I’m Sian, and I’m a fossil fuel addict: on paradox, disavowal and (im)possibility in changing climate change

Once upon a time in the wild west Sometimes life brings experiences that give pause for thought. In recent years I have returned to west Namibia to work with elders of families I’ve known for over almost 30 years – a legacy of a childhood split between Britain and southern Africa. We have been documenting … Continue reading I’m Sian, and I’m a fossil fuel addict: on paradox, disavowal and (im)possibility in changing climate change →

Extraction old and new: mining the desert in southwestern Africa

By Mike Hannis and Sian Sullivan, for the Future Pasts research project. At the extreme southern tip of Africa in 1652, the world’s first trans-national corporation began establishing a new port. The powerful Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or VOC) initially just wanted a resupply point for ships rounding the Cape on … Continue reading Extraction old and new: mining the desert in southwestern Africa →

The natural capital myth

The Making of ‘Natural Capital’ Increasingly, it seems, nature is actually money. The contemporary moment of global crisis in both ecological and economic spheres is also the moment wherein ‘Nature’ is being refashioned as ‘Natural Capital’. Key interlocking elements thus are joining the previously rather separate domains of economics, business and finance, with ecology, environmentalism and conservation. … Continue reading The natural capital myth →

Chess or Go? Comments on a Conference Panel

The conference Development for a Finite Planet: Grassroots Perspectives and Responses to Climate Change, Resource Extraction and Economic Development organised in Oslo by the Norwegian Association for Development Research collected together a diverse array of papers on local engagements with, and contestations of, environmental issues. Contexts as far apart as South Africa’s townships and the … Continue reading Chess or Go? Comments on a Conference Panel →

Offsetting nature

'Mike Hannis and Sian Sullivan explore the strange world of biodiversity offsets and habitat banking', for The Land Magazine. Land use planning is a key arena for the spectacles of localism and marketisation being staged by our self-proclaimed greenest government ever. The new “presumption in favour of sustainable development” aims to encourage housebuilding and other … Continue reading Offsetting nature →

Green capitalism, and the cultural poverty of constructing nature as service provider

“People differ not only in their culture but also in their nature, or rather, in the way they construct relations between humans and non-humans.” Loss We hear a lot these days about loss. In April 2009, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that banks, insurance instruments and pension funds have ‘lost’ some US $4.1 trillion … Continue reading Green capitalism, and the cultural poverty of constructing nature as service provider →