Depopulating Deserts: Ecological Nihilisms and Finite Frontiers (Abstract – 2nd Draft)

Cary over at Racing the Horizons and I are submitting an abstract to the 2012 UCLA comparative literature graduate conference, “Spheres of Influence: Navigating World, Globe, and Planet.” The blogging culture we discuss will primarily engage the blogs of Chris Clarke, Ruth Nolan, and Shaun G.  After a humbling amount of feedback, for which Cary and I are infinitely grateful, this is the second draft. We’ve decided to focus on the minor literatures and nix the genealogy for time constraints (though, if we try to publish this paper, it will certainly be included), updated some factoids, and reworded parts for clarity and force. As always, feedback is appreciated:

Since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, nine utility-scale solar developments have been fast-tracked for approval in regions of the Mojave Desert, exposing over 50,000 acres of public lands to intensive development.[1]  While the arguments that have supported these massive investments of public resources have not been homogenous, they have nonetheless orbited within a certain constellation of thinking about the desert as such.  In October of 2010, at the groundbreaking of Brightsource’s Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stated, “Some people look out into the desert and see miles and miles of emptiness […] I see miles and miles of gold mine.”[2]  However, the two positions – the desert as emptiness and the desert as gold mine – are two sides of the same ecological nihilism, effacing the infinite complexities of desert ecologies: desert tortoise populations, 500 to 800 year old Mojave yucca groupings, and the myriad of other organisms that inhabit these lands are reduced to a narrative of human use-value in general, and profit in particular; therefore, continuing a tradition of westward expansion at least as old as the 19^th century in which the American deserts were viewed as the “Creator’s dumping place”[3] and “an unbroken waste, barren, wild, and worthless.”[4]

The purpose of this paper is to provide a rich account of those minor literatures, including the emergence of a blogging culture by so-called “desert rats,” that contest these empty and destructive desert ontologies.  Pejoratively labeled NIMBYs[5] by proponents of Big Solar in order to brand them as “small-minded” and selfish, caring more about local aesthetics than an imagined “global good,” we argue that these literatures take place, not simply on aesthetic grounds (though this is a justifiably strong influence), but also with deep scientific, political, and ontological commitments; with a fidelity to deserts as complex, diverse, and necessary ecosystems; and within a more robust, extra-human notion of what it means to inhabit desert worlds.

Depopulating Deserts (Zwinger Passages)

Cary over at Racing the Horizons and I are currently working on formulating an abstract and writing a paper for a Comp Lit graduate conference at UCLA. I’m going to save describing the project for a later time as I just spent three hours transcribing passages from Ann Zwinger’s The Mysterious Lands into a word doc (it’s a library book and I don’t have a scanner, such are my troubles). The passages are beautiful and I hope you enjoy them:

9 More Days and a Beautiful Poem

Wow, have I neglected this blog? With the work I’ve been doing for the Wave Manual project, arranging my move to Irvine, saying goodbye to friends who will be leaving me soon, and trying to enjoy my last few months of freedom before I start grad school, I have completely neglected my writing. Ces’t la vie.

Speaking of the Wave Manual project, we have nine more days before donations can no longer be accepted. Steven Rodriguez is already in Mexico and I will join him in August ONLY if we are fully-funded. So please, donate whatever you can – any amount will help.

Also, I came across this poem from Ruth Nolan with video from over 40 photographers in Joshua Tree National Park. It’s beautiful!

If a Tree Falls

Thanks to Cary at Racing the Horizons for sharing this link with me. It comes out June 22nd, hopefully somewhere near me, so check it out if you have a chance. Looks truly amazing.

One Direction

Shaun over at Mojave Desert Blog and I were having a discussion in which I asked him where he sees, or would like to see, the future of desert activism headed. He said he had to think about the question and asked me where I would like to see it headed. Now, I’m quite green on the topic, which is why I like to ask people like Shaun and Chris Clarke these kinds of questions since they have such a wealth of knowledge about the desert. But I do have four preliminary thoughts:

First, I think it is essential for environmental activists concerned about recent developments in the Mojave and elsewhere (see here, here, here and here for examples) to articulate their solidarities with other social and political struggles, ecological and otherwise. This means putting ourselves in conversation with feminist, labor, indigenous, minority, student, animal rights, and (other) environmental rights groups. This is only to name a few as the struggle to halt industrial development in the desert can be articulated in multiple directions. One recent example is the Chevron and Solar Millennium LLC development of roads on Native American Sacred sites where giant geoglyphs depicting Indigenous deities are located (see video above). This does not mean reducing these struggles to each other but articulating the history and specificity of each in order to find the ways in which they can, and do, inform one another.

