An Array of Utopian Flowers
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Samuel Beckett, Confessions and the Human Condition
Posted on December 5, 2019 | No Comments -
“Bleeding Kansas” and Stories of the Underground Railroad
Posted on December 3, 2019 | No Comments -
Jesse Marquez: Public Preparedness for Threats from Refineries, Ports, and Freeways
Posted on November 27, 2019 | No Comments -
Urban Oil Drilling and the Intersection Between Faith and Environmentalism
Posted on November 20, 2019 | No Comments -
Regenerative Responses: Growing The Soil Carbon Sponge
Posted on November 2, 2019 | No Comments
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WilderUtopia in 102 Languages
‘Medicine Walk’ Featured in SBLitJo
Santa Barbara Literary Journal releases ‘Bellatrix: Volume 3’ this June, which among adventurous fiction, poetry, essays, and lyrics, features an excerpt of Jack Eidt’s psychic-animism fiction, Medicine Walk. Buy the book!
UNESCO Archive
Angels and Saints in Mosaic at Sicily’s Monreale Cathedral
Posted on January 13, 2019 | No CommentsThe Cathedral at Monreale, built between 1170 and 1189, in a hilltown above Palermo, Sicily, is a masterpiece of Arab-Norman Byzantine mosaics created by craftspeople from Constantinople.
Dancing Devils of Venezuela Challenge US Consumer Culture
Posted on November 8, 2017 | No CommentsAn exhibition by artist Cristóbal Valecillos in Los Angeles invoked the Dancing Devils of Yare, a 400-year old Venezuelan tradition celebrating life, the triumph of good over evil, and renewal. His provocative interpretation of the diablo masks, hand-sculpted from repurposed waste materials, takes aim at culture and consumption in the US, a plea for overcoming.
Hindu Epic ‘Mahabharata’ in Balinese Shadow Theatre and Dance
Posted on August 14, 2017 | No CommentsThe timeless brilliance of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, illuminated by the mysterious art of Balinese shadow theatre, enacted to the percussive metallophones of traditional gamelan ensembles.
Volcanoes Loom Over Vibrant Colors of Antigua Guatemala
Posted on February 28, 2017 | 1 CommentSurrounded by volcanoes, coffee plantations, and picturesque villages, the once-ruined former colonial capital, Antigua Guatemala, remains the most charming city in the Republic, a vibrant and somewhat overly commodified mix of Ladino-Spanish, Kaqchikel-Maya, and multinational Gringo cultures coming together.
Ecuadorean Amazon Under Oil Assault to Service Chinese Debt
Posted on July 5, 2016 | No CommentsEcuadorean state capitalism has sacrificed significant tracts of one of the planet's most important biosphere reserves, Yasuni National Park in the Amazonian region, to a massive new oil drilling project. It threatens multiple indigenous territories and the area's biodiversity and ecosystem integrity.
Colombia: Stunning Indigenous Rock Art from Amazonia
Posted on September 2, 2015 | 1 CommentPrehistoric paintings on vertical rock faces in an Amazonian wilderness in Colombia were recently photographed and filmed for western eyes. The pretense of this British filmmaker as the "discoverer" of the paintings is of course ludicrous. The once populous Karijona Tribe most likely painted these masterpieces, and continue to live uncontacted in the vast rainforest, and anthropologists and explorers have studied the region for hundreds of years.
Lost White City “Discovered” in Honduran Jungle?
Posted on March 11, 2015 | 5 CommentsIn search for legendary “City of the Monkey God,” explorers ignore indigenous residents and archaeologists who have worked in the region for years, and shamefully claim to find the "untouched ruins" of a "vanished" culture found in the remote Moskitia region eastern Honduras.
Fracking Boom Surrounds Sacred Chaco Canyon
Posted on February 19, 2015 | No CommentsThe fracking boom threatens Puebloan and Hopi ancestral homelands around New Mexico's sacred Chaco Canyon and local Diné communities are fighting drilling, pipeline projects and just general industrialization of their region without bringing real economic development. See the videos from the Solstice Project.
Convivial Degrowth: An Ecologic Reckoning for an Ailing Planet
Posted on December 6, 2014 | No CommentsThe model planners and economists touted as "sustainable development" has only exacerbated ecologic distress and community dislocation through its focus on wealth-creation. The needs of our ailing planet facing an impending 11 billion population calls for ecology and human welfare to dominate economy, but how to achieve this in a world bought and paid for by finance capitalism?
Peru: lllegal Gold Mining versus Biodiversity and Ecotourism
Posted on April 9, 2014 | 2 CommentsA gold rush that accelerated with the onset of the 2008 global recession compounds the woes of the Amazon basin, laying waste to Peruvian rain forest and spilling tons of toxic mercury into the air and water.
Honduras: Narcotrafficking Leads to Native Dispossession, Deforestation
Posted on February 7, 2014 | 3 CommentsIn the isolated region of La Mosquitia, Honduras, narco-traffickers act as shock troops in the assault on native Miskitu, Tawahka, and Pech homelands, ruthlessly dispossessing residents and rapaciously converting forest commons to private pasture primed for sale to multinational corporations.
Honduras: Mega-Tourism and Garifuna Communities Collide
Posted on December 29, 2013 | 10 CommentsCanadian "Porn King" Randy Jorgensen's mega-tourism "development" projects are stirring conflict and destroying Afro-Caribbean Garífuna communities in Trujillo on the north coast of Honduras.
Asian Rosewood: Soaked in Blood
Posted on November 23, 2013 | 1 CommentDeep in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia grows a rare and beautiful tree whose wood is so highly prized that men will kill to possess it. In Thailand, environmental organizations and park rangers are fighting back against organized crime syndicates bent on logging it and smuggling it to the burgeoning Chinese market.
Honduras: Miskitu Facing Dams and Deforestation Granted Land Rights
Posted on September 13, 2013 | 1 CommentHonduras grants Miskitu People title to huge swath of coastal, border lands they occupy, but massive dams under construction on the Patuca River and pilfering of the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve continue unabated in a region undergoing massive militarization.
Vandana Shiva: Monsanto Impoverishes Ecosystems, Farmers and Consumers
Posted on September 10, 2013 | No CommentsCorporate seed monopolies reduce ecosystem health, impoverish farmers, and cheat consumers health and nutrition, writes biodiversity campaigner Vandana Shiva. Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser found out the extent that Monsanto would go to maintain their monopoly in the anti-GMO documentary "David Versus Monsanto."
Baja California: An “Earthly Paradise” in the Desert
Posted on July 10, 2013 | 5 CommentsBaja California, despite proximity to the US and recent rampant growth, remains a wild and untamed coastal desert. Behind the charming pueblitos and peaceful resorts lies a varied history where conquest and development have moved both slow and fast. Following a recent trip to the Gulf of California town of Loreto, this first in a series of articles attempts to define what makes the place special, as well as what the future holds for this (mostly) hidden resort region.
Bolivia: Global Warming Endangers Kallawaya Healers
Posted on December 13, 2012 | 3 CommentsThe Kallawaya cosmovision is based upon thousands of years of experiential knowledge about their environment and shared among many other communities across the High Andes. At the center of the cosmovision is the notion that humanity must live in harmony with the environment. Illness is the result of a spiritual dissonance caused by some sort disconnect between a person and his or her environment. One of the main tenets of the Kallawaya cosmovision is an ethic of reciprocity that is applied equally to people, communities, and the environment.
Midway Atoll: The Plastic Plight of the Albatross
Posted on October 9, 2012 | 25 CommentsA short film follows artist Chris Jordan to investigate the thousands of albatrosses dying from ingestion of plastic from the Pacific Garbage Patch. The Albatross journey across the sea takes them over the world’s largest dump: slowly rotating masses of partially-submerged trash between San Francisco and Hawai’i.
Ecuador: Battle Between Living Systems and Oil at Yasuní National Park
Posted on September 4, 2012 | 2 CommentsEcuador abandons a plan to preserve the most biodiverse region on Earth from oil exploitation, putting Yasuni national park at the frontline of a global battle between living systems and fossil fuels. Unable to raise sufficient financing, President Correa plans to move forward with oil drilling in this wild Amazonian region, putting wildlife and willfully uncontacted tribes at risk.
Panama Hydroelectric “Clean Energy”: Village of the Dammed
Posted on April 13, 2012 | 1 CommentHuge new hydroelectric dam projects now underway call for damming pristine rivers and flooding virgin rainforest, home of the Ngäbe People. The Panamanian government deems it vital for economic growth, with multinational corporations cashing in. Even the UN has awarded carbon credits predicated on "sustainably" produced energy.
Papua New Guinea: Sepik River Initiation and the Crocodile Cult
Posted on April 6, 2012 | 4 CommentsCrocodiles feature in the legends and rites of passage of various Sepik tribes, sharing a belief in ancestral ties to the aquatic reptile. Risks from mining in the upper river threatens the health of the people of the basin.
Honduras: World Heritage Biosphere Trafficked Toward Destruction
Posted on December 12, 2011 | 8 CommentsDeforestation, the proposed damming of pristine rivers for hydroelectricity, and destruction of indigenous communities threatens the wildest and most biodiverse corner of tropical Central America: The Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve
Honduras: Patuca River Dams Threaten Indigenous Survival
Posted on July 26, 2011 | 9 CommentsThe Moskitia is the largest, most biodiverse expanse of tropical wilderness north of the Amazon Basin – and the Indigenous Peoples who live there are determined to keep it that way. Unfortunately, no greater threat exists to the natural wealth hidden in the "Mesoamerican Biological Corridor" than the gigantic, transnational Patuca II, IIA, and III Dams.
