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’s list is a little shorter than usual, but maybe that’s not a bad thing! In April, we read stories about India’s Covid catastrophe, the dangers of the concept of net zero, toxic USA, an Aboriginal family beating back a fossil fuel conglomerate, the death and post-Covid comeback of “third spaces”, as well as a fact-check of the new Netflix documentary Seaspiracy and a general critique of nature documentaries, to name a few. There’s also been quite a bit of discussion around Malmology — a very serious term we coined to describe Andreas Malm’s work. And, as you probably know by now, degrowth, global environmental justice struggles, radical municipalism, and new politics are recurring themes in our readings.
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
We hit 5k followers on Twitter this month — join the party!
Is green growth happening? | The answer is no. Decoupling will not be enough to ensure ecological sustainability without a downscaling of production and consumption.
The commons | The commons opposes and transcends the logic of capitalism by building relations based on cooperation, solidarity, mutualism and direct democracy
Review of Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador by Thea Riofrancos | Resource Radicals marks an important contribution to burgeoning literature on resource politics and democratic practice
Well diggers tackling water woes in a megacity: The case of Bangalore, India | The ever-fast growing metropolis Bangalore is running out of groundwater. Yet traditional water practices might be key to a sustainable use of the blue gold below us.
Top 5 articles to read
Did climate change cause societies to collapse? New research upends the old story.
Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous trap
How an Aboriginal family beat back a fossil fuel conglomerate
How value weaponises the machine. In Breaking Things at Work, Gavin Mueller reminds us that the new antagonism between consumer and platform over data capture is not unlike the struggle between worker and capitalist over wages and the working day.
Arundhati Roy on India’s Covid catastrophe: ‘We are witnessing a crime against humanity’
News you might’ve missed
Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine research ‘was 97% publicly funded’
Rich countries are refusing to waive the rights on Covid vaccines as global cases hit record levels
Environment protest being criminalised around world, say experts
A top U.S. seller of carbon offsets starts investigating its own projects
French lawmakers approve a ban on short domestic flights
Toxic USA
‘No community should suffer this’: Florida’s toxic breach was decades in the making
The toxic legacy of the US military in the Pacific
Nuclear colonialism and the Marshall Islands
Global environmental justice struggles
Georgia: guardians of the Rioni Valley face off the dams
Attacks on forest-dependent communities in Indonesia and resistance stories
Canada: hummingbirds succeed in halting controversial pipeline construction
Where we’re at: analysis
SILENCE = DEATH, ACTION = LIFE: New relevance of HIV/AIDS organizing in COVID pandemic times
The rise and fall of multilateralism
Revenge of the plans. Why do we keep reviving technocratic climate politics when it has consistently failed?
Digital colonialism: the evolution of American empire
Joe Biden’s new Climate Pledge isn’t fair or ambitious
Just think about it…
Deepfake satellite imagery poses a not-so-distant threat, warn geographers
Why bitcoin is bad for the environment
Learning a new language can help us escape climate catastrophe. Many Indigenous languages have been forcefully wiped out by white people. Turns out, they’re some of our main hopes for beating the climate crisis.
The problem with nature documentaries
What Netflix’s Seaspiracy gets wrong about fishing, explained by a marine biologist
The 7 reasons why nuclear energy is not the answer to solve climate change
To save the Earth, dismantle individuality
Malmology
The kaleidoscope of catastrophe – On the clarities and blind spots of Andreas Malm
Can sabotage stop climate change?
How to blow up a movement: Andreas Malm’s new book dreams of sabotage but ignores consequences
Andreas Malm’s Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency
Degrowth
Why Malthus’s gospel of growth was, and still is, wrong
Degrowth in demand. Lexie Smith and Jamie Tyberg on degrowth, decolonization, and agriculture.
New politics
From fossil capitalism to green democracy
Book review: Enlightenment and ecology: The legacy of Murray Bookchin in the 21st century
A youth revolt is under way in South Korea
Farmers are using their stimmys to grow free food for their communities
Sci-fi
Born to rewild: Jeff VanderMeer on what it means to restore your own little part of the world
Cities and radical municipalism
The death and post-Covid rebirth of ‘third places’. “Third spaces” like coffeeshops, gyms and libraries are critical for building community ties and boosting social cohesion. What happens when they almost disappear for more than a year?
Resources
Gender bias in Academe: An annotated bibliography of important recent studies
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