The first modern ‘War on’ was a War on Smog funded by the fossil fuel industry

A new exposé by Rebecca John at DeSmog Blog shows that as early as 1953 industry was up to capturing popular outrage and dishing out placation. To mollify disgust of Angelinos at the mounting smog in Los Angeles, industrialists got ahead of the public action curve to...

Semiofest meets Biosemiotics

Semiofest, the largest meeting and organization professional semioticians (working commercially rather than academically) just had a session biosemiotics. In many ways, it was also sustainability 2.0, tackling the issues of performativity and power in how we make...

Reflections on EUR’s Roundtable on Academic Freedom and Sustainability

After the 28 November, 2022 occupation of the Sanders Building at Erasmus University Rotterdam, where I work, by OccupyEUR, the students involved in the very nonviolent protest were violently removed by riot police at the Executive Board’s behest. Not the finest...

Chemical Colonialism: Environmental justice and industrial epidemics

Chemical Colonialism: Environmental justice and industrial epidemics I’ve got a new blog in the Environment & Society blog loosely connected to my 2021 paper in their journal. It builds on my interest in environmental history, particularly having read Fabian...

International Institute of Social Sciences Development Research Seminar