Joseph D. Witt
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813168128
- eISBN:
- 9780813168753
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813168128.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This volume examines the complex roles of religious values and perceptions of place in the efforts of twenty-first-century anti-mountaintop removal activists in Appalachia. Applying theoretical ...
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This volume examines the complex roles of religious values and perceptions of place in the efforts of twenty-first-century anti-mountaintop removal activists in Appalachia. Applying theoretical insights from religious studies, Appalachian studies, and critical regionalism, the work charts how views of Appalachian place were transformed and revised through activism and how different religious threads were involved in that process, weaving together patterns of meaning and significance to help motivate activist efforts and reshape visions of Appalachia. The specific religious threads examined include Catholic and mainline Protestant visions of eco-justice (or religiously inspired arguments in support of social and environmental justice), evangelical Christian views of Creation Care (a term encompassing multiple visions of theocentric stewardship ethics), and forms of nature-venerating spirituality (including spiritual and religious proponents of biocentric ethics and “dark green religion”). These religious perspectives encountered friction with other perspectives, structures, and practices, generating new perspectives on the issue formed from physical interactions between diverse stakeholders as well as new visions for Appalachia in a post-mountaintop removal future. The work points to ways that scholars might continue to analyze the interconnections between local religious values and perceptions of place, influencing further studies in the interdisciplinary field of religion and nature, place studies, and social movements.Less
This volume examines the complex roles of religious values and perceptions of place in the efforts of twenty-first-century anti-mountaintop removal activists in Appalachia. Applying theoretical insights from religious studies, Appalachian studies, and critical regionalism, the work charts how views of Appalachian place were transformed and revised through activism and how different religious threads were involved in that process, weaving together patterns of meaning and significance to help motivate activist efforts and reshape visions of Appalachia. The specific religious threads examined include Catholic and mainline Protestant visions of eco-justice (or religiously inspired arguments in support of social and environmental justice), evangelical Christian views of Creation Care (a term encompassing multiple visions of theocentric stewardship ethics), and forms of nature-venerating spirituality (including spiritual and religious proponents of biocentric ethics and “dark green religion”). These religious perspectives encountered friction with other perspectives, structures, and practices, generating new perspectives on the issue formed from physical interactions between diverse stakeholders as well as new visions for Appalachia in a post-mountaintop removal future. The work points to ways that scholars might continue to analyze the interconnections between local religious values and perceptions of place, influencing further studies in the interdisciplinary field of religion and nature, place studies, and social movements.
Norman Wirzba
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195157161
- eISBN:
- 9780199835270
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195157168.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter charts the development of ecology as a science and then highlights the cultural and educational significance of this way of thinking. The career of Aldo Leopold is considered in order to ...
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This chapter charts the development of ecology as a science and then highlights the cultural and educational significance of this way of thinking. The career of Aldo Leopold is considered in order to show the transformation in thought necessary for a more robust environmentalism. The foundations are also laid for an ecological ethic, a garden aesthetic, and a conversation between religion and ecology around the topic of death.Less
This chapter charts the development of ecology as a science and then highlights the cultural and educational significance of this way of thinking. The career of Aldo Leopold is considered in order to show the transformation in thought necessary for a more robust environmentalism. The foundations are also laid for an ecological ethic, a garden aesthetic, and a conversation between religion and ecology around the topic of death.
Norman Wirzba
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195157161
- eISBN:
- 9780199835270
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195157168.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Given the wholeness of membership that creation itself is, an environmentalism is proposed that does not take us out of nature but places us more responsibly within it. Practical suggestions are ...
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Given the wholeness of membership that creation itself is, an environmentalism is proposed that does not take us out of nature but places us more responsibly within it. Practical suggestions are offered that will strengthen our identities and vocations as creatures made by God to serve the well-being of the whole creation. Our challenge is to design communities and construct built environments that will reflect God’s justice and peace.Less
Given the wholeness of membership that creation itself is, an environmentalism is proposed that does not take us out of nature but places us more responsibly within it. Practical suggestions are offered that will strengthen our identities and vocations as creatures made by God to serve the well-being of the whole creation. Our challenge is to design communities and construct built environments that will reflect God’s justice and peace.
Jessica Smartt Gullion
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029766
- eISBN:
- 9780262329798
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029766.001.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
When natural gas drilling moves into an urban or a suburban neighborhood, a two-hundred-foot-high drill appears on the other side of a back yard fence and diesel trucks clog a quiet two-lane ...
