Climate Utopias for the Anthropocene

Politics, technoscience, and the imaginary work of green societal transitions

Galapagos ‘Eutopia’

Welcome to our fall series! In this first piece, Julio Rodriguez shares insights from his PhD fieldwork in the Galapagos. For residents of these islands, the Covid-19 pandemic is the biggest crisis they have ever experienced. In the midst of fear and despair, some people proposed innovative utopian solutions for the archipelago. Dreams can become a reality if politicians come together for the common good…

The Seeds of Hope: Cultivating Utopias Amidst Chaos

…In a context where trust in politicians and the state has been experiencing a downfall, Sacha Mouzin explores how dreams of ‘ecotopia’ pervade amongst Lebanese people to create liveable alternatives. Utopias are performed, experimented. Ideas of self sufficiency, return to the land and mutual aid shine in a new light during the current catastrophic crisis…

The Poetics of Cloud Seeding: Narratives and Imaginaries of Vapor in the UAE

….Few miles away from Lebanon’s unreliable electricity, cloud seeding scientists are researching rain enhancement in Abu Dhabi. Cotofana’s ethnography of their work creates a counter-narrative to politicians worldwide who see their work as a threat and espouse conspiracy theories….

Seeding Futures: Regeneration as Utopian Promise

….Not only are clouds being seeded but futures as well. Climate activism throughout Europe is turning regenerative. Dr. Arne Harms discusses how new modes of relating and engaging with life are being performed in different forms of climate activism. Time gets circular, reality enmeