Lecturer Geography
@MaynoothUni
// climate, land + energy // political ecology, environmental justice // All We Want is the Earth (2023)
@pbresnihan
.bsky.social
Our book is out today! Comes out of 10 year of friendship & collaboration with
@NaomiMillner
for which I am v grateful. Also a beautiful cover courtesy of
@cenza_v
. Short 🧵on what the book sets out to do:
On Ireland’s special relationship with Palestine - it isn’t just that we ‘experienced colonisation’ in some abstract sense. The very same colonial administrators debased, divided and persecuted us.
Balfour also earned the nickname "Bloody Balfour" for his brutal rule as colonial sec in Ireland from 1887-1891. According to him, "All the civilization in Ireland is the work of England."
This drawing "Ireland wrestles with famine while Mr Balfour plays golf" sums up his rule.
Last week, the International Criminal Court was officially called to investigate Ursula von der Leyen for complicity in war crimes. Don't remember it being reported in the media.
I didn't know about the collaboration with kids in refugee accommodation but it makes complete sense. This track represents an Ireland I want to live in and I am so glad it exists.
A group of 9-12 year old kids from a community centre in Cork met up with kids living in refugee accommodation nearby.
They made this track, & it’s gone viral; 📺 watch, & see why.
🔉 Sound up for💥The Spark, by the Kabin Crew & the Lisdoonvarna Crew 🇮🇪!
Frank Gibney's vision for a united Ireland in 1944 involved a new capital in Co Longford, wind farms on the boundaries of major towns, and a rebalancing between urban and rural industrialisation. Have to give him credit for the pure ambition!
Important to have someone from outside Ireland call this out.
Irish Govnt been savvy at appearing to take the higher moral ground on Israel/Palestine, whilst doing nothing material. Shannon airport remains open to US military, Ireland remains major trade partner with Israel.
Trinity College is in the centre of Dublin and is a major tourist attraction. To see it draped in Palestinian flags and occupied by students was something special.
College Green, outside, was full of hundreds of supporters chanting: 'We believe you will win' 💚🇵🇸
BREAKING: Turkey officially backs South Africa’s application before the International Court of Justice against Israel for committing genocide in Gaza.
“Israel’s murder of 22,000 Palestinian civilians, the majority being women and children, should not go unpunished in any way.”
These three books - all out in the past year - are about reclaiming and reimagining forms of environmentalism rooted in worker, feminist and anti-colonial struggles.
Just now: Trinity College Dublin students interrupt
@tcddublin
’s strategic planning meeting to demand that the college cuts ties with Israel. These include research ties with weapon manufacturers and investments in UN blacklisted companies.
The danger of framing this as a public order problem is we ignore the roots of the problem: Government policy.
The far-right exploits resentment, vulnerability and anger produced by the state's organised abandonment of certain communities, not deficits in policing.
I hope this is finally the wake up call that the government and the Gardaí need - Dublin City has a major public order problem.
And it is being fuelled and exploited by far-right fascist activists, online and offline.
#DublinRiots
With crackdowns on pro-Palestinian solidarity across UK & other European countries feels significant that Ireland (including our President) is sending a different message. This is why our neutrality matters.
Three takeaways from President Higgins incredibly rich and rousing speech at 21st birthday for
@TASCblog
today:
1. Green growth won’t get us out of the ecological catastrophe we face. Sufficiency for all, not accumulated wealth for a few.
This level of support for Israeli attacks on Gaza was bad enough a month ago but to state it again so unequivocally with 10,000+ Palestinians dead, over 4000 of those children, is just depraved.
Assured Israeli foreign minister
@elicoh1
of our full solidarity in the wake of Hamas’ terror attack of 7/10.
I reiterated my call for the immediate release of all hostages held in Gaza.
We also remain focused on improving the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
Lots of attention on energy demands of data centres but Intel expansion in Leixlip will be colossal:
Approx. 7-9% of national electricity demand...these figures should get more attention
Intel will use four times as much power as Galway city in Leixlip
40% of land in Gaza used for food production destroyed by Israel since October. Neither accidental nor new, the occupation is a denial of Palestinian food sovereignty.
