KPFA - Against the Grain

Fossil fuels lie at the center of contemporary life — powering, despoiling, and altering everything around us. And that includes environmentalism itself, according to anthropologist David Bond. He discusses how concepts like toxic thresholds and environmental impact assessments are an accommodation to the continued existence of the oil and petro-chemical industries, rather than ways to address their inherent harms. Resources: David Bond, Negative Ecologies: Fossil Fuels and the Discovery of the Environment UC Press, 2022 The post The Environmentalism of the Fossil Fuel Industry appeared first on KPFA.

Mass shootings and other forms of person-on-person violence dominate the headlines, but what less visible, and perhaps more insidious, kinds of violence exist? Barbara Chasin identifies and describes two types of violence that affect large numbers of people: organizational violence and structural violence. She also connects the dots between violence and economic inequality. Barbara Chasin, Inequality & Violence in the United States: Casualties of Capitalism, 3rd ed., Lexington Books, 2022 (Image on main page from Pix4free.) The post Structural & Organizational Violence appeared first on KPFA.

Why do so many people who see themselves as progressive nonetheless support the state of Israel, considered an apartheid state for its treatment of the native Palestinian population? Scholar Saree Makdisi argues that the answer partially lies in the Israeli state’s cultivation of Western liberal support. He discusses campaigns designed to appeal to progressives — such as large-scale tree planting, creating museums to tolerance, and encouraging gay tourism — blocking from sight the ongoing dispossession of the Palestinians. He argues that support amongst progressives in the United States and Europe is slipping nevertheless. Resources: Saree Makdisi, Tolerance Is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial UC Press, 2022 The post Israel and the Progressives appeared first on KPFA.

A number of things are bad for your health. Is economic inequality one of them? According to Stephen Bezruchka, U.S. population health lags behind that of dozens of other countries for two main reasons: extreme economic inequality and a lack of government support directed at early life. Stephen Bezruchka, Inequality Kills Us All: COVID-19’s Health Lessons for the World Routledge, 2022 (Image on main page by AllaSerebrina.) The post Inequality’s Impact on Health appeared first on KPFA.

Work changed dramatically during the Covid pandemic. Enormous numbers of people lost their jobs, while others were able to work remotely. And then there were so-called essential workers, whose in-person jobs put them at the highest risk. In response, many of them organized, often informally. Sociologist Jamie McCallum argues that the struggles of essential workers during the pandemic fed into a wave of labor organizing since. Resources: Jamie K McCallum, Essential: How the Pandemic Transformed the Long Fight for Worker Justice Basic Books, 2022 Jamie McCallum at the Green Arcade in San Francisco, Thurs, February 2nd at 6:30pm The post The Labor Struggles of Essential Workers appeared first on KPFA.

Can individual psychological problems be addressed without an understanding of social conditions and political factors? Silvia Dutchevici talks about critical therapy, an alternative to traditional psychotherapy that fosters discussion of structural forces and oppressive systems in relation to mental health. Silvia Dutchevici, Critical Therapy: Power and Liberation in Psychotherapy The Critical Therapy Institute (Image on main page by Alex Green.) The post Critical Therapy appeared first on KPFA.

Who is ultimately responsible for global warming? Most often it’s cast as a problem we’ve all created equally, whether we’re rich or poor. In recent years, some attention has been paid to the top 10% of the population, whose high consumption lifestyles — large houses, large vehicles, and frequent plane flights — generate disproportionately large amounts of carbon emissions. Geographer Matthew Huber counters that while class is central, focusing primarily on consumption lets the key culprits off the hook: the corporations making a profit off of carbon-intensive production. Resources: Matthew T. Huber, Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet Verso, 2022 The post Climate Responsibility appeared first on KPFA.

What does it mean to be committed to nonviolence, in one’s activism and everyday life? Kazu Haga reveals that Kingian Nonviolence is a principled way of life, one that actively confronts violence and injustice, restores relationships, and helps create what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called Beloved Community. (Encore presentation.) Kazu Haga, Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm Parallax, 2020 East Point Peace Academy California Institute of Integral Studies and CIIS Public Programs The post Kingian Nonviolence appeared first on KPFA.

What is ecomusicology, and what sorts of things do ecomusicologists investigate? Aaron S. Allen defines and traces the contours of this interdisciplinary field of study. Also, we revisit a conversation with Martin Daughtry about the auditory dimension of armed conflict and the violence perpetrated by mechanized sounds of wartime. Aaron Allen’s keynote lecture on global ecomusicologies Allen & Dawe, eds., Current Directions in Ecomusicology: Music, Culture, Nature Routledge, 2016 J. Martin Daughtry, Listening to War: Sound, Music, Trauma, and Survival in Wartime Iraq Oxford University Press, 2015 The post Sonic Worlds appeared first on KPFA.

One of conservation’s greatest achievements happened mostly by accident and is still hiding in plain sight for most of us. When settlers established cities in the United States, they decimated the existing ecosystems. But in recent decades, as environmental historian Peter Alagona illustrates, there has been a remarkable return of wildlife to urban areas across the country. Resources: Peter S. Alagona, The Accidental Ecosystem: People and Wildlife in American Cities UC Press, 2023 The post The Fall and Rise of Urban Wildlife appeared first on KPFA.