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When natural gas drilling moves into an urban or a suburban neighborhood, a two-hundred-foot-high drill appears on the other side of a back yard fence and diesel trucks clog a quiet two-lane residential street. Children seem to be having more than the usual number of nosebleeds. There are so many local cases of cancer that the elementary school starts a cancer support group. In this book, Jessica Smartt Gullion examines what happens when natural gas extraction by means of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” takes place not on wide-open rural land but in a densely populated area with homes, schools, hospitals, parks, and businesses. Gullion focuses on fracking in the Barnett Shale, the natural-gas–rich geological formation under the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. She gives voice to the residents—for the most part educated, middle class, and politically conservative—who became reluctant anti-drilling activists in response to perceived environmental and health threats posed by fracking. Gullion offers an overview of oil and gas development and describes the fossil-fuel culture of Texas, the process of fracking, related health concerns, and regulatory issues (including the notorious “Halliburton loophole”). She chronicles the experiences of community activists as they fight to be heard and to get the facts about the safety of fracking. Touted as a greener alternative and a means to reduce dependence on foreign oil, natural gas development is an important part of American energy policy. Yet, as this book shows, it comes at a cost to the local communities who bear the health and environmental burdens.Less
When natural gas drilling moves into an urban or a suburban neighborhood, a two-hundred-foot-high drill appears on the other side of a back yard fence and diesel trucks clog a quiet two-lane residential street. Children seem to be having more than the usual number of nosebleeds. There are so many local cases of cancer that the elementary school starts a cancer support group. In this book, Jessica Smartt Gullion examines what happens when natural gas extraction by means of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” takes place not on wide-open rural land but in a densely populated area with homes, schools, hospitals, parks, and businesses. Gullion focuses on fracking in the Barnett Shale, the natural-gas–rich geological formation under the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. She gives voice to the residents—for the most part educated, middle class, and politically conservative—who became reluctant anti-drilling activists in response to perceived environmental and health threats posed by fracking. Gullion offers an overview of oil and gas development and describes the fossil-fuel culture of Texas, the process of fracking, related health concerns, and regulatory issues (including the notorious “Halliburton loophole”). She chronicles the experiences of community activists as they fight to be heard and to get the facts about the safety of fracking. Touted as a greener alternative and a means to reduce dependence on foreign oil, natural gas development is an important part of American energy policy. Yet, as this book shows, it comes at a cost to the local communities who bear the health and environmental burdens.
Jennifer Thomson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781469651996
- eISBN:
- 9781469651668
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469651996.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
Health figures centrally in late twentieth-century environmental activism. There are many competing claims about the health of ecosystems, the health of the planet, and the health of humans, yet ...
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Health figures centrally in late twentieth-century environmental activism. There are many competing claims about the health of ecosystems, the health of the planet, and the health of humans, yet there is little agreement among the likes of D.C. lobbyists, grassroots organizers, eco-anarchist collectives, and science-based advocacy organizations about whose health matters most, or what health even means. In this book, Jennifer Thomson untangles the complex web of political, social, and intellectual developments that gave rise to the multiplicity of claims and concerns about environmental health.
Thomson traces four strands of activism from the 1970s to the present: the environmental lobby, environmental justice groups, radical environmentalism and bioregionalism, and climate justice activism. By focusing on health, environmentalists were empowered to intervene in the rise of neoliberalism, the erosion of the regulatory state, and the decimation of mass-based progressive politics. Yet, as this book reveals, an individualist definition of health ultimately won out over more communal understandings. Considering this turn from collective solidarity toward individual health helps explain the near paralysis of collective action in the face of planetary disaster.Less
Health figures centrally in late twentieth-century environmental activism. There are many competing claims about the health of ecosystems, the health of the planet, and the health of humans, yet there is little agreement among the likes of D.C. lobbyists, grassroots organizers, eco-anarchist collectives, and science-based advocacy organizations about whose health matters most, or what health even means. In this book, Jennifer Thomson untangles the complex web of political, social, and intellectual developments that gave rise to the multiplicity of claims and concerns about environmental health.
Thomson traces four strands of activism from the 1970s to the present: the environmental lobby, environmental justice groups, radical environmentalism and bioregionalism, and climate justice activism. By focusing on health, environmentalists were empowered to intervene in the rise of neoliberalism, the erosion of the regulatory state, and the decimation of mass-based progressive politics. Yet, as this book reveals, an individualist definition of health ultimately won out over more communal understandings. Considering this turn from collective solidarity toward individual health helps explain the near paralysis of collective action in the face of planetary disaster.
Anna Lora-Wainwright
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036320
- eISBN:
- 9780262341097
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036320.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Pollution is one of the most pressing issues facing contemporary China and among the most prominent causes for unrest. Much of industry and mining takes place in rural areas, yet we know little about ...