NEW INVESTIGATION: Since Oct '23, the Israeli military has systematically targeted agricultural land and infrastructure in Gaza. To mark Land Day in Palestine, we present our analysis of this widespread destruction as an act of ecocide that supports Israel’s genocidal campaign.
- Data centres now consume 21% of total electricity on the grid (493% increase since 2014)
- 14,303 people now homeless (579% increase since 2014)
Two statistics published this week that tell you a lot about Ireland's 'development' over the last decade.
Do not confuse the empty rhetoric of the Irish Government with the committed solidarity most Irish people have with Palestine.
Ireland is Israel's fourth biggest export market and the Govnt continues to allow US military to use Shannon airport.
BREAKING
Ireland’s PM, Simon Harris:
“40,000 dead in Gaza is a milestone the world must be ashamed of. International diplomacy has failed to protect children, some only days old. Israel needs to stop the bombings. EU needs to review association agreement [with Israel].”
🇮🇪🇵🇸
The idea that an academic (or anyone) shouldn’t be able to make critical comments about an event organised by govnt depts and state agencies is worrying to say the least and needs to be called out.
The comment that you can't criticise the growth of data centres because you use social media is like saying you can't criticise the agri-food system because you eat food
We need better and more just agri-food systems, and better and more just digital economies
Two encampments in Dublin today.
One led by students protesting complicity in a US-funded, EU-assisted genocide, and one led by asylum seekers seeking refuge from war. Militarism abroad, walls at home, connected struggles.
Some of the energy supply companies increasing their electricity prices due to the increased costs of gas claim they provide 100% renewable energy to customers. Obviously not.
At the end of this news item Eamon Ryan explains that the Tallaght district heating system was paid for by the Climate Action Fund, not Amazon.
A basic requirement of DC development should be that the developer pays for district heating, not taxpayer.
One of Ireland's first district heating programmes has started operating. The Tallaght District Heating Scheme takes waste heat from an Amazon data centre and uses it to heat South Dublin County Council offices and a local library | Read more:
Thom Yorke and Nick Cave grew out of the same high neoliberal era globalisation ideology as Bono. Now justifying their concerts in Israel as being about 'freedom' and 'building bridges'.
Play in Israel, just don’t pretend you didn’t know via
@AJEnglish
With data centre growth in Ireland there has been interest in what data they store and whether it is all necessary.
Here are some good resources that place the rapid growth of data within a broader context - who is it for? what are the implications? how do we challenge it? 1/8
The Taoiseach has suggested that Fianna Fáil MEPs should think of the national interest when considering whether or not they will vote for Ursula von der Leyen to have a second term as European Commission president
It was difficult to listen to her spin three months ago, now she sounds pure deluded. There is no talking to defenders of genocide and there is nothing to be gained from having an Israeli ambassador in this country.
TCD effectively in lockdown.
@tcddublin
now has to decide between tourist revenue or unequivocal solidarity with Palestine, including breaking all ties with Israeli institutions.
Trinity college students continue protest over Gaza via
@rte
In Ireland, it's hard not to contrast the generous outpouring of support for Palestine with the meanness of those protesting against the housing of asylum seekers.
Two Irelands - solidarity vs division, internationalism vs localism, anti-imperialist vs imperialist.
Ecology, infrastructure, logistics, climate change, energy...events like these show how impossible it is to separate them.
Major rivers across Europe drying up, affecting transport of coal & gas by ship and the cooling of nuclear power plants.
Students in
@tcddublin
encampment sing 'Solidarity Forever' as admin opens negotiations on their demands. All power to them - Palestine will be free 💚🇵🇸
'Decolonising Palestine & Unsettling Environmental Justice', written w/ Bana Abu Zuluf & Rory Rowan
@Rundale_Media
'Without solidarity with the oppressed at its core, environmental activism risks being co-opted by the very system it aims to dismantle.'
I participated in this ongoing occupation of the EU Commission offices on Mount Street, Dublin, today. The action was organised by a recently formed group,
@Dublin4Gaza
, to express opposition to the open support for Israel's horrific campaign in
#Gaza
by the EU Commission.
Israel is expert in environmental warfare.
'Farmers returning to Lebanon's south amid a lull in fighting found crops contaminated by White Phosphorus' - long term effects unknown.
Lebanese crops ruined by white phosphorus, unexploded bombs
Ali Kadri gets to the point.
