Others
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Nice Weather (If You’re a Newt)
Chaos and Resilience in Human and Natural Ecosystems Post by Kieko Matteson Spring 2013 saw some of the worst flooding in central European history. After a relentlessly rainy May, in which nearly every day of the month was marked by unseasonably cold temperatures and steady downpours, the swollen streams and water-logged soils of Germany, Austria,…
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Film Review: Plastic Planet
Post by Ellen Arnold How much plastic do you think is in your life? Probably more than you realize. Werner Boote’s documentary film Plastic Planet explores the rapid expansion of plastics production and consumption since the 1950s, bringing both a global dimension and personal, intimate perspectives into the discussion. His main goal, and one that…
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Gardening for Gardening’s Sake
Post by Jennifer Hamilton (This post is the latest in a series of reflections on Jeffrey Hou’s recent talk, “Urban Gardening as Insurgent Placemaking.” For the first piece in this series, please click here.) It “started with the park, but it has become bigger than the park” declared Turkish scholar and activist Nazan Ustundag on…
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Danube Floods Present and Past: Exploring Historic Precedents Through the Arcadia project
Post by Andreas Grieger Germany is currently experiencing record floods along some of its major rivers. Earlier this week, the Danube surpassed its historical flood mark from 1501 and reached an unprecedented height of 12.60m, flooding the entire historic district of the city of Passau. Other Central European countries are also suffering from or are…
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Urban Gardening, “Treibstoff,” and The Desire for Community
What would you get if you mixed together “Treibstoff,” the Viennese countercultural group that parks converted trucks in disused urban spaces, and the community gardening scene described by Jeffrey Hou in his recent lecture? Both movements have attracted considerable interest of late: The members of “Treibstoff” were profiled in a documentary screened at the DOK.fest…
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Governmental Coercion Is Our Only Hope? A Commentary
Post by Rachel Shindelar If we are going to stop producing greenhouse gases and successfully mitigate climate change, we do not have time to wait around for individuals to become virtuous. Governmental coercion is our only hope. At least, this is what Oxford University professor John Broome claimed before launching into his lecture on “The…
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All Environmental Politics is Local: What Today’s Climate Activists Can Learn From Yesterday’s Antipollution Movement
Post by Christopher Sellers As we approach the forty-third Earth Day, American climate activism has finally gotten feisty. Hopes have arisen that its sway can approach that of the antipollution movement of the 1960s, out of which the first Earth Day sprang. A recent “Forward Climate” protest on February 17 drew an estimated 35–40,000 people…
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The Origins of Ecocide
Post by Amy Hay In the fall of 2011, an unusual mock trial (see video below) took place, putting corporate leaders on trial for the crime of “ecocide.” Based on an imagined international law prohibiting the destruction of the natural environment, whether intentional or not, the case returned one verdict of not guilty for the…
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A Note on Recent Floods and Relocation in Australia
Post by Ina Richter The year 2013 is still fairly young but already there have been major natural disasters. Among these are the tremendous floods in the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales, brought on by Cyclone Oswald. The cyclone had formed in the Gulf of Carpentaria just north of Australia. It was…