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Pollution is one of the most pressing issues facing contemporary China and among the most prominent causes for unrest. Much of industry and mining takes place in rural areas, yet we know little about how rural communities affected by severe pollution make sense of it and the diverse form of activism they embrace. This book describes some of these engagements with pollution through three in-depth case studies based on the author’s fieldwork and an analysis of “cancer villages” examined in existing social science accounts. It challenges assumptions that villagers are ignorant about pollution or fully complicit with it and it looks beyond high-profile cases and beyond single strategies. It examines how villagers’ concerns and practices evolve over time and how pollution may become normalised. Through the concept of “resigned activism”, it advocates rethinking conventional approaches to activism to encompass less visible forms of engagement. It offers insights into the complex dynamics of popular contention, environmental movements and their situatedness within local and national political economies. Describing a likely widespread scenario across much of industrialised rural China, this book provides a window onto the staggering human costs of development and the deeply uneven distribution of costs and benefits. It portrays rural environmentalism and its limitations as prisms through which to study key issues surrounding contemporary Chinese culture and society, such as state responsibility, social justice, ambivalence towards development and modernisation and some of the new fault lines of inequality and social conflict which they generate.Less
Pollution is one of the most pressing issues facing contemporary China and among the most prominent causes for unrest. Much of industry and mining takes place in rural areas, yet we know little about how rural communities affected by severe pollution make sense of it and the diverse form of activism they embrace. This book describes some of these engagements with pollution through three in-depth case studies based on the author’s fieldwork and an analysis of “cancer villages” examined in existing social science accounts. It challenges assumptions that villagers are ignorant about pollution or fully complicit with it and it looks beyond high-profile cases and beyond single strategies. It examines how villagers’ concerns and practices evolve over time and how pollution may become normalised. Through the concept of “resigned activism”, it advocates rethinking conventional approaches to activism to encompass less visible forms of engagement. It offers insights into the complex dynamics of popular contention, environmental movements and their situatedness within local and national political economies. Describing a likely widespread scenario across much of industrialised rural China, this book provides a window onto the staggering human costs of development and the deeply uneven distribution of costs and benefits. It portrays rural environmentalism and its limitations as prisms through which to study key issues surrounding contemporary Chinese culture and society, such as state responsibility, social justice, ambivalence towards development and modernisation and some of the new fault lines of inequality and social conflict which they generate.
Sarah M. Pike
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520294950
- eISBN:
- 9780520967892
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520294950.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
Drawing on analyses of activist art, music, and writings, as well as interviews and participant-observation in activist communities and at protests, For the Wild explores the ways in which radical ...
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Drawing on analyses of activist art, music, and writings, as well as interviews and participant-observation in activist communities and at protests, For the Wild explores the ways in which radical environmental and animal rights activists’ commitments develop through powerful experiences with the other-than-human world during childhood and young adulthood. The book addresses the question of how and why activists come to value nonhuman animals and the natural world as worthy of protection. For the Wild is about two kinds of ritual: conversion as a rite of passage or initiation into activism and protests as ritualized actions. In the context of conversion to activism, the book explores the ways in which the emotions of love, wonder, rage and grief that motivate radical activists develop through powerful, embodied relationships with nonhuman beings. These emotions, their ritualized expressions, and spirituality shape activists’ protest practices and help us understand their deep-rooted commitments to the planet and its creatures.Less
Drawing on analyses of activist art, music, and writings, as well as interviews and participant-observation in activist communities and at protests, For the Wild explores the ways in which radical environmental and animal rights activists’ commitments develop through powerful experiences with the other-than-human world during childhood and young adulthood. The book addresses the question of how and why activists come to value nonhuman animals and the natural world as worthy of protection. For the Wild is about two kinds of ritual: conversion as a rite of passage or initiation into activism and protests as ritualized actions. In the context of conversion to activism, the book explores the ways in which the emotions of love, wonder, rage and grief that motivate radical activists develop through powerful, embodied relationships with nonhuman beings. These emotions, their ritualized expressions, and spirituality shape activists’ protest practices and help us understand their deep-rooted commitments to the planet and its creatures.
Matthew M. Lambert
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496830401
- eISBN:
- 9781496830456
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496830401.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
This book argues that depression-era authors contributed to the development of modern environmental thought in three distinct ways. First, they began recognizing as never before the devastating and ...
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This book argues that depression-era authors contributed to the development of modern environmental thought in three distinct ways. First, they began recognizing as never before the devastating and even apocalyptic effects that humans can have on the environment, particularly in response to the period’s dust storms, flooding, and other human-created ecological disasters. Next, they acknowledged the ecological importance of nonhuman nature, including animal “predators” and “pests,” as conservationists were beginning to do during the period. And lastly, they laid the groundwork for what we now refer to as “environmental justice” by directly connecting environmental exploitation with racial, economic, and gender inequality. To illustrate the reach of environmental thought during the period, the first three chapters of the book focus on different geographical landscapes, including the wilderness, rural, and urban. The last chapter examines the period’s growing concern over the effects of technology on the human and nonhuman world. Ultimately, The Green Depression illustrates the importance of depression-era literature to the development of the modern environmentalist and environmental justice movements. It also contributes to a growing body of scholarship that identifies the importance of environmental thought to the literature and culture of African Americans and other minority groups as well as in considering urban landscapes and other built environments. Finally, the book seeks to initiate a conversation to consider how experiences and ideas from the period have influenced and can inform responses to the intersections of environmental, social, and economic issues in our own time.Less
This book argues that depression-era authors contributed to the development of modern environmental thought in three distinct ways. First, they began recognizing as never before the devastating and even apocalyptic effects that humans can have on the environment, particularly in response to the period’s dust storms, flooding, and other human-created ecological disasters. Next, they acknowledged the ecological importance of nonhuman nature, including animal “predators” and “pests,” as conservationists were beginning to do during the period. And lastly, they laid the groundwork for what we now refer to as “environmental justice” by directly connecting environmental exploitation with racial, economic, and gender inequality. To illustrate the reach of environmental thought during the period, the first three chapters of the book focus on different geographical landscapes, including the wilderness, rural, and urban. The last chapter examines the period’s growing concern over the effects of technology on the human and nonhuman world. Ultimately, The Green Depression illustrates the importance of depression-era literature to the development of the modern environmentalist and environmental justice movements. It also contributes to a growing body of scholarship that identifies the importance of environmental thought to the literature and culture of African Americans and other minority groups as well as in considering urban landscapes and other built environments. Finally, the book seeks to initiate a conversation to consider how experiences and ideas from the period have influenced and can inform responses to the intersections of environmental, social, and economic issues in our own time.
Frank Broeze
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780973007336
- eISBN:
- 9781786944719
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780973007336.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Maritime History
This book maintains that container shipping is vital to the actualisation of globalisation, and that without it, globalisation would remain a concept rather than reality. It argues that container ...
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This book maintains that container shipping is vital to the actualisation of globalisation, and that without it, globalisation would remain a concept rather than reality. It argues that container shipping has been academically overlooked as a global business sector in favour of more prominent sectors such as oil or arms trade, and aims to provide a complete history of containerisation from the 1950s to the turn of the millennium. This history explores the growth of the container industry due to prominent innovation in vessel design, early adoption of the internet, large international mergers, and significant physical alterations to the global port system. With particular emphasis on the east-west trade, the chapters cover the growth and development of the container industry, to the social changes experienced by seafaring labour forces, the cultural impact of the container - bringing a domineering land-presence to maritime activity, through to the environmental concerns surrounding the industry. The study is not a quantitative economic analysis of the industry, rather, an updated history that strives to demonstrate the importance of transport infrastructures to any consideration of global business sectors, by providing evidence of the container industry’s stimulation of the global economy.Less
This book maintains that container shipping is vital to the actualisation of globalisation, and that without it, globalisation would remain a concept rather than reality. It argues that container shipping has been academically overlooked as a global business sector in favour of more prominent sectors such as oil or arms trade, and aims to provide a complete history of containerisation from the 1950s to the turn of the millennium. This history explores the growth of the container industry due to prominent innovation in vessel design, early adoption of the internet, large international mergers, and significant physical alterations to the global port system. With particular emphasis on the east-west trade, the chapters cover the growth and development of the container industry, to the social changes experienced by seafaring labour forces, the cultural impact of the container - bringing a domineering land-presence to maritime activity, through to the environmental concerns surrounding the industry. The study is not a quantitative economic analysis of the industry, rather, an updated history that strives to demonstrate the importance of transport infrastructures to any consideration of global business sectors, by providing evidence of the container industry’s stimulation of the global economy.
Stacy Alaimo
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780816621958
- eISBN:
- 9781452955223
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816621958.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
Exposed argues for a material feminist posthumanism that departs from the predominant modes of humanist transcendence in theory, science, consumerism, and popular culture. Featuring three sections, ...