'It is no longer satisfying for capital to integrate peripheral economies with which it could buy and sell partially sane or useful commodities; there are profits to be made from the destruction of peripheral countries.'
h/t
@NinaFarnia
Thank you authors for this teaching resource: showing why Palestinian liberation is also a struggle for environmental justice.
Greenwashing in Palestine/Israel: Settler colonialism and environmental injustice in the age of climate catastrophe (2023)
BREAKING: South African lawyers have written to Biden warning that they intend to begin proceedings against his government for being complicit in ongoing international crimes carried out by Israel against the people of Palestine.
It cannot be said enough - the idea that 'Ireland is full' just naturalises conditions of scarcity produced by decades of neoliberal policy and the privatisation of wealth.
Ireland´s richest two Irish billionaires have more wealth than the bottom half of the population.
'If we cannot cope with 26,000 people under our international obligations, there is something seriously wrong...'
See Catherine's Full Contribution / Ráiteas Iomlán:
As Uisce Eireann starts its water conservation campaign, worth knowing that Meta's Clonee data centre consumed 838,654 cubic metres in 2022, double the next thirstiest DC it operates. And that 40 new large DCs are in planning. That's a lot of water.
Over 6+ months, Israel has destroyed 32 cultural centres, 12 museums, 9 libraries, 8 publishing houses, 9 archaeological sites, and 19 universities in Gaza.
So, blocking access to the Book of Kells until
@tcddublin
commits to unequivocal solidarity with Palestine is appropriate.
Quick to vilify turf burning but what of data centres and the tech industry? Familiar to see one presented as ‘essential’ and the other as ‘out dated tradition’ - all depends on whose interests we’re talking about and whose matter
'How do we engage with the threat of social and environmental degradation while creating and maintaining liveable and just worlds?'
'Ecological Reparation - Repair, Remediation and Resurgence in Social and Environmental Conflict' out now w/
@BrisUniPress
Brilliant 💚 🇵🇸
“Last week, College tried to destroy the union...we have shown in the last few days that the students are stronger than ever."
@jennymaguir
Trinity to work towards total divestment from Israel in unprecedented win for BDS
@NaomiMillner
and I have a book coming out this summer with
@BrisUniPress
!
'All We Want is the Earth. Land, Labour and Movements Beyond Environmentalism.'
Blurb + ToC below
🙏
@cenza_v
for beautiful cover illustration
Please come say hello at the Irish book launch of 'All We Want is the Earth'. 7pm 26th September at Connolly Books, Temple Bar.
@NaomiMillner
and I will be chatting to Rory Rowan about the book, incl. how it may help us think about environmental politics on the island.
4. And despite his many erudite references ((Adorno, Luxemburg, Latour…), ideas and momentum for a new eco social economy must be from the street and in the schools.
There is absolutely no reason that all universities on the island shouldn't now follow
@tcddublin
in cutting ties with Israeli institutions. 7 months of inaction is already far too long, but now they have nowhere to hide.
The encampment and blockade on campus will end today following successful talks between university senior management and protestors. Plans are underway to return to normal university business for students, staff & the public. Read the full statement:
US aircraft are flying in and out of Shannon airport but the Irish Govnt claim they are not being used to support Israel or any other US-backed country. That claim is laughable. If ever there was a time for Ireland to demonstrate our active neutrality it would be now.
Algeria has refused to allow to a US cargo plane destined for Israel, with military air and equipment, from entering its airspace.
According to Spain’s La Razon Newspaper, the US plane was a Boeing C17-A Globenmaster, used to transport troops and supplies into Israel.
Just as with Palestinian resistance, Western media quick to roll out tropes like 'rebel-held Yemen' and 'Iran-backed Houthis' as though it isn't the Yemeni people who have stood up to Western imperialism and are being punished for it again.
Wrote this short piece on why farmers shouldn't be equated with unsustainable agri-food industry - other farmers & farmer organisations exist here such as
@ECVC1
&
@TalamhBeo
-> it isn't a choice between environment or food production
These techbros are next generation Bono. Hyper-liberal, anti-democratic billionaires who feel the need to 'solve social problems'. No thanks.
