Negative Ecologies: Fossil Fuels and the Discovery of the EnvironmentSo much of what we know of clean water, clean air, and now a stable climate rests on how fossil fuels first disrupted them. Negative Ecologies is a bold reappraisal of the outsized role fossil fuels have played in making the environment visible, factual, and politically operable in North America. Following stories of hydrocarbon harm that lay the groundwork for environmental science and policy, this book brings into clear focus the dialectic between the negative ecologies of fossil fuels and the ongoing discovery of the environment. Exploring iconic sites of the oil economy, ranging from leaky Caribbean refineries to deepwater oil spills, from the petrochemical fallout of plastics manufacturing to the extractive frontiers of Canada, Negative Ecologies documents the upheavals, injuries, and disasters that have long accompanied fossil fuels and the manner in which our solutions have often been less about confronting the cause than managing the effects. This history of our present promises to re-situate scholarly understandings of fossil fuels and renovate environmental critique today. David Bond challenges us to consider what forms of critical engagement may now be needed to both confront the deleterious properties of fossil fuels and envision ways of living beyond them. |
Contents
| 1 | |
of the Hydrocarbon Present | 23 |
Governing Disaster 33 33 | 69 |
Ethical | 93 |
Occupying the Implication | 114 |
Petrochemical Fallout | 123 |
The Ecological Mangrove | 168 |
Negative Ecologies and the Discovery of the Environment | 175 |
Other editions - View all
Negative Ecologies: Fossil Fuels and the Discovery of the Environment David Bond Limited preview - 2022 |
Negative Ecologies: Fossil Fuels and the Discovery of the Environment David Bond Limited preview - 2022 |
Common terms and phrases
agencies Alberta American analytical Anthropocene Anthropology Athabasca Athabasca River Barry Commoner became BP oil spill cancer capitalism Caribbean chemical Chipewyan climate change coastal colonial communities contamination contemporary corporate crisis critique Croix crude oil Cultural DDT and strontium deepwater destruction disasters disruptions drinking water DuPont economy emerging empire energy environmental science ethnographic exposure extraction factory fallout federal field focus forests Fort Chipewyan fossil fuels global Hoosick Falls human hydrocarbon imperial Indigenous environment infrastructure Keystone XL landscapes mangroves material ment monitoring natural negative ecologies nuclear weapons official oil companies oil industry Oil Sands operations petro petrochemical petroleum PFAS PFOA pipeline planetary plants plastics political pollution problem Puerto Rico Rachel Carson refinery region Report residents response rising ronment scientific social strontium 90 synthetic tar sands technologies theory thresholds and impact tion Tony Hayward toxicity U.S. Virgin Islands United Virgin Islands York