Organized abandonment
I am thinking about geographer Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s concept of organized abandonment right now as every level of US government lets COVID-19 rampage mostly unabated, putting the onus on individuals and hanging the most vulnerable out to dry. There is a full-court press to vilify teachers’ unions for having the audacity to fight for basic public health policies in their often underfunded and neglected schools.
They deserve our support. Solidarity is the most powerful force we have—it is the key to our salvation. As Bernie said, “Are you willing to fight for that person who you don’t even know as much as you’re willing to fight for yourself?"
Every inch of Trump’s unfinished racist wall on the southern US border is a social and ecological travesty, trampling over Indigenous territory, destroying the land, and putting wildlife on “death row.” And the Biden administration just gave the go-ahead to build more of it. Instead, they should tear it all down, pay for ecological restoration, and demilitarize the border once and for all.
Planting trees is all the rage right now (at least the idea of it), which is great if done properly in a socioecologically holistic way. But it is important to not lose sight of the fact that protecting intact ecosystems is by far the most important "nature-based solution" for mitigating the climate and biodiversity crises, particularly Indigenous sovereignty and conservation.
The US now generates 42 million metric tons of plastic waste per year, the most in the world. We need to clean it up, but the only solution to truly stopping this crisis is to turn off the spigot at the point of production.
A new paper argues that taxing the rich and canceling sovereign debt are both critical if we want to make any serious progress on stopping the biodiversity crisis and repaying the ecological debt owed to the Global South.
Outstanding longread of the week: Being-in-the-Room Privilege: Elite Capture and Epistemic Deference by Olúfémi O. Táíwò