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Exposed argues for a material feminist posthumanism that departs from the predominant modes of humanist transcendence in theory, science, consumerism, and popular culture. Featuring three sections, the book calls for an environmental stance in which humanity thinks, feels, and acts as the very stuff of the world. As a work within the environmental humanities, it grapples with climate change, biodiversity, sustainability, ocean conservation, environmental activism, and the depiction of the anthropocene. And as a study in new materialism it focuses on how the materiality of human bodies provoke modes of posthumanist pleasure, environmental protest, and a sense of immersion within the strange agencies that constitute the world.Less
Exposed argues for a material feminist posthumanism that departs from the predominant modes of humanist transcendence in theory, science, consumerism, and popular culture. Featuring three sections, the book calls for an environmental stance in which humanity thinks, feels, and acts as the very stuff of the world. As a work within the environmental humanities, it grapples with climate change, biodiversity, sustainability, ocean conservation, environmental activism, and the depiction of the anthropocene. And as a study in new materialism it focuses on how the materiality of human bodies provoke modes of posthumanist pleasure, environmental protest, and a sense of immersion within the strange agencies that constitute the world.
Sarah Robertson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496824325
- eISBN:
- 9781496824370
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496824325.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter examines the varying strains of environmentalism and/or activism that run throughout the work of southern writers including Janisse Ray, Larry Brown, Dorothy Allison, Mary Hood, Ann ...
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This chapter examines the varying strains of environmentalism and/or activism that run throughout the work of southern writers including Janisse Ray, Larry Brown, Dorothy Allison, Mary Hood, Ann Pancake, Silas House, and Denise Giardina. It explores the relationship between environmentalism and poverty as it discusses waste, throw-away culture, recycling and sustainability. It argues for a move from regionalism/nationalism to localism/globalism and questions the false dichotomy between the Global North and Global South. The chapter turns to Appalachia to consider the impact of Mountaintop removal mining (MTR), and it interrogates both the economics that often drive the poor to undertake environmentally destructive jobs and the activism that exists within poor communities.Less
This chapter examines the varying strains of environmentalism and/or activism that run throughout the work of southern writers including Janisse Ray, Larry Brown, Dorothy Allison, Mary Hood, Ann Pancake, Silas House, and Denise Giardina. It explores the relationship between environmentalism and poverty as it discusses waste, throw-away culture, recycling and sustainability. It argues for a move from regionalism/nationalism to localism/globalism and questions the false dichotomy between the Global North and Global South. The chapter turns to Appalachia to consider the impact of Mountaintop removal mining (MTR), and it interrogates both the economics that often drive the poor to undertake environmentally destructive jobs and the activism that exists within poor communities.
Hannah Boast
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781474443807
- eISBN:
- 9781474491310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474443807.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter examines the changing meanings of swamp drainage in Israel’s national mythology. Swamp drainage was undertaken in the early twentieth century by the Jewish National Fund and again after ...
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This chapter examines the changing meanings of swamp drainage in Israel’s national mythology. Swamp drainage was undertaken in the early twentieth century by the Jewish National Fund and again after the establishment of the State of Israel. Once seen as a triumph of Zionist ingenuity, draining swamps was redefined in the late twentieth century as an emblem of Zionism’s environmental hubris. This chapter assesses this history through Meir Shalev’s magical realist novel The Blue Mountain (1988), situating Shalev’s text in its contemporary contexts of environmentalism and post-Zionism.Less
This chapter examines the changing meanings of swamp drainage in Israel’s national mythology. Swamp drainage was undertaken in the early twentieth century by the Jewish National Fund and again after the establishment of the State of Israel. Once seen as a triumph of Zionist ingenuity, draining swamps was redefined in the late twentieth century as an emblem of Zionism’s environmental hubris. This chapter assesses this history through Meir Shalev’s magical realist novel The Blue Mountain (1988), situating Shalev’s text in its contemporary contexts of environmentalism and post-Zionism.
Sarah Daw
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474430029
- eISBN:
- 9781474453783
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474430029.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
This introductory chapter begins by contextualising the study, discussing the representation of Nature in early Cold War American culture and the emergence of modern environmentalism from 1945. The ...
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This introductory chapter begins by contextualising the study, discussing the representation of Nature in early Cold War American culture and the emergence of modern environmentalism from 1945. The chapter also outlines the book’s argument that whilst the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) is understandably viewed as a watershed moment in terms of raising environmental consciousness in America, Silent Spring should also be considered as part of a developing trend of ecological portrayals of Nature in American literature written after 1945. This opening chapter also situates the book’s argument within the field of Cold War literary studies and introduces the book’s ecocritical methodology, including its sustained engagement with Timothy Morton’s ideas of ‘the mesh’ and ‘the ecological thought’ as outlined in The Ecological Thought (2010).Less
This introductory chapter begins by contextualising the study, discussing the representation of Nature in early Cold War American culture and the emergence of modern environmentalism from 1945. The chapter also outlines the book’s argument that whilst the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) is understandably viewed as a watershed moment in terms of raising environmental consciousness in America, Silent Spring should also be considered as part of a developing trend of ecological portrayals of Nature in American literature written after 1945. This opening chapter also situates the book’s argument within the field of Cold War literary studies and introduces the book’s ecocritical methodology, including its sustained engagement with Timothy Morton’s ideas of ‘the mesh’ and ‘the ecological thought’ as outlined in The Ecological Thought (2010).
