January readings

Photo: Amber Bracken for The New York Times

Once a month, we put together a list of stories we’ve been reading: things you might’ve missed or crucial conversations going on around the web. We focus on environmental and social justice, cities, science fiction, current events, and political theory.

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’re once again featuring analysis about radical municipalism, degrowth and the green new deal. We’ve also published another piece about the Gilets Jaunes movement in France. Most importantly, though, we are featuring analysis about the Indigenous struggles against pipelines in Canada, the threat of a coup d’état in Venezuela, and farming politics. We’ve also collected some resources on Indigenous allyship. Enjoy!

Uneven Earth updates

Gilets Jaunes: A slap in the face of our vocabulary | LinkA report from an observer


Top 5 articles to read

Twelve step method to conduct regime change

Bill Gates says poverty is decreasing. He couldn’t be more wrong

Her left hand, the darkness

An interview with Max Liboiron on what it means to do anti-colonial, feminist science

The political economy of Half-Earth


Venezuela

Venezuela crisis: Former UN rapporteur says US sanctions are killing citizens

There is nothing more undemocratic than a coup d’état. Former UN Rapporteur speaks to Democracy Now and talks about the threat of civil war.

US Coup in Venezuela Motivated by Oil and Corporate Interests – Militarist John Bolton Spills the Beans | The Grayzone

The Making of Juan Guaidó: How the US Regime Change Laboratory Created Venezuela’s Coup Leader | The Grayzone

Venezuela Speaks Out against the Coup | Venezuelanalysis.com


News you might’ve missed

The United Nations backs seed sovereignty in landmark small-scale farmers’ rights declaration | GreenBiz

Gilets Jaunes “Assembly of Assemblies” calls for massive strike | Roar Magazine

Brazil’s grief turns to anger as death toll from Vale disaster hits 60 | Reuters

Bolsonaro government reveals plan to develop the ‘Unproductive Amazon’

Poor southerners are joining the globe’s climate migrants | Scalawag

Vancouver City Council votes to declare ‘climate emergency’ | Globalnews.ca

How Police Are Preparing for a Standoff Over Enbridge Line 3


The future (and past) of farming and energy

How Aquaponics, A.K.A. Fish Poop, Can Grow Food Using Less Water And Land | HuffPost Canada

Can we ditch intensive farming – and still feed the world? | News | The Guardian

We need regenerative farming, not geoengineering | Guardian Sustainable Business | The Guardian

What would Australia look like powered by 100% renewable energy? | Nicky Ison | Opinion | The Guardian

Mexico’s Energy Transformation? — THE TROUBLE. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised a “fourth transformation” of the Mexican state and is taking back control of the national oil and gas firm. Workers, indigenous groups, and the environmental movement in Mexico and internationally can push the agenda further.

Farm Women, Dairymaids, and the Welfare State: Story of an International Collaboration | Rural Women’s Studies

‘Freedom Farmers’ Tells the History of Black Farmers Uniting Against Racism | Civil Eats


Where we’re at: analysis

Headless populism and the political ecology of alienation | ENTITLE blog

Climate Change, Not Border Security, Is the Real National Emergency

The Problem Isn’t Robots Taking Our Jobs. It’s Oligarchs Taking Our Power

REDD+: A lost decade for international forest conservation | Heinrich Böll Foundation

The zombie technofix: Carbon capture and storage | The Ecologist

George Orwell said the world’s bureaucrats couldn’t take spring from us, but they are | Jeff Sparrow | Opinion | The Guardian

Davos and ‘capitalist time’

Vampire finance sucks the lifeblood out of the economy: An interview with Saskia Sassen | Red Pepper

A mad world: capitalism and the rise of mental illness | Red Pepper

Silvia Federici: Every Woman Is a Working Woman | Boston Review

Degrowth and the Green New Deal

Opinion: Sooner or later, we have to stop economic growth | Ensia

Discussing Degrowth with Giorgos Kallis – Plan A Academy

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘Green New Deal’ is actually an old socialist plan from Canada | Fox News

That Green Growth at the Heart of the Green New Deal? It’s Malignant – Resilience

Inequality and the ecological transition — Jason Hickel

Economic expansion boosts carbon emissions, despite green-tech gains


Indigenous struggles

The women fighting a pipeline that could destroy precious wildlife | US news | The Guardian

Canadian teen tells UN ‘warrior up’ to protect water | CBC News

‘The Nation Has Stood Up’: Indigenous Clans in Canada Battle Pipeline Project – The New York Times

Using Art to Explore Indigenous Rights, Activism and Environment | The Tyee


Just think about it…

Fascinating new map shows EVERY river basin on the globe with a different colour | Daily Mail Online

Scientists are working on a pill for loneliness | US news | The Guardian

PTSD is a western concept, says Palestine’s head of mental health services — Quartz

Collapse: You cannot prepare for what remains unthinkable – Jussi Pasanen


Radical municipalism

Fate of castles in the air in Turkey’s £151m ghost town | World news | The Guardian

Rebel Cities 18: Eight Years After Jasmine Revolution, Jemna Is Tunisia’s Oasis of Hope | Occupy.com

Did a green development project drive up the rent in a Montreal neighbourhood? | National Observer

‘Shared equity’ model for U.S. housing boosts home ownership for poorer families | PLACE

The municipalist revolution | International Politics and Society – IPS. The ‘new municipalism’ might just be the only really innovative process inside the European left.

Degrowth and the City – e-flux Architecture – e-flux

How Cities Make Money by Fining the Poor – The New York Times

Suburb Socialism – Dispatchula – Medium


New politics

Space the Nation: Dissing Utopia | SYFY WIRE. Conservatives aren’t just arguing against having to part with individual wealth, they’re arguing against change; they’re not just dismissing utopia, they’re rejecting the future itself.

Some Notes On Mass Refusal: Kim Kelly Interview with IGD – It’s Going Down

Remembering Erik Olin Wright | Dissent Magazine

A Black-Owned Food Co-op Grows in Detroit | CityLab

Chile’s feminists inspire a new era of social struggle | ROAR Magazine

Seeing Wetiko: An interview with Alnoor Ladha – Ecologise

If we want to solve complex environmental and social problems, we need to think in terms of systems | Ensia


Resources

When your research is attacked | Discard Studies

What Is Settler-Colonialism? | Teaching Tolerance

Montreal non-profit launches toolkit on how to be an Indigenous ally | CBC News

Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books with a Powerful Message of Social Justice – The B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog

An Annotated Bibliography on Structural Racism Present in the U.S. Food System, Sixth Edition – Center for Regional Food Systems

New book, Fearless Cities edited by Ada Colau and Debbie Bookchin. The first book written by and for the global municipalist movement.

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