Histories of Transitions
In this chapter of the virtual exhibition “Energy Transitions,” historian Nuno Luís Madureira argues that the study of such transitions itself has gone through changes over the course of history.
This issue of Earth First! News chronicles direct action and events on fracking, anti-coal, -logging, and -mining, wildlife, pollution, fossil fuel extraction, and the Earth First! Prisoner Support Project, from March to July 2012.
In this chapter of the virtual exhibition “Energy Transitions,” historian Nuno Luís Madureira argues that the study of such transitions itself has gone through changes over the course of history.
Piper argues that coal has played an important role in Alberta’s history, although it receives less attention than the oil sands. Coal has been essential to Alberta’s economy and the industry has benefited from government support, although from the 1970s this came into conflict with growing grassroots environmentalism. Whether the coal industry can withstand recent political and economic changes, however, remains to be seen.
The film tells the story of the town Most in Northern Bohemia, destroyed in the quest for coal.
This award-winning documentary explores ways the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is likely to happen around the world.
Barbara Freese takes us on a rich historical journey that begins hundreds of millions of years ago and spans the globe. Coal is a captivating narrative about an ordinary substance with an extraordinary impact on human civilization.
Vaclav Smil shows why energy transitions are inherently complex and prolonged affairs, and how ignoring this raises unrealistic expectations that the United States and other global economies can be weaned quickly from a primary dependency on fossil fuels.
The Sydney Tar Ponds are a huge waste site in Nova Scotia, Canada that contains large amounts of toxic chemicals. The ponds formed in a river mouth, where steel corporations let their largely coal-based pollutants and sludge drain off for many decades.
Earth First! Journal 31, no. 4 features “An EF!ers Guide to Citizen Monitoring of Water Pollution Discharge Permits,” as well as essays on GPS tracking, border policy, and “Canopy Occupation Against Coal.”