Anna Lora-Wainwright
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036320
- eISBN:
- 9780262341097
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036320.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Chapter 1 situates the book vis-à-vis relevant literature on social movements, environmentalism, environmental health and these areas as they relate to China. In the first part, it suggests that ...
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Chapter 1 situates the book vis-à-vis relevant literature on social movements, environmentalism, environmental health and these areas as they relate to China. In the first part, it suggests that environmentalism may take very diverse forms and it is powerfully shaped by its cultural, social, political and economic contexts. These contexts in turn affect the ways in which locals value environment, health and development and the extent to which they may be uncertain about pollution’s health effects. In light of this, the chapter presents “resigned activism” as a conceptual tool for bridging analyses of activism and resignation, and for showing how they merge across a wide range of villagers’ attitudes and everyday practices. In the second part, it outlines some of China’s environmental challenges and burgeoning environmentalism. It argues in favour of looking beyond the obvious environmental agents (NGOs) and strategies, towards less visible environmental subjectivities.Less
Chapter 1 situates the book vis-à-vis relevant literature on social movements, environmentalism, environmental health and these areas as they relate to China. In the first part, it suggests that environmentalism may take very diverse forms and it is powerfully shaped by its cultural, social, political and economic contexts. These contexts in turn affect the ways in which locals value environment, health and development and the extent to which they may be uncertain about pollution’s health effects. In light of this, the chapter presents “resigned activism” as a conceptual tool for bridging analyses of activism and resignation, and for showing how they merge across a wide range of villagers’ attitudes and everyday practices. In the second part, it outlines some of China’s environmental challenges and burgeoning environmentalism. It argues in favour of looking beyond the obvious environmental agents (NGOs) and strategies, towards less visible environmental subjectivities.
Joseph D. Witt
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813168128
- eISBN:
- 9780813168753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813168128.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines a third thread of religious resistance to mountaintop removal, a set of perspectives broadly listed under the category of nature-venerating spiritualities. Most basically, these ...
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This chapter examines a third thread of religious resistance to mountaintop removal, a set of perspectives broadly listed under the category of nature-venerating spiritualities. Most basically, these forms of religious responses posit some sort of intrinsic, spiritual value in natural ecosystems. They often share similarities with biocentric arguments, particularly those associated with Deep Ecology and radical environmental movements. Nature-venerating spiritualities take many forms in the Appalachian movement, including the many types of dark green religion as described by Bron Taylor. Nature-venerating spiritualities are also expressed through a vernacular nature religion, or a localized expression of care for place based out of experience and work in Appalachia. The chapter describes several points where nature-venerating spiritualities entered the anti-mountaintop removal movement.Less
This chapter examines a third thread of religious resistance to mountaintop removal, a set of perspectives broadly listed under the category of nature-venerating spiritualities. Most basically, these forms of religious responses posit some sort of intrinsic, spiritual value in natural ecosystems. They often share similarities with biocentric arguments, particularly those associated with Deep Ecology and radical environmental movements. Nature-venerating spiritualities take many forms in the Appalachian movement, including the many types of dark green religion as described by Bron Taylor. Nature-venerating spiritualities are also expressed through a vernacular nature religion, or a localized expression of care for place based out of experience and work in Appalachia. The chapter describes several points where nature-venerating spiritualities entered the anti-mountaintop removal movement.
Matthew M. Lambert
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496830401
- eISBN:
- 9781496830456
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496830401.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
In this conclusion, the author reemphasizes arguments made within the preceding chapters. The Green Depression argues that depression-era American literature (and some films) depict ideas that would ...
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In this conclusion, the author reemphasizes arguments made within the preceding chapters. The Green Depression argues that depression-era American literature (and some films) depict ideas that would become associated with environmentalism in the second half of the twentieth century. She focuses on authors from the period whose work echoes changes in conservationist thought, in three areas in particular. Witnessing the severity of the period’s dust storms, widespread flooding, and use of atom bombs, depression-era authors began to more fully articulate the apocalyptic effects that humans can have on the environment. The conclusion highlights other questions that suggest the abundance of further work that can (and should) be done on the role of environmentalist thought in cultural works of the period.Less
In this conclusion, the author reemphasizes arguments made within the preceding chapters. The Green Depression argues that depression-era American literature (and some films) depict ideas that would become associated with environmentalism in the second half of the twentieth century. She focuses on authors from the period whose work echoes changes in conservationist thought, in three areas in particular. Witnessing the severity of the period’s dust storms, widespread flooding, and use of atom bombs, depression-era authors began to more fully articulate the apocalyptic effects that humans can have on the environment. The conclusion highlights other questions that suggest the abundance of further work that can (and should) be done on the role of environmentalist thought in cultural works of the period.
