells Brooke what he learned from the town hall about different frames for discussing climate change, and how journalists are still catching up on the conversation."]
Roberts, Neil. "Race, Injustice, and Philosophy: An Interview with Tommie Shelby." Black Perspectives (January 2, 2018)
Roy, Arundhati. "Capitalism: A Ghost Story" We Are Many (March 26, 2014 at The New School in NYC) ["From the poisoned rivers, barren wells, and clear-cut forests, to the hundreds of thousands of farmers who have committed suicide to escape punishing debt, to the hundreds of millions of people who live on less than two dollars a day, there are ghosts nearly everywhere you look in India. India is a nation of 1.2 billion, but the country’s 100 richest people own assets equivalent to one-fourth of India’s gross domestic product. Capitalism: A Ghost Story examines the dark side of democracy in contemporary India, and shows how the demands of globalized capitalism has subjugated billions of people to the highest and most intense forms of racism and exploitation."]
Sainato, Michael. "'Coal is over': The miners rooting for the Green New Deal." The Guardian (August 12, 2019) ["Appalachia’s main industry is dying and some workers are looking to a new economic promise after Trump’s proves empty."]
Schulman, Sarah. "AIDs and Gentrification." Against the Grain (November 20, 2012)
Schyler, Krista. "Butterflies, Bison and the Border Wall." She Explores (2019)
["Conservation photographer Krista Schlyer describes the almost 2,000-mile border between the US and Mexico as a vibrant landscape teeming with life. Raising awareness for its biodiversity has become an integral part of her life’s work and is the focus of a new documentary film she directed, Ay Mariposa, which came out in May. We hear a lot about the border wall in the news, but we don’t often talk about the wildlife and landscape that its construction impacts.
Note: We want to emphasize that while there’s a lot of talk about flora and fauna in this episode, it’s not to discount the very human elements of the US/Mexico border – it’s simply to highlight what exists alongside it."]
Scialabba, George. "Back to the Land: Wendell Berry in the Path of Modernity." The Baffler (January 2020)
Scofield, Jerri-Lynn. "Plastic Watch: First Ocean Cleanup Array to Launch Tomorrow." Naked Capitalism (September 7, 2018)
Shapiro, Art, et al. "Working with the Earth." The Point #18 (Winter 2019) ["This fall and winter we invited people who work with the land—farmers, ranchers, foresters, ecologists and others—to tell us what they think the earth is for. What follows is a selection of the responses we received."]
Fungi throw our concepts of individuality and even intelligence into question. They are metabolic masters, earth makers, and key players in most of life's processes. They can change our minds, heal our bodies, and even help us remediate environmental disaster. By examining fungi on their own terms, Sheldrake reveals how these extraordinary organisms--and our relationships with them--are changing our understanding of how life works."]
Shermer, Ellie. "On Local Elites Creating a 'Good Business Climate.'" Who Makes Cents? (December 5, 2014) ["Ellie Shermer discusses her book Sunbelt Capitalism: Phoenix and the Transformation of American Politics. On this episode, we speak to Ellie Shermer about how local elites in Phoenix crafted a “business climate” that made Pheonix hospitable to industry and shaped both the modern sunbelt and contemporary politics."]
Shiva, Vandana. "Prop 37, GMOs, Food Sovereignty, and More." Uprising Radio (October 31, 2012)---. "The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply." Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2000: 5-20.
Sigal, Clancy. "Blair Mountain and labor's living history." The Guardian (November 11, 2011)
Simons, Marco. "Supreme Court to Decide Whether U.S. Corporations Can Be Sued for Abuses Overseas." Democracy Now (February 24, 2012)
Smith, Victoria L. "The Heterotopias of Todd Haynes: Creating Space for Same Sex Desire in Carol." Film Criticism 42.1 (March 2018) ["Using Foucault’s concept of heterotopia (an “other space”), this essay contends space is key to understanding Haynes’s Carol. It examines how Haynes, through his meticulous attention to framings, textures, color, and spatial relations, creates a queer counter space, time, and look—a rejection of early 1950s social and sexual propriety."]
Springer, Claudia. "Shadow Films: Picturing the Environmental Crisis." Jump Cut #58 (Spring 2018) ["For the powerful forces invested in preserving the status quo, even limited environmental protections that threaten traditional modes of corporate profit-making provoke fierce opposition. Corporate stakeholders wield political power through lobbying and donations, and, increasingly, they hold government positions. A 2016 study by the Center for American Progress Action Fund found that 34% of American Congress members denied climate change and had been paid over $73 million in contributions by oil, gas, and coal companies. Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, who famously claimed that climate change is "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," has reportedly accepted more than $2 million from the fossil fuel industry (Herzog). The fallout from political inaction means that people have lost their lives in the U.S., China, Nigeria, Ecuador, and Peru, among other countries, because of the oil, gas, and mining industries' toxic practices and attacks on opponents. The propaganda battles fought with images inflame a war with catastrophic consequences."]
Suzuki, David. "On the Environment with a Focus on Climate Change." Lannan Podcasts (November 13, 2012)
Teutsch, Matthew. "The Problem with Confederate Monuments in Public Spaces." Black Perspectives (July 26, 2017)
Thigpen, Ricky, et al. "The Greening of America: A New Deal for Everyone?" Making Contact (June 24, 2009)
Thomas, Dana. "Fashion Kills." The American Scholar (September 6, 2019) ["How our hunger for more clothes is killing the environment and exploiting workers."]
