The Power of the Talking Stick: Indigenous Politics and the World Ecological Crisis

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-266
Author(s):  
Richard C. Witmer
2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Robert Gnuse

Psalm 104 is a majestic hymn to creation, a dynamic corollary to the more formal presentation of the creation of the world in Genesis 1. Reflection upon some of the passages provides us with insight into the biblical author’s appreciation for nature, an attitude that needs to inspire us in this age of ecological crisis. Though the biblical text is unaware of such an ecological crisis; nonetheless, passages shine forth that can speak to us in our modern age of global warming and environmental collapse.


Sociologus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-92
Author(s):  
Guido Sprenger

The term “animism” is at once a fantasy internal to modernity and a semiotic conduit enabling a serious inquiry into non-modern phenomena that radically call into question the modern distinction of nature and culture. Therefore, I suggest that the labelling of people, practices or ideas as “animist” is a strategic one. I also raise the question if animism can help to solve the modern ecological crisis that allegedly stems from the nature-culture divide. In particular, animism makes it possible to recognize personhood in non-humans, thus creating moral relationships with the non-human world. A number of scholars and activists identify animism as respect for all living beings and as intimate relationships with nature and its spirits. However, this argument still presupposes the fixity of the ontological status of beings as alive or persons. A different view of animism highlights concepts of fluid and unstable persons that emerge from ongoing communicative processes. I argue that the kind of attentiveness that drives fluid personhood may be supportive of a politics of life that sees relationships with non-humans in terms of moral commitment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Kotzé

AbstractInternational environmental law (IEL) has been unable to respond effectively to the Anthropocene’s global socio-ecological crisis, which is critically existential and requires radical interventions and regulatory reform. This article explores the potential of the recent United Nations (UN)-backed initiative to adopt a Global Pact for the Environment as an opportunity to reform IEL. It does so by (i) reflecting on the Anthropocene’s demands for a constitutionalized form of IEL through the lens of global environmental constitutionalism; (ii) investigating the extent to which the Global Pact could contribute to such a vision; and (iii) suggesting ways in which to strengthen the constitutional potential of the Global Pact in this endeavour. To this end, the article revisits the World Charter for Nature of 1982, which seems to have slipped off the radar in academic as well as policy circles. A case is made for renewed support of the Charter – which already enjoys the backing of the majority of UN General Assembly member states, and which has constitutional qualities – to serve as a ‘best-practice’ example during the ensuing negotiation of the Global Pact.


Author(s):  
Alicia Migliaro González

Françoise d’Eaubonne (1920-2005) proposed the term «ecofeminism», between the ‘60s and ‘70s, to explain the necessary convergence between feminism and ecologist as an alternatives to the world crisis. The drifts of ecofeminism is a fascinating path as well as a window to understand the tensions of feminist and ecologist; even more so since the current crisis of reproduction, where feminist struggles in defense of the bodies-territories detain the advanced destroyer of patriarchal and colonial capitalism. However, in these debates, the figure of Françoise d’Eaubonne and the vehemence of her proposals usually remain as a mere encyclopedic reference. The feminist movement, the urgencies of the ecological crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic, awaken our interest in her work and her figure.


Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 506
Author(s):  
John W. Compton

This article is born out of a deep concern for our current ecological crisis and serves as a beginning foundational work for how the Christian tradition can address global climate change. Our current way of being gives precedence to the autonomous individual, whose freedom is characterized by disregard for other creatures. John Zizioulas’ communal ontology demonstrates that as the world was created out of God’s loving will, it is comprised of relationship. Living into individuation and division is a refusal of this communion with other creatures and God, but the Eucharist serves as the ritual that brings Christians into communion through the remembrance of Christ. Ian McFarland’s work on the theology of creation provides the helpful nuance that creaturely movement in communion must include the full diversity of creatures. I then turn to Bruce Morrill’s work to demonstrate that the Eucharistic practice must have bearing beyond the walls of the church. It leads practitioners to live into eschatological hope and kenotic service to the world. John Seligman’s ritual theory demonstrates that ritual practice can accomplish these goals because it creates a subjunctive ‘as-if’ world in the face of the world that is perceived as chaotic. Through the continuous practice of the ritual, participants are then formed to live into this subjunctive ‘as-if’ world without ritual precedence. In this way, the Eucharistic practice can prepare practitioners to live into the kenotic service to a world broken by individuation that has led to global climate change and creaturely destruction.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergiu Șișcan

<p>Nowadays the global ecological crisis continues aggravating. The environmental issues are on agenda, getting increased public attention (e.g. protests caused by waste problems and climate change all around the world). Depleting resources, trash mountains, garbage islands, toxic emissions etc. require change of economy model from linear (resource extraction-production-usage-throwing away) to the circular one (recycled resource-production-usage-recycling). More than that, multiple waste use as well as resources reuse may bring to business and economy billions of dollars.</p><p>The very idea of recycle is practiced in the world since long ago. However, it has been done by few resources (collection of waste paper, scrub metal, glass bottles etc.) without shaping an economic system as a whole.</p><p>Another problematic issue is that the recycling does not always means to be ecological. The mode of recycling in countries with low eco-standards results in heavy pollution (e.g. e-waste “recycling” by fire at open air in Africa, India leads to emission of toxins; ship recycling in Bangladesh leads to polluted beaches and water). Methods of recycling in developing countries often are primitive and may be dangerous. Sometimes, entrepreneurs from developed countries are responsible for such state of affairs. They send legally or illegally part of wastes for that primitive recycling in developing countries. It is important to have awareness of the fact that everything is interdependent. If one part of the Earth is full of toxins and harmful fumes, its other part is inevitably affected over time. It is necessary to carry out recycling in all countries establishing strict environmental laws worldwide, and to make it based on smart technologies.</p><p>Circular economy in its narrowest sense is an economy that simply processes waste.<br>A serious change in business models, public mentality and government policies is necessary to get to environmentally friendly economy. It aims at lengthening the use cycle of goods (e.g. clothes, mobile phones) and minimizing the personal waste of every citizen. The EU household’s food waste was estimated to be 47 million tons (EU FUSIONS, 2016). “More than 30% of clothes in Europeans’ wardrobes have not been used for at least a year. Once discarded, over half the garments are not recycled but end up in mixed household waste and are sent to incinerators or landfill” (EPRS, 2019). YouGov Omnibus research: a third (34%) of respondents of Singapore have thrown away an item of clothing after wearing it just once. (YouGov, 2017).</p><p>Thus, effective circular economy is not just about re-processing and saving resources but, first, emphasizes its focus on greening environment and reducing waste as it is, becoming an eco-circular economy. Secondly, it calls forth measures at not only national or regional level, but also proceeding from “Earth is our common home”, worldwide.</p>


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
John Bellamy Foster

Any serious treatment of the renewal of socialism today must begin with capitalism's creative destruction of the bases of all social existence. Since the late 1980s, the world has been engulfed in an epoch of catastrophe capitalism, manifested today in the convergence of (1) the planetary ecological crisis, (2) the global epidemiological crisis, and (3) the unending world economic crisis. Added to this are the main features of today's "empire of chaos," including the extreme system of imperialist exploitation unleashed by global commodity chains; the demise of the relatively stable liberal-democratic state with the rise of neoliberalism and neofascism; and the emergence of a new age of global hegemonic instability accompanied by increased dangers of unlimited war.


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