Connor J. Fitzmaurice and Brian J. Gareau
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300199451
- eISBN:
- 9780300224856
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300199451.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
The increasing popularity of organic agriculture has revolutionized American consumers’ access to organic products. However, the industrial scale of the modern organic sector has little in common ...
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The increasing popularity of organic agriculture has revolutionized American consumers’ access to organic products. However, the industrial scale of the modern organic sector has little in common with the goals of sustainability farmers and activists envisioned over the course of the organic movement’s history. This chapter charts that history. The story of the organic farming movement, and even the very definition of organic farming that today’s consumers have inherited, is a story of people—people pushing back against the perceived encroachment of industrialization into their lives and onto their dinner plates. It begins with the emergence of organic farming, from the 1920s to the 1940s, as a conservative response to the rationalization and industrialization of farming. It then charts organic’s incorporation into the rising tide of the counterculture during the 1960s and 70s, as society became aware of the environmental degradation being wrought by industrial agriculture. Finally, the chapter examines the ways consumer concerns about the health and safety of industrial foods began to move organic foods into the national spotlight as a safer consumer alternative.Less
The increasing popularity of organic agriculture has revolutionized American consumers’ access to organic products. However, the industrial scale of the modern organic sector has little in common with the goals of sustainability farmers and activists envisioned over the course of the organic movement’s history. This chapter charts that history. The story of the organic farming movement, and even the very definition of organic farming that today’s consumers have inherited, is a story of people—people pushing back against the perceived encroachment of industrialization into their lives and onto their dinner plates. It begins with the emergence of organic farming, from the 1920s to the 1940s, as a conservative response to the rationalization and industrialization of farming. It then charts organic’s incorporation into the rising tide of the counterculture during the 1960s and 70s, as society became aware of the environmental degradation being wrought by industrial agriculture. Finally, the chapter examines the ways consumer concerns about the health and safety of industrial foods began to move organic foods into the national spotlight as a safer consumer alternative.
Connor J. Fitzmaurice and Brian J. Gareau
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300199451
- eISBN:
- 9780300224856
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300199451.003.0009
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This chapter addresses some of the big issues consumers and scholars assume, even implicitly, matter to committed organic movement farmers: the environment and health. Certainly, these concerns play ...
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This chapter addresses some of the big issues consumers and scholars assume, even implicitly, matter to committed organic movement farmers: the environment and health. Certainly, these concerns play a role in organic practices. However, this chapter shows that they are rarely explicitly addressed. Instead, such issues take on an instrumentalism and practicality in everyday experiences. Concerns about health and the environment were directly related to visceral experiences of farming, like experiencing the simple pleasure of eating a sun-warmed tomato off the vine. The big issues of sustainability acquire a taken-for-granted character, propagated in farmers’ networks of relationships. This chapter shows, once again, the centrality of lifestyle considerations in the making of organic practices. However, lifestyle concerns can also thwart more sustainable practices. For some farmers, the pursuit of a comfortable lifestyle required abandoning hallmarks of organic practice, like fallow periods for their fields in order to increase the amount of land under cultivation. As farmers struggle for livelihoods, they can become caught in a cycle of intensification that gradually erodes alternative practices. The chapter also discusses how the ability to remain alternative in light of such pressures is necessarily tied to forms of privilege—especially access to land and consumers.Less
This chapter addresses some of the big issues consumers and scholars assume, even implicitly, matter to committed organic movement farmers: the environment and health. Certainly, these concerns play a role in organic practices. However, this chapter shows that they are rarely explicitly addressed. Instead, such issues take on an instrumentalism and practicality in everyday experiences. Concerns about health and the environment were directly related to visceral experiences of farming, like experiencing the simple pleasure of eating a sun-warmed tomato off the vine. The big issues of sustainability acquire a taken-for-granted character, propagated in farmers’ networks of relationships. This chapter shows, once again, the centrality of lifestyle considerations in the making of organic practices. However, lifestyle concerns can also thwart more sustainable practices. For some farmers, the pursuit of a comfortable lifestyle required abandoning hallmarks of organic practice, like fallow periods for their fields in order to increase the amount of land under cultivation. As farmers struggle for livelihoods, they can become caught in a cycle of intensification that gradually erodes alternative practices. The chapter also discusses how the ability to remain alternative in light of such pressures is necessarily tied to forms of privilege—especially access to land and consumers.
