Multispecies Grief in the Wake of Megafires
A global coalition of authors articulate the environmental violence of megafires by focusing on the myriad experiences of multispecies grief in their wake.
Category: Essays
The Problem with Wind Farming on Rajasthan’s Sacred Lands
Orans are sacred lands in the Thar Desert that are are being developed for wind energy projects. Nisha Paliwal argues that while wind energy is considered sustainable, it is experienced as violent extractivism by nearby village communities.
Pandemics, Predation, and Crip Worldings
Mollie Holmberg takes crip lessons from philosopher Val Plumwood’s experience of being prey to a crocodile, pointing toward strategies for collective pandemic survival and resistance to environmental violence.
Work, Play, and Elephants in South Florida’s Leisure Landscape
Two elephants came to live in Miami Beach with resort guests in the 1920s, troubling the divides between humans and animals, work and play. Anna Vemer Andrzejewski examines the ambiguous role these elephants occupied in Florida’s leisure landscape.
The Violence of Gated Communities in Buenos Aires’s Wetlands
Real estate developments emulating U.S.-style master-planned communities are popular in Buenos Aires. Mara Dicenta unpacks the violence such developments enact on the environment and the community, as well as the resurgence against them.
Young, Queer Farmers Are Here to Change U.S. Agriculture
Today’s queer youth are more interested in farming than ever. Eliza Pessereau surveyed members of the Queer Farmer Listserv to understand their challenges and motivations for going “back to the land.”
The Transformative and Hungry Technologies of Copper Mining
Robrecht Declercq and Duncan Money, editors of the recent book Born With a Copper Spoon, explore the past and future relationship between mining technologies and the environment.
Into the Not-So-Wild World of Pokémon
From adorable pets to exotic safaris, the Pokémon universe offers a sprawling jungle gym for players. Writer and gamer Nate Carlin gives a guided tour of what he calls the franchise’s naive ecotopia.
The Boy and The Bird
Nancy J. Jacobs explores the thought-provoking, tragic relationship between enslaved Africans and the African grey parrot in eighteenth century European portraiture.
When Aboriginal Burning Practices Meet Colonial Legacies in Australia
Aboriginal burning regimes have become popular as a solution to prevent catastrophic wildfires in Australia. Mardi Reardon-Smith argues that Aboriginal peoples’ fire knowledge is not static, as contemporary burning results from both colonial histories and the intercultural co-creation of environmental knowledges.
