It didn’t get much attention, but last week President Obama took the most drastic actions on climate change of his presidency. Leaving aside the really only marginal question of whether those policies will actually address climate change (see my friend Sasha’s post explaining why it won’t), the more interesting question for me is why he… Continue reading Climate Change is the New Falling Rate of Profit
I’m still in Ecuador, but for all intents and purposes my thesis research is over. Upon coming back from Yasuní, my dad and I returned to Quito, where we immediately were picked up to go to Maquipucuna Lodge, in the liminal zone between the Andes and the Coast. Decades ago, my dad helped some young… Continue reading The End (As Seen From Paradise)
This weekend, I was the future of the Huaorani nation. This may sound like a rather strong and paternalistic statement coming from a non-Huaorani, but I’m pretty sure the four Huaorani guides with which I travelled this weekend would agree. Indeed, ask almost anyone in the Ecuadorian Amazon what they will live off of if… Continue reading Ecotourism Will Save Us All!
I rarely have to ask more than a handful of questions in my interviews here: as soon as I mention “oil” and “Amazon” in the same sentence, people here can go on for hours. It’s better that way, of course, since it allows me to stick to a few Spanish paragraphs of explanation of my… Continue reading Location, Location, Location
It’s always exciting when something is published in the popular press on my research interests, and even better (academically, at least) when it is sufficiently off the mark to make me think that people really need to know about what I’m discovering. I’m fairly sure everyone in elementary school hears about how the rainforest is… Continue reading One step forward?
In my last post, I explained why I think the local politics of climate change are an underconsidered factor in the success or failure of efforts to limite greenhouse gas emissions. Finding an appropriate site to study this topic, though, is not straightforward. Climate change remains an issue of marginal importance for many, especially in… Continue reading The Project, Part II: Yasuní
Here goes, a quick pre-cap of my summer in Ecuador. It’d be foolish to say that what I’m writing actually reflects what is going to happen: I have no doubt that research questions will change, contacts will fall through, and plans will go awry. If anything, I think this will serve as a monument to… Continue reading The Project, Part I: Theory
“We could live off of dumpsters if we have to Sell our blood by the pint to make rent This kind of dignity doesn’t come easy But you’ll never find it for sale” – Against Me! One of the things that surprised me in Uganda was that there were no beggars. I expected Kampala, the… Continue reading Indulgences
For the past three years, I haven’t asked for anything for Christmas. Partly, this is just an inevitable consequence of gradually maturing beyond the age where the prospect of a gigantic Lego set is enough to keep me up on Christmas Eve. In part, though, it’s also because I’ve consciously been rejecting the idea of… Continue reading Desert Island
Alex V. Barnard - Sociology 