Carl Death
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300215830
- eISBN:
- 9780300224894
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300215830.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, African History
This chapter concludes the argument of the book and shows how environmental politics in Africa is central to the production of state effects, and vice versa. The theoretical framework, inspired by ...
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This chapter concludes the argument of the book and shows how environmental politics in Africa is central to the production of state effects, and vice versa. The theoretical framework, inspired by postcolonial approaches, produces a powerful way to categorise and assess African environmental politics in terms of the governance and contestation of land, populations, economies and international relations. Moreover, this chapter argues that green states in Africa are distinctive, compared to those elsewhere, in terms of the centrality of land and conservation, the importance of ‘the peasant question’, the importance of green modernisation and industrialisation strategies, and the assertion of continental solidarity. Based on the analysis of the political implications of these green state effects, the conclusion suggests that political resources should be marshalled in support of hybrid forms of territorialisation, environmental dissidents, radical strategies of green transformation, and relations of critical transnational solidarity. Taking green states in Africa seriously will challenge existing debates in global environmental governance, and encourage them to become more genuinely global than they have been hitherto.Less
This chapter concludes the argument of the book and shows how environmental politics in Africa is central to the production of state effects, and vice versa. The theoretical framework, inspired by postcolonial approaches, produces a powerful way to categorise and assess African environmental politics in terms of the governance and contestation of land, populations, economies and international relations. Moreover, this chapter argues that green states in Africa are distinctive, compared to those elsewhere, in terms of the centrality of land and conservation, the importance of ‘the peasant question’, the importance of green modernisation and industrialisation strategies, and the assertion of continental solidarity. Based on the analysis of the political implications of these green state effects, the conclusion suggests that political resources should be marshalled in support of hybrid forms of territorialisation, environmental dissidents, radical strategies of green transformation, and relations of critical transnational solidarity. Taking green states in Africa seriously will challenge existing debates in global environmental governance, and encourage them to become more genuinely global than they have been hitherto.
Naomi Oreskes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780262027953
- eISBN:
- 9780262326100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262027953.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
In the early 1990s a group of American oceanographers sought to change their focus away from Cold War military concerns and toward environmental matters related to anthropogenic climate change. ...
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In the early 1990s a group of American oceanographers sought to change their focus away from Cold War military concerns and toward environmental matters related to anthropogenic climate change. Drawing on insights and technologies developed in the Cold War, they proposed an experiment called ATOC—Acoustic Tomography of Ocean Climate—designed to provide definitive evidence of global warming. But the project was blocked when environmentalists and marine biologists raised concerns that it would harm marine mammals. In the ensuing public debate, the public judged the scientists more on their past activities than their present aspirations: many citizens distrusted the scientists’ new-found environmental passion and believed that global warming was a cover story hiding a secret military project. In the end, they judged scientists who had dedicated their lives to studying the ocean as a theatre of warfare not credible when they presented themselves as trustworthy guardians of the ocean as an abode of life. The failure of ATOC suggests that while Cold war military support led to numerous fundamental advances in understanding the ocean environment, it also created a community of scientists who were disrespectful not only of lay concerns but even of scientific evidence from other domains, unable to explain their work to diverse publics, and distrusted by significant segments of the American people. Forty years of military patronage were not just epistemically consequential, they were socially and culturally consequential as well.Less
In the early 1990s a group of American oceanographers sought to change their focus away from Cold War military concerns and toward environmental matters related to anthropogenic climate change. Drawing on insights and technologies developed in the Cold War, they proposed an experiment called ATOC—Acoustic Tomography of Ocean Climate—designed to provide definitive evidence of global warming. But the project was blocked when environmentalists and marine biologists raised concerns that it would harm marine mammals. In the ensuing public debate, the public judged the scientists more on their past activities than their present aspirations: many citizens distrusted the scientists’ new-found environmental passion and believed that global warming was a cover story hiding a secret military project. In the end, they judged scientists who had dedicated their lives to studying the ocean as a theatre of warfare not credible when they presented themselves as trustworthy guardians of the ocean as an abode of life. The failure of ATOC suggests that while Cold war military support led to numerous fundamental advances in understanding the ocean environment, it also created a community of scientists who were disrespectful not only of lay concerns but even of scientific evidence from other domains, unable to explain their work to diverse publics, and distrusted by significant segments of the American people. Forty years of military patronage were not just epistemically consequential, they were socially and culturally consequential as well.