Thompson, Derek. "The Post-Pandemic American Marketplace." On the Media (May 1, 2020) ["Coronavirus has prompted the shutdown of the American marketplace as we know it. Shops are boarded up, restaurants have shifted to a take-out only model, and tens of millions have been laid off. Eventually, some semblance of our economy will return — but what kind of economy will it be? Derek Thompson, staff writer at The Atlantic, expects that the pandemic will radically reshape American consumption — from the components of our diets to the composition of our cities."]
Thunberg, Greta. "Greta Thunberg Slams COP25, Says Response to Climate Crisis Is 'Clever Accounting and Creative PR.'" Democracy Now (December 12, 2019) ["At the U.N. climate summit in Madrid, 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg addressed world leaders Wednesday, hours after she was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. Thunberg came to the talks after a trip to meet with climate leaders across North America in anticipation of the scheduled climate conference in Santiago, Chile, before the talks were abruptly moved to the Spanish capital. In her address, Thunberg warned that the planet’s carbon budget is down to just eight years, and urged bold action. “I still believe that the biggest danger is not inaction. The real danger is when politicians and CEOs are making it look like real action is happening when in fact almost nothing is being done apart from clever accounting and creative PR,” Thunberg said."]
---. "How Dare You! Greta Thunberg Slams World’s Focus on Economic “Fairy Tales” While Ecosystems Collapse." Democracy Now (September 24, 2019) ["Scores of world leaders gathered in New York on Monday for the U.N. Climate Action Summit, but the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters announced few new measures to address the climate crisis. President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence briefly attended the summit but left after just 14 minutes. At the beginning of the summit, 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg delivered an impassioned address to world leaders, explicitly naming their inaction on the climate crisis. “People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing,” Greta said. “We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”" Part 2: "In Landmark UN Complaint, 16 Children Accuse Nations of Failing to Protect Them from Climate Change." Part 3: "Meet Brazil’s Indigenous Leader Attacked by Bolsonaro at U.N. over Efforts to Preserve the Amazon."]
---. "'We Are Striking to Disrupt the System': An Hour with 16-Year-Old Climate Activist Greta Thunberg." Democracy Now (September 11, 2019) ["In her first extended broadcast interview in the United States, we spend the hour with Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who has inspired millions across the globe. Last year she launched a school strike for the climate, skipping school every Friday to stand in front of the Swedish parliament, demanding action to prevent catastrophic climate change. Her protest spread, quickly going global. Hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren around the globe have participated in their own local school strikes for the climate. Since her strike began in 2018, Greta has become a leading figure in the climate justice movement. She has joined protests across Europe. She has addressed world leaders at the U.N. climate talks in Poland and the European Union Parliament. She has even met the pope. And now she is in New York to join a global climate strike on September 20 and address the U.N. Climate Action Summit on September 23. Greta has refused to fly for years because of emissions, so she arrived here after a two-week transatlantic voyage aboard a zero-emissions racing yacht. She is also planning to attend the U.N. climate summit in Santiago, Chile, in December."]
"Trump Science Job Nominees Missing Advanced Science Degrees." Stat (December 5, 2017)
Urbina, Ian. "Politics Seen to Limit E.P.A. as It Sets Rules for Natural Gas." The New York Times (March 3, 2011)
Vaidya, Anjali. "Mining the Hurricane." Los Angeles Review of Books (October 3, 2018)
Ward, Chip. "How the ‘peaceful atom’ became a serial killer." Grist (March 27, 2011)
Webb, Laura. "Landmarks and memory: On the “When separate is not equal” bus." North of Center (November 7, 2012)
Werbe, Peter. "Green Scare Crackdown and Monsanto Political Prisoner Marie Mason." Law and Disorder Radio (August 12, 2013) ["Long time activist in environmental and labor movements Marie Mason continues to serve out a harsh 22 year prison sentence based on her involvement in two attacks of property damage and arson. Marie Mason is considered an eco-terrorist and is serving the longest sentence of any convicted animal rights or environmental militant. In one of the attacks, Mason and her husband Ambrose set fire to a Michigan State University building, targeting a Monsanto funded office in charge of a genetically modified crop research program to create moth resistant crops for Africa. Marie Mason was later set up by her husband who recorded their conversation that led to her conviction. As we continue to report, since 9/11, environmental radicals have been labeled terrorists, and charged with overly long sentences. This is part of what’s known as the “Green Scare” campaigns that seek to put a chill on dissent."]
White, Courtney. "Conservation's Radical Center." The Point #18 (Winter 2019) ["I was a conservationist, which supposedly put me on one side of this fight, yet the conflict had the hallmarks of tragedy. Both sides, and all of us in between, seemed destined to lose what we all valued: the health and diversity of the West’s open spaces. The hardheadedness of this fight also reflected other divides in the nation—the red and blue split that would soon engulf our national politics."]
Wisner, Brent. "Historic Ruling Against Monsanto Finds Company Acted with 'Malice' Against Groundskeeper with Cancer." Democracy Now (August 14, 2018) ["California jurors have awarded $289 million in a historic verdict against Monsanto in the case of a school groundskeeper who developed cancer after using its weed killer, Roundup. We speak with Brent Wisner, the lead trial counsel for Dewayne Lee Johnson, who has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Doctors say he is unlikely to live past 2020. Johnson’s was the first lawsuit to go to trial alleging glyphosate causes cancer. Filed in 2016, it was fast-tracked for trial due to the severity of his illness."]