Scarcity in the Arctic: A Colonial Construct?
In European imagination the North Atlantic has been seen as a region on the far borders of civilization and marked by the contrasts of scarcity and plenty.
In European imagination the North Atlantic has been seen as a region on the far borders of civilization and marked by the contrasts of scarcity and plenty.
Although medieval Scandinavian literary texts are heavily symbolic and thus cannot be used as reliable sources of information about environmental conditions of the past, they can shed valuable light on the ways premodern societies perceived and dealt with problems of scarcity and environmental change.
Since fossil fuel consumption has been integral to the project of modernity, energy history offers one way of trying to understand the Anthropocene and link the histories of capital and climate.
In literature and the arts, scarcity has often been given a positive interpretation as something to be cherished not shunned, actively endorsed and idealized rather than dismissed as an obstacle to artistic success.
This essay looks at science fiction works by Philip K. Dick and Ursula Le Guin from the 1970s in which visions of scarcity are both critiques of abundance and utopian gestures. Today, Ramírez argues, scarcity has lost its critical power.
This film explores the issues facing the Colorado River Basin due to increased pressure from population growth, and the effect on an already decreasing water supply.
This film follows Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa’s plan to avoid exploiting its Amazonian oil fields and convince industrialized countries to help fund this initiative.
This film tells the stories of displaced people and livelihood changes in Iran after the construction of the Karun-3 Dam which submerged 12,300 acres of valuable forest with water.
This film criticizes America’s dependency on oil, explains how oil companies were able to establish their power, and provides information on viable and affordable alternatives to petroleum fuel.
This film follows activists campaigning for the legalization of industrial hemp, which they believe has great potential for sustainability.