Here on Earth : an argument for hope

Human Geography, 2009

Environmental Philosophy, 2011

2021

Review of Hope Matters: Why changing the way we think is critical to solving the environmental crisis, by Erin Kelsey (Vancouver: Greystone Books / David Suzuki Institute, 2020).

Planetary Justice: Stories and Studies of Action, Resistance and Solidarity, 2024

Bringing together interdisciplinary climate change scholarship and grassroots activism, this book considers the possibilities of planetary justice across human difference, generations, species and the concept of life and non-life. Writing amidst bushfires, cyclones, global climate strikes and a global pandemic, contributors from the Earth Unbound Collective share stories from India, Australia, Canada and Scotland. Chapters draw on Indigenous, Black, Southern, ecosocialist and ecofeminist perspectives to call for more radical and interconnected ideas of justice and solidarity. This accessible book features diverse voices that speak with the planet in the face of climate change, biodiversity loss and extinction. It explores the politics and practices of working towards a future where the planet thrives.

Socialism and Democracy, 2016

Environmental History, 2019

Responding to the social, political, economic, and ecological challenges that confront contemporary society, this article—the 2019 Presidential Address to the American Society for Environmental History—argues that critique and resistance, married with a quest for alternative possibilities, will serve us better than a doleful narrative of decline. It seeks hope by reengaging with the ideas of scholars who earlier lamented despoliation and envisaged other, better, ways of being in the world. By discovering, interrogating, and drawing insight from the ways in which our precursors sought to emancipate their contemporaries, we can ask what they (or their ideas) can do for us. Although this strategy is unlikely to deliver immediate efficacious solutions to current dilemmas, it can help us to historicize ourselves and the precepts that shape our lives. It can also expand the range of existential possibilities by calling into question the conceited convictions, tired mantras, and blithe ass...

Religious Education, 2015

Environmental consciousness-raising programs tend to emphasize the magnitude of imminent ecological disasters, if humans continue on their current trajectory. While these environmental literacy programs also call for action to avoid cataclysmic ecological changes, psychological research on "learned helplessness" suggests that information on the magnitude of ecological problems may actually present barriers to action, unless it is coupled with hope. We focus here primarily on Christian literature that finds hope for environmental action in the rhythms and beauty of Creation, in the biblical narratives of a people of hope, and in a faith community that worships and acts on behalf of the shalom of God on earth. Many of the efforts aimed at encouraging citizen action on behalf of social and ecological justice in today's world are devoted to consciousness-raising about the extent of current problems and the possible consequences of inaction. Impassioned exhortations from religious leaders, including the three most recent popes, show the complexity of environmental issues and the moral obligation to care for the Earth. On the secular side, television documentaries such as Ann Curry's (2013) recent exposé of the devastating effect that oil drilling inflicts on the bioregion, people, and diverse species of the Ecuadorian Rainforest visually shocks the senses with a clarion call for community action. Religious education programs, such as those that connect social and environmental justice, highlight the plight of immigrants, refugees, and economically deprived, as well as the destruction caused by deforestation, soil and coastal erosion, and similarly hearken people of faith to collective action.

Planetary Justice: Stories and Studies of Action, Resistance and Solidarity, 2024

with over five years of experience as a community organizer. She is currently employed as a part-time grassroots mentor and organizer with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and as a Research Associate at Deakin University. Previously as a high school student, she was an organizer with School Strike for Climate (Sydney and national organizer). She is a member of Sapna South Asian Climate Justice Solidarity.

2013

Ecological philosophy requires a significant orientation to the role of hope in both theory and practice. I trace the limited presence of hope in ecological philosophy, and outline reasons why environmental hopelessness is a threat. I articulate and problematize recent environmental publications on the topic of hope, the most important worry being that current literature fails to provide the necessary psychological grounding for hopeful action. I turn to the psychology of hope to provide direction for conceptualizing hope and actualizing hoped for states of affairs. If positive moral action is the goal, hope is a vital concept for underwriting ecological philosophy and a practice requiring considerably more attention.

2019

Today we are faced with all the traditional reasons to despair: poverty, loneliness, loss, tragedy, death, and the like. And, for many, this despair is exacerbated by either the modern disenchantment of the world, or a postmodern suspicion regarding grand narratives (especially those speculating about transcendence), or both. The news of the day sounds a relentless drumbeat of woe. As I write these words on a rainy morning in southern California—itself a depressing reminder of the apocalyptic drought my state is suffering, and the anthropogenic climate change that is likely to make such droughts more common and more severe—the headlines include: the ongoing brutality of the “Islamic State” in Iraq and Syria; increasing tensions between Russia and the West, including frightening near-misses involving unregistered military aircraft; the stillsmoldering catastrophe of Ebola Zaire in West Africa (and parallel, though much less publicized, stories of MERS and H5N1, either of which, in a ...