Second, and following the first point, it is important for desert activists to understand what they can learn from the practices and forms of resistance of these groups as well as the sort of challenges (legal, social or otherwise) they face. We can learn a great deal from Indigenous groups about the occupation of territories to halt development, like what is currently taking place in Glen Cove, developing democratic and non-hierarchical forms of community participation from feminist and minority groups, and the values as well as risks of industrial sabotage from animal and environmental liberation groups like the ALF and ELF. It is also important for desert activists to be cognizant of what they might teach to other activist groups.

The third point takes into account the social, political, and legal dangers involved in even engaging in dialogue with the tactics of groups like the ALF and the ELF. To me, this is an essential role for those academics and journalists interested in and working with environmental activism: we must be vocal and engage critically and rigorously with the social and legal constrictions that act to suppress dissidence while simultaneously developing alternative narratives, ontologies, and epistemologies for understanding these actions in contradistinction to the current ‘Green Scare.’ Our silence is our acquiescence.

Finally, at some point we simply have to stop writing, stop debating, and stop discussing and decide to put ourselves between a Deere Brush Hog and a 500 year old Yucca.

Brazilian Environmental Activists Killed

An article here by Benjamin Dangl discusses the recent murder of José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espírito Santo da Silva by gunmen most likely hired by loggers, ranchers, or large-scale farmers. Both José and Maria were avid environmental activists opposed to the current deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon. While this is certainly a tragic event, José and Maria are only two of the 1,150 rural activists who have been murdered in Brazil in the past 20 years.

Now can we begin our discussion about so-called “Eco-terrorism”?

WAVE MANUAL

Well the Kickstarter page is finally here. Steven, over at Self Learn LA, and I are self-publishing a book, titled Wave Manual, that serves as an educator’s handbook for the construction and maintenance of a Free Radio station. Here’s a description of the project:

Our goal is to produce a book, titled WAVE MANUAL, that bridges the gap between the theoretical and practical advantages of Free Radio. The book will unfold along three sections:

* First, a theoretical engagement with Micro FM broadcasting by working through the texts of thinkers like Felix Guatarri and veteran Free Radio activists such as Stephen Dunifer of Free Radio Berkeley, and Tetsuo Kogawa. In particular, we will focus on Micro FM as a social activity that raises questions about the relationship between media, democracy, pedagogy, and local politics.

* Secondly, we will elaborate upon the history of Free Radio and its involvement in various social movements around the globe. In particular, we will focus on the 2006 Oaxaca, Mexico uprising in which local media outlets were seized by protestors for the purpose of (1) quickly disseminating information to protestors, such as police and military repression, and (2)challenging Mexico’s mainstream media which demonized and manipulated the intents and purposes of the uprising. The fact that these citizen-run media outlets became such an important target for police and military raises questions about the importance of media for maintaining control over civilian populations.

* Thirdly, and most importantly, we will present a pedagogical framework that serves as an adaptable manual for teaching the creation of Micro FM stations in a community classroom setting. The goal of this section is to provide educators and community members with the tools to construct and maintain a Micro FM station as well as a radically democratic space that calls for and develops community participation.

WAVE MANUAL will not be your standard, run-of-the-mill textbook. We intend to approach the book as a work of art that includes graffiti, paintings, flyers, broadcasts, and collaborative community projects that have taken place both within the Free Radio movement and in the construction of our text.

WAVE MANUAL will not simply be a theoretical exercise but a documentation of our complete immersion into the Micro-FM movement that includes travel to Mexico and around the U.S. to work with and interview participants of various Free Radio collectives.

Your donations go to travel expenses, the procurement of materials, and the publishing costs of WAVE MANUAL. We are extremely excited about the potentials of this project and we thank you for your donations.

Even if you can only donate a couple dollars, it would be extremely helpful. Just as helpful would be spreading the word, sharing our Kickstarter page on your blog, Facebook, etc etc. Also, we intend to help raise funds by screening the documentary Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad. So, if you’re in the So Cal area and would like us to set up a screening at your community center, home, or school, let us know!

Also, now that we’ve launched the page, I’ll have more time for writing. The month of June is looking to be extremely productive.