The following documentary by Adam Curtis is the best history of the ecosystem construct that I have ever seen. It removes the veil from all those who wish to use the Ecosystem construct as an idea associated with democracy and justice.
Dean Bavington: Blog
Apocalypse in contemporary culture
At a conference exploring Environmental History last week in Hamilton, Ontario, my paper “Environmental History During the Anthropocene: Critical reflections on the pursuit of policy-oriented history in the man-age” was characterized by Viv Nelles as presenting historians with a choice between the role of Handmaidens to those in power or Casandras, prophets of doom. In [...]
What Does Easter Island Tell Us?
Environmental History Lessons According to Biologist (Jared Diamond) and anthropologist (Wade Davis) According to the biologist Jared Diamond, Easter Island provides an analogy for the present state of the world. In his telling, the Easter Island story involves human agents cutting down the very last tree (their only means to escape the limits imposed by [...]
Managed Annihilation is an election issue
Ryan Clearly mentioned Managed Annihilation during an election debate – here it is…
CBC Charles Taylor on CBC
This CBC Ideas series on Charles Taylor is great. Max Oelschlaeger was the first to introduce me to the work of Charles Taylor. In this recent series from David Cayley several critical issues are discussed including the critical difference between descriptive and constitutive understandings of language. http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2011/04/11/the-malaise-of-modernity-part-1—5/ The Malaise of Modernity, Part 1 – 5 [...]
Reparations for “Independence Debt”
This documentary found on the Democracy Now website discusses the damage caused by the earthquake in Haiti and the lack of reaction and donation of aid by first world countries. The documentary calls for a different kind of aid, instead of catastrophe aid Haiti is calling for reparation aid. Academics and activists are calling on [...]
Hair India
A documentary produced by AlJazerra about the commodification of hair. Hindu pilgrims have donated their hair for centuries for rituals, yet in society today the hair trade has far surpassed the level of ritual. This documentary talks about the economic importance of the hair trade and part that it plays not only in India but [...]
Critical Materialism: Science, Technology and Environmental Sustainability
This article explains the complex connections between science, technology, and environmental problems. It looks at different views and theories about how all of the above are connected. The two authors of the article Richard York and Brett Clark propose that instead of being ignorant to the fact that there are many environmental problems that society [...]
Developer of Genetically Engineered Salmon Eyes Canadian Regulators
This article comes from the Montreal Gazette and it discusses how developers of the genetically engineered salmon for human consumption are looking to get their product approved byHealth Canada. The AquaAdvantage salmon grows at a rate that is twice as fast as wild salmon and they grow twice as big. The FDA has been reviewing [...]
The Scales Fall
This article written by Elizabeth Kolbert published in The New Yorker outlines the story of overfishing in many species, first and foremost it outlines the story of the blue-fin tuna. After the history of the bluef-in is thoroughly and most interestingly outlined she moves into discussing the cod fishery in Newfoundland. She mentions Dean’s book, [...]
