Once a month, we put together a list of stories we’ve been reading: news you might’ve missed or crucial conversations going on around the web. We focus on environmental justice, radical municipalism, new politics, political theory, and resources for action and education.
We try to include articles that have been published recently but will last, that are relatively light and inspiring, and are from corners of the web that don’t always get the light of day. This will also be a space to keep you up to date with news about what’s happening at Uneven Earth.
This month, we are featuring articles illustrating what decolonial ecology could look like—and, in the corollary, analyses of racism in the environmental movement and climate denial by liberals. As real estate markets become unstable, investors are looking for safe places to put their money—farmland and extractive industries. So we are putting the spotlight on fights for land reform, anti-extractivist struggles, and Indigenous movements around the world. Finally, with the start of a new school year and online education, we noticed an uptick of radical syllabi for making sense of the world—we collected these in our resources section.
A small note that the articles linked in this newsletter do not represent the views of Uneven Earth. When reading, please keep in mind that we don’t have capacity to do further research on the authors or publishers!
Uneven Earth updates
Population | “Neo-Malthusian promotion of family planning as the solution to hunger, conflict, and poverty has contributed to destructive population control approaches, that are targeted most often at poor, racialized women.”
Littoral Drift: Coastal currents and industrial echoes mingle to shape the landscape in Southern France | Photographer and filmmaker Neal Rockwell explores new natures on the Landes coast
The Revolution Will Not Be “Green” | A truly equitable and sustainable conservation movement must abandon both green capitalism and the idea of pristine nature
Top 5 articles to read
Cogs in the climate machine. A short course in planetary time, for planetary survival.
The coronavirus-climate-air conditioning nexus
Agro-imperialism in the time of Covid-19
News you might’ve missed
‘A critical situation’: Bangladesh in crisis as monsoon floods follow super-cyclone, and Monsoons slam South Asia, displacing millions in Bangladesh and India
Privatisation ‘wave’ hurts global poor as pandemic heightens risks
To fill vacant units, Barcelona seizes apartments
South Korea backtracks on green promise
Belgian Green parties introduce ecocide bill
Surprise discoveries in Mexico cave may double time of peopling of the Americas
Theoretical physicists say 90% chance of societal collapse within several decades. Deforestation and rampant resource use is likely to trigger the ‘irreversible collapse’ of human civilization unless we rapidly change course.
Global land struggles
New Brazilian map unmasks its illegal foresters
After the war, before the flood, in Colombia
An oil spill in the time of coronavirus
Land Back, the unheeded lesson of ‘Oka Crisis,’ 30 years on
Dakota Access Pipeline decision: The Standing Rock generation triumphs
Environmental activists face high risk of violence and assassination: study
Beyond biological warfare: Why COVID-19 is a matter of land distribution in Latin America
Coronavirus
Ecology and economics for pandemic prevention
Lessons from the pandemic for the municipalists in Spain
Uneven development and the coronavirus crisis
It’s time to tell a new story about coronavirus—our lives depend on it
Where we’re at: analysis
Himalayan hydropower is not a green alternative
The racist double standards of international development
‘Defund the police,’ ‘cancel rent’: The Left remakes the world
Has 2020 marked the end of progressive left electoralism?
Beyond the Green New Deal: A review of Stan Cox’s new book
From neoliberalism to necrocapitalism in 20 years
Is Deep Adaptation flawed science?
Just think about it…
Twitter thread: “The summer heat continues. Let’s have a look at how the ancient Romans built themselves a cool, breezy, indoor climate“
When France extorted Haiti – the greatest heist in history
Trump has brought America’s dirty wars home
In Mexico City, the coronavirus is bringing back Aztec-era ‘floating gardens’
Decolonial ecologies
Growing sovereignty: Turtle Island and the future of food
Agroecology is solution to Nigeria’s food, farming challenges, say experts
Environmentalism, racism, and the right
Environmental group Sierra Club reckons with John Muir’s racism
Beware the rise of Far-Right environmentalism
Confronting the rise of eco-fascism means grappling with complex systems
The willful blindness of reactionary liberalism
Bad science and bad arguments abound in ‘Apocalypse Never’ by Michael Shellenberger. See also: ‘False Alarm’ and ‘Apocalypse Never’ book reviews
Cities and radical municipalism
I’ve seen a future without cars, and it’s amazing
Political organizing in the 21st century
Another town is possible: community wealth building in the Basque Country
Forget basic income—in Canada, the new normal should bring a public housing revolution
Green structural adjustment in the World Bank’s resilient cities
The “Camden model” for community policing is not a model. It’s an obstacle to real change.
Public transportation is a human right
Assembled in Detroit. An interview with Mason Herson-Hord about community organizing in Detroit, Michigan.
Poppies. “The land we’re standing on was a golf course. Three years have passed since it was last used as one, and nature has made little headway in claiming it back.”
Why Miami is doomed—and what it would take to save it
Resources
Interface special issue on organising amidst COVID-19
The Ecoversities Alliance is committed to radically re-imagining higher education to cultivate human and ecological flourishing
Mexie’s positive Leftist news roundup, a monthly series on YouTube
System change: A basic primer to the solidarity economy
Decolonising methods: A reading list
Green New Deal(s): A resource list for political ecologists
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