Pupils at the forefront: the school-work interchange on climate change between university and high school in Naples

by Maria Federica Palestino, Simona Quagliano and Elena Vetromile In the wake of the Fridays for Future movement, students are taking the lead in stirring change towards climate change adaptation & mitigation. This is a short account of a project in Naples that put students' aspirations, questions and demands at center stage.  On June 5th, …

Environmentalism is not a metaphor

By Remy Bargout Environmentalists live under a growing and yet age-old illusion that the mainstream movement has gained a critical mass, or unstoppable momentum that ‘now, consumer society, world leaders, and the capitalist system must reckon with’. In reality, the mainstream movement does not speak to power, but actually exerts it. Elite environmentalism is a …

Statement of the Encounter of Critical and Autonomous Geographies of Latin America // Pronunciamiento del Encuentro de Geografías Críticas y Autónomas de América Latina

From April 5 to 9, critical and autonomous geographers from Latin America met in Quito and Sucumbíos, Ecuador at the "Encounter of Critical and Autonomous Geographies of Latin America", which brought together 20 collectives and people from 10 countries. This is the Statement elaborated during the meeting, which was read at the closing plenary of the …

Traveling abroad to “save” the planet

By Laura Betancur Alarcón White savior complex, elite studies in the green Scandinavia and other millennial adventures. Can the political ecology approach shed light on the incongruities, flaws and political struggles behind “traveling abroad to save the world”? I am attending a sustainability class in one of the best universities in the world. A ‘privilege’ …

A case for small climate stories

by Dylan M. Harris The best stories about climate change are not about climate change. Rather, they are about small, particular, mundane events. They are personal and intimate. And they are grounded in specific locales. These 'small' stories show different ways of imagining, creating, and sustaining meaning in the face of climate change. As the …

Political Ecologies of Waste: Salvaged Livelihoods and Infra-structural Labour

by Benjamin Irvine Solid waste is often seen as an environmental problem to be solved through change of behaviour and recycling. Political ecology can sharpen our analysis of the politics involved in the way materials move through the economy. Prospects for reducing the amount of solid waste generated and ambitions for a “circular economy” will …

The big picture – a political ecology comic essay

by Zully Rosadio When looking at a picture, asking "What does it NOT show?" is as important as observing what it shows. Complex realities, such as those of Samburu people, their livestock and wildlife in Kenya, appear by posing the key question 'Why?' Zully Rosadio holds a bachelor degree in Biology as well as in …

The Loneliest Man on Earth

by Juan Francisco Moreno “Economic efficiency” in the use of natural resources without concern for the justice of its distribution, or the scale of its extraction is just bad fiction, just like the story of the internalization of externalities. Hopelessly, the exploitation of the Amazon has always entailed a process of dispossession of those whose …

About Permaculture Songs and the Food (In)security Narrative

by Elena Louisa The promotion of food (in)security over decades has achieved to govern the way we think about alternatives to industrialised agriculture. Global famine is not a problem of food scarcity but a legacy of unequal power structures which are weaved into past and present agri-food systems. Agriculture based on permaculture can embrace localized …

Grassroots initiatives in climate change-adaptation for justice and sustainability

While climate campaigners organize direct action groups and city councils begin considering climate change an undeniable imperative in planning and policy, school strikers have launched the international platform School Strike 4 Climate. The support for local climate action around the world is growing and will not stop.                  …