Toxic News

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

David Judge, Director of Public Engagement and Education at Global Hands and Redcar and Cleveland Voluntary Development Agency. Toxicity is the quality of being toxic or poisonous. I will be looking at this from the opinion of the people from Redcar. My question to them has been: “What do you see as more toxic to … Continue reading What is the real toxicity within Redcar’s society? Old-fashioned pollution or the growth of Globalisation

Dr Becky Alexis-Martin, University of Southampton, Dr Stephanie Malin Colorado State University, and Dr Thom Davies, University of Warwick The era in which we live is now officially described as an atomic Anthropocene or the “age of humans”, an epoch defined by humans’ impact on the planet – and one of its most distinctive features is radiation. The … Continue reading The Atomic Anthropocene: a nuclear roundup of 2016

By Rich Copland, a local activist This article documents the personal experiences of a local environmental justice campaigner, in his own words: Background Lyons Park has been a large and very busy industrial site over the past seven decades. It is situated in the semi-rural Allesley Village on the west side of Coventry, and is … Continue reading Lyonsgate: a local perspective on pursuing environmental justice

Angeliki Balayannis, Doctoral Researcher, School of Geography, University of Melbourne. You can follow Angeliki on Twitter here.  Encountering the kiln On a crisp autumn morning, a hazardous waste incineration facility in the industrial heart of southern Poland is in the process of burning medical waste at over 1100 degrees celsius. From the safety of a … Continue reading Encountering the kiln: visual field notes from an incinerator

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

Dr Deana Jovanović, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies of Southeastern Europe, University of Rijeka The smoke had its own character, and evoked a particular sentiment. Featured image: Bor, July 2015. Photo credit: Dragan Stojmenović The town of Bor is a copper-processing town in East Serbia that developed right “under the chimney”. The rundown smelting plant and the … Continue reading Heroic Endurance Under the Smoke: Ethnographic Notes from an Industrial Town in Serbia