Collison brothers back new think tank to tackle Ireland’s housing crisis
The Greens under Eamon Ryan were not just passive bystanders but active promoters of neoliberal policy - translating environmental goals into new market opportunities and individual responsibility. His commitment is not in question but his politics definitely should be.
Sorry Pádraic had to resign for this as he is absolutely right.
The vacuum created by the absence of a state plan for agri sector combined with farmer fears about the future is breeding ground for reactionary & far-right. Same dynamic as with housing & migrant protection.
Last week I wrote a blog for the IWT website in which I accused Irish farm organisations of "lurching to the far right". I stand over that assessment, indeed seeing the performance in the JOC last week, the attacks on the integrity of the EPA, and Tim Cullinane telling RTE that..
This Google data centre in Uruguay (suffering worst drought in 74 years) will service global data usage - so much for the idea that DCs locate because of a cool climate.
‘It’s pillage’: thirsty Uruguayans decry Google’s plan to exploit water supply
Excellent read on how Cuba responded to threat of economic collapse in 1990s, redistributing state-owned farms, opening cooperatives, embracing agroecology, & supporting popular initiatives in food production.
h/t
@AlexHeffron20
@NewSocialistNS
Two excellent short pieces that a) respond to Huber's points, b) outline why degrowth needs to be understand beyond caricature
@KaiHeron
@BueRubner
, Emanuele Leonardi & Nick Dyer-Witheford
I'm honestly tired of this debate, but one of the major Marxist journals has now fully embraced degrowth. I read JB Foster's introduction and wanted to tease out points of agreement and disagreement. 🧵1/x
Yesterday, IOF razed over 500 acres of agricultural land northwest of Rafah to the ground. The same day, children were admitted to Kamal Adwan Hospital in North Gaza for food poisoning due to consumption of tree leaves.
@palyouthmvmt
Wrote this in response to some of the media/academic commentary around turf wars - just latest episode in much longer history of contested environmentalism in this country
Sorry I couldn't be there for this and thanks to those who were. The fences need to be torn down.
Protesters tear down barriers along the Grand Canal via
@rte
New series of the Critical Ecologies podcast is now available - interviews with postgrad students in
@Maynoothgeog
about their work in spatial and environmental justice. A few highlights 🧵 1/7
No university in Ireland has even made the minimal call for a ceasefire. Contrast with Russia-Ukraine conflict is startling.
This excellent statement signed by main academic & student rep bodies in
@MaynoothUni
makes it clear what community wants & where our solidarity lies.
BREAKING: Pro-coup Bolivian troops are chased out of La Paz's central plaza by protesters. It is reported that they've also withdrawn from the presidential palace.
This is pathetic &
@tcddublin
no different to other universities in Ireland. Given the Irish Govnt have gone further with their statements, what are Uni admins so scared of?
College: “Our stance is to remain neutral” on Gaza genocide
Trinity College Dublin Endowment Fund has invested in 13 Israeli companies, including UN-blacklisted Energix, an energy company that has developed a solar farm in the occupied West Bank.
Piece w/
@sineadmercier
in Examiner today - energy and climate crisis should push us to think more ambitiously about what a public energy system could be (not sure about the image they led with)
I just spoke to my new nemesis CEO of
@Equinor
and its majority shareholder, the Norwegian government, at their AGM.
These are the very people who decide whether we avert climate catastrophe or keep throwing fuel on the crisis and let millions of people die. (pt. 2 in thread)
This will be good. Next Wednesday, 26th June.
'The Accumulation of Waste: A Political Economy of Genocide and Imperialism.' Ali Kadri and
@maxajl
with
@Helyeh_Doutaghi
(h/t
@SeanMac_R
)
This is insane...
"The total demand [by data centres] of 3,800MW would equate to 70% of the peak demand for electricity by the whole country"
@patbrodie337
@mel_hogan
Regulator proposes data centre curb after new power supply risk warning
This is what Ireland's 'just' transition looks like: enclosed networks of private wind/solar energy + data centres on former bogs. Not good for workers, people or the environment.
Amazon data centre in Bord na Móna’s new ‘energy park’ in Midlands
Michael McGrath confirms Ireland's strategic investment fund has invested €4.2m in companies operating in illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine. He says the government is investigating how to divest from these, and will bring a plan to Govt shortly.
@virginmedianews
This response to a peaceful student protest tells you all you need to know about how Irish universities align themselves in this genocide. They are so dependent on US & EU funding. This is also an effect of austerity.
I was thrown out with excessive force from Nancy Pelosi's honorary doctorate of law
@ucddublin
earlier today for representing the views of students as
@UCDSU
President. Why does UCD continue to platform Zionist warmongers whilst silencing students?
BREAKING: Israel is carpet bombing Gaza right now, in a total blackout as all telecommunications have been cut off again.
Israeli warplanes are heavily bombing a defenseless population of mostly children and Western leaders are cheering it on!
Every politician in Government should be getting hounded for this. Every journalist should be hounding them.
Sickening as we approach ONE YEAR of US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza.
A fourth Israel-bound cargo flight flew over Irish sovereign airspace this year, carrying 27 arming devices that were, according to shipping records, “to be used in the Arrow 3 missile interceptor for end use by the Israel Ministry of Defence”.
Irish Govnt said suspending funding to UNRWA would be 'catastrophic' for Palestinian people; Spain 'indispensable'. Meanwhile, EU Commission has announced it will withdraw funds (along with core EU countries). These are big moral and political differences.
BREAKING: Spain announces that it will not suspend funding to UNRWA in Gaza.
“Spain will maintain its support for UNRWA. The UN agency is indispensable and the funding helps alleviate the terrible humanitarian situation in Gaza.”
— Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares
The David McWilliams article referred to in this letter was just terrible. Premised on a misunderstanding of both neoliberalism and the welfare state, it presented Ireland as a paragon of wealth re-distribution. Appreciate the restraint of UCD colleagues in calling it out.
This is what should make you angry.
'Investment funds controlling more than €28 bn worth of Irish property have nearly halved their tax payments since the govt introduced measures aimed at tackling their “aggressive behaviour to avoid tax”.'
This article presents opposition to wind farms as 'reactionary, opportunism' and 'anti-renewable sentiment'.
There may be something to this but it is minor, and it leaves out other causes for opposition that should not be so easily dismissed. Here are some: 1/7
In my
@IrishTimes
column this month I return to the challenge of developing renewables at scale to end our reliance on fossil fuels - what are the barriers to deploying wind and solar power in Ireland? Turns out one of these is local politics. 1/n
'Theories of Political Ecology: Monopoly Capital Against People and the Planet' by
@maxajl
is a fantastic article, challenging familiar frameworks within Euro/US centric political ecology (incl. extractivism, eco-modernism, degrowth & fossil capital).
SAMIR AMIN PRIZE 2022-23
Pleased to announce that the Samir Amin Young Scholars' Prize in Political Economy of Development has been awarded to MAX AJL for "Theories of Political Ecology: Monopoly Capital Against People and the Planet":
Congratulations!
Feeling v lucky + excited to be joining
@Maynoothgeog
as lecturer in nature/society from this monday, doubly lucky for past few years with great people in TCD geog
@Planetgeogblog
- thanks and glad I won't be far
Reminder this is happening tomorrow (Tuesday, 26th) at 7pm in
@ConnollyBooks
.
@NaomiMillner
and I will be chatting to Rory Rowan about the book and its relevance for environmental movements in Ireland and beyond.
‘The group, aged 5 to 75, used the uprooted saplings to block drains in the publicly-owned plantation near Manorhamilton, thereby beginning rewetting and restoration of the degraded peatland.’
150 campaigners pull up Sitka spruce on Coillte plantation.
With all Irish twitter chat on individual responsibility and climate change, here are some good resources on why focus on individual lifestyle choices are not just limited but part of the problem 1/4
@HannahEDaly
Cecil Rhodes in 1895, on the importance of imperialism for resolving class conflict at home.
(quoted by Lenin who describes him as a 'somewhat more honest social-chauvinist')
The same inconsistency with Irish universities - strong to act in solidarity with Ukraine but claiming 'neutrality' on Palestine. All the harder to accept when it is Israeli genocide and thousands are out in protest every weekend across Ireland.
The Late Late Show ran an actual program to raise funds for Ukraine. No issue with this of course, but who decides in RTE what conflict they have a position on and what conflict they need to remain neutral on.