I really enjoyed the third part of this article. It is a fascinating and important topic. Can you recommend specific writings of Amitav Ghosh that get to the heart of this matter? Great post! Cheers!
Thanks! Those are the highlights, in my opinion of Ghosh's "The Great Derangement." The longest part of the essay, which I didn't address is a bit politically charged. He discusses how the East should never have modernized, because that is what is causing the largest amount of carbon release and is unsustainable. This was Ghandi's position as well, and his belief that by modernizing India would lose its core culture. This argument is interesting but problematic in some ways, obviously.
I haven't read it yet, but in a similar vein to what I talked about in the third part of this essay is Anthropologist Eduardo Kohn's book "How Forests Think." I haven't read it yet but I was very much swayed by the top review on Amazon. It's worth a read if you think it will resonate with you. It did with me. https://a.co/d/0fqmFIrc
My field is in natural resource management and my favorite climate solution that has been utilized over the last couple of decades is restorative ocean farming.
The issue with climate change, and this is basically a direct quote from my latest manuscript, is that in order for the “help” to exist, in this case climate solutions, it has to make money in order for it to justify its existence. That’s the main reason why we don’t have any real effort pushing against the climate crisis, because not only does it not make money but in order to actually fix things the people running the show now would have to lose their money. It’s why I’m out of a job.
But anyway, restorative ocean farming is the only solution I encountered that 1. Feeds people 2. Generates income 3. Restores habitat and 4. Fights climate change by storing carbon in geologic time.
If I haven’t recommended it to you already, I urge you to read Eat like a fish by Bren Smith. It might even be a good assigned reading for your class as well.
Hey, that's amazing! I didn't know that. I will order the book right now. Once I have some thoughts together maybe if you like, you can zoom with my class. Depending on the budget maybe a stipend.
My class focuses a lot on fire/forests, so the ocean is a huge gap right now.
I agree 100% too. All of of our environmental concerns are tied up with economic concerns, which will never work with treating the earth as this sort infinite resource we can continue to exploit....
I'd love the opportunity to chat with you and/or your class sometime. If it's possible to work out a stipend, it would honestly be a lifesaver, but either way I'd be excited to do it. My background is in Environmental Studies with a focus on marine science, so if it would be helpful, I'd be happy to share my resume and background, along with anything that might be useful for what you're covering, if that's ever in the cards.
I couldn't agree more about the economic side of environmental issues. So many of our ecological crises trace back to an economic model that treats the Earth as an infinite resource. It opens up a conversation about the concept of value itself. And it's also hard not to let a class like that become a history class, because it's nearly impossible to have these conversations without touching on current events and the broader political climate. I'm not sure where your university stands these days or whether you have to be careful about what you say with everything going on right now.
Luckily, I have some freedom. Yes, it's hard to separate our current disaster capitalism from the past. This isn't widely spoken about, but a private company bought out the main supplier of fire engine parts and created an artificial market scarcity to create higher prices and returns for investors... Many of those broken firetrucks were sitting in a lot while L.A. burned. Current policies and politics are literally killing people (which goes without saying).
I had a guess speaker last year...the stipend isn't extravagant ($150 last time) but it helps...I have to see what funding looks like, which typically doesn't happen until October/November, but I will reach out to you for sure.
I really enjoyed the third part of this article. It is a fascinating and important topic. Can you recommend specific writings of Amitav Ghosh that get to the heart of this matter? Great post! Cheers!
Thanks! Those are the highlights, in my opinion of Ghosh's "The Great Derangement." The longest part of the essay, which I didn't address is a bit politically charged. He discusses how the East should never have modernized, because that is what is causing the largest amount of carbon release and is unsustainable. This was Ghandi's position as well, and his belief that by modernizing India would lose its core culture. This argument is interesting but problematic in some ways, obviously.
I haven't read it yet, but in a similar vein to what I talked about in the third part of this essay is Anthropologist Eduardo Kohn's book "How Forests Think." I haven't read it yet but I was very much swayed by the top review on Amazon. It's worth a read if you think it will resonate with you. It did with me. https://a.co/d/0fqmFIrc
Cheers, man
My field is in natural resource management and my favorite climate solution that has been utilized over the last couple of decades is restorative ocean farming.
The issue with climate change, and this is basically a direct quote from my latest manuscript, is that in order for the “help” to exist, in this case climate solutions, it has to make money in order for it to justify its existence. That’s the main reason why we don’t have any real effort pushing against the climate crisis, because not only does it not make money but in order to actually fix things the people running the show now would have to lose their money. It’s why I’m out of a job.
But anyway, restorative ocean farming is the only solution I encountered that 1. Feeds people 2. Generates income 3. Restores habitat and 4. Fights climate change by storing carbon in geologic time.
If I haven’t recommended it to you already, I urge you to read Eat like a fish by Bren Smith. It might even be a good assigned reading for your class as well.
Anyway, great post and thank you for the updates.
Hey, that's amazing! I didn't know that. I will order the book right now. Once I have some thoughts together maybe if you like, you can zoom with my class. Depending on the budget maybe a stipend.
My class focuses a lot on fire/forests, so the ocean is a huge gap right now.
I agree 100% too. All of of our environmental concerns are tied up with economic concerns, which will never work with treating the earth as this sort infinite resource we can continue to exploit....
I'd love the opportunity to chat with you and/or your class sometime. If it's possible to work out a stipend, it would honestly be a lifesaver, but either way I'd be excited to do it. My background is in Environmental Studies with a focus on marine science, so if it would be helpful, I'd be happy to share my resume and background, along with anything that might be useful for what you're covering, if that's ever in the cards.
I couldn't agree more about the economic side of environmental issues. So many of our ecological crises trace back to an economic model that treats the Earth as an infinite resource. It opens up a conversation about the concept of value itself. And it's also hard not to let a class like that become a history class, because it's nearly impossible to have these conversations without touching on current events and the broader political climate. I'm not sure where your university stands these days or whether you have to be careful about what you say with everything going on right now.
Luckily, I have some freedom. Yes, it's hard to separate our current disaster capitalism from the past. This isn't widely spoken about, but a private company bought out the main supplier of fire engine parts and created an artificial market scarcity to create higher prices and returns for investors... Many of those broken firetrucks were sitting in a lot while L.A. burned. Current policies and politics are literally killing people (which goes without saying).
I had a guess speaker last year...the stipend isn't extravagant ($150 last time) but it helps...I have to see what funding looks like, which typically doesn't happen until October/November, but I will reach out to you for sure.