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.
Belated new year’s greetings and welcome to our first newsletter of 2023! This time, you’ll be able to read up on biodiversity and colonialist conservation; the battle to save Germany’s Lützerath from being swallowed by a coal mine; the ‘Cop City’ protests in Atlanta, Georgia to save the South River Forest; nuclear fusion; why fake meat is just another food fad; psychedelics and climate activism; international struggles for justice; and so many other important topics.
If you find these lists useful, you can support us by sharing them on social media and with your friends and family!
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!
Top 5 articles to read
Beyond Meat (BYND), Impossible Foods burgers are just another food fad
‘We’ll fight until the end’: a journey through the centre of Peru’s uprising
Another uprising is in the making in Tunisia
Canada birthed a mining industry in Chinese-occupied Tibet
We are ‘greening’ ourselves to extinction
News you might’ve missed
How Ghana, Africa’s rising star, ended up in economic turmoil
OpenAI used Kenyan workers on less than $2 per hour to make ChatGPT less toxic
Death in the marshes: environmental calamity hits Iraq’s unique wetlands
Sweden’s shameless pursuit of ”green minerals” generate a conflict with the Sami people
Where we’re at: analysis
Contesting cannibal capitalism. Nancy Fraser on the destructive nature of our system.
Paying for an overheating Earth. The euphoria over the creation of a loss-and-damage fund was well justified, but the struggle is far from over.
The labor of land. In order to better resist contemporary, neocolonial accumulation, we need to historicize land grabs in Africa.
Biodiversity and colonialist conservation
The world is losing its biological complexity
Why 30×30 would be the worst possible outcome of COP15
Harriet Friedmann reviews George Monbiot’s Regenesis
Decolonizing nature: How “wilderness” dispossesses Indigenous People
Global struggles
Fighting Amazon’s neo-colonialism in Cape Town
An unsolved murder amid Costa Rica’s Indigenous land disputes
Inside the battle to save the sacred peyote ceremony: ‘We’re in dire straits’
What we are saying is freedom, not the veil
Turkey is starving the Rojava revolution
Mennonites deforest Peruvian Amazon, encroach on Indigenous lands
Land conflicts targeting Indigenous communities intensify in Northern Guatemala
Lützerath, Germany
HSBC’s secretive loan to a coal company bulldozing a village
Cop City in Atlanta, Georgia
Activists occupying the woods to block ‘Cop City’ face terrorism charges
Documents show how 19 ‘Cop City’ activists got charged with terrorism
‘Assassinated in cold blood’: activist killed protesting Georgia’s ‘Cop City’
Stop Cop City! Revisiting degrowth & permanent ecological conflict
Cities and radical municipalism
Luisa Cáceres: Commune-building in urban Venezuela
Why knowing your neighbors could save you in the next climate disaster
Tiny Free Stores & Libraries of Everything: Steps towards a post-capitalist future
‘You’re not welcome’: Mexico City residents decry Airbnb
Greener cities promote social and climate inequalities: 28-city study
Zimbabwe plans a new city for the rich as Harare decays
Barcelona offers free transit to residents who ditch their cars
Fusion
Fusion net gain is manufactured ignorance
Nuclear fusion: Don’t believe the hype!
Clean energy or weapons? What the ‘breakthrough’ in nuclear fusion really means
Fusion power may run out of fuel before it even gets started
Just think about it…
The 1 percent are many times worse than the rainforest wreckers
How much should inequality be reduced?
Reliance on hi-tech solutions to climate crisis perpetuates racism, says UN official
The hidden underwater forests that could help tackle the climate crisis
BlackRock says we’re all doomed. It’s being optimistic
Casteism and climate change: a deadly combination in South Asia
Tripping for the planet: Psychedelics and climate activism
Degrowth
All we are saying is give degrowth a chance. A decade ago, a container shipping worker had an epiphany, and it caused him to question the very basis of his business.
Degrowth can work — here’s how science can help
Sci-fi, art and storytelling
The definitive climate fiction reading list – 20 books to explore cli-fi
Resources
Comic: The corporate capture of food systems
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