Alice Mah, Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick I have been researching the petrochemical industry for more than five years now. Day in and out, this behemoth industry, with its toxicity, controversies, and sprawling network of activities around the globe, has been looming in the back of my mind. Whenever I am gripped by an … Continue reading Special Issue: Making the Petrochemical Connection
Chris Waite, University of Warwick When Alexander von Humboldt reached the peak of El Teide in June 1799, he described how the ‘prodigious transparency of the atmosphere’ contributed to ‘the magical effect’ of Tenerife’s landscape1. Humboldt was on route to what would become an extraordinary Latin American expedition that saw him scale higher peaks than … Continue reading Santa Cruz Verde 2030: A new dawn for Tenerife?
Rowan Alcock, DPhil candidate in Politics, University of Oxford If China truly wants to be the leader in the global effort to avoid the worst effects of climate change, it needs to once again look at the rural as the place for revolutionary answers. China’s rapid growth has, to a large extent, been sustained and … Continue reading The Chinese Government Should Support Small Scale Agriculture for a Green China
Dr Cynthia Wang, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick Today, our world faces unprecedented and mounting challenges: terrorism, climate change, conflicts and war-torn places, refugee crisis and migration, globalization and protectionism，exclusion and xenophobia, and blatant human rights violations in authoritarian states. New issues have also occurred regarding climate change and global warming. After the removal … Continue reading Editorial: Challenges and Opportunities to Combat Climate Change
Matthew T. Huber, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Syracuse University Are you worried about your carbon footprint? Perhaps you have a long commute to work via car. You had a recent year of heavy air travel. You guiltily enjoy meat. It is hard wired into the politics of climate change that when we get into … Continue reading Whose Carbon Footprint Matters?
Yuanni Wang, Graduate Student in Sociology, Hohai University. To stand opposite the government, but not against it: this is the basic principle of Green Xiaoxiang, an environmental organization actively promoting pollution monitoring, environmental advocacy and environmental policy research. By sticking to this principle, Green Xiaoxiang has tried to adopt cooperative measures, and have played an effective … Continue reading To stand opposite the government, but not against it: Green Xiaoxiang and environmental participation in Hunan Province, China
Alice Mah, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick The sense of cautious optimism following the Paris climate change agreements last December already seems worlds apart. Featured image: photo credit: Petter Rudwall, unsplash.com This issue marks the one-year anniversary of Toxic News. It has been a significant year for toxic issues around the world. The sense … Continue reading Editorial: Toxic Subjectivities
India Holme, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick “When it comes to sustainability, 2016 will be a year of distraction, fear and disruption. Around the world, a host of economic and political threats – including the refugee crisis, terrorism and teetering markets in Europe and China – will continue to crowd headlines… long term environmental destruction is … Continue reading Climate Change, Eco-Labelling, Corporate and Consumer Responsibility
India Foster, Project Administrator, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK “It is universally considered just that each person should obtain that (whether good or evil) which he deserves; and unjust that he should obtain a good, or be made to undergo an evil, which he does not deserve. This is, perhaps, the clearest and most … Continue reading My journey in environmental justice: How – or rather why – I came to work on the Toxic Expertise project…
Dr Alice Mah, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK In some way or another, whether up close, within polluted communities, or at a distance, as global consumers, toxic issues affect all of us. In the age of the Internet, we are constantly bombarded with news. Headlines emerge only to be buried as … Continue reading Toxic News: Editor’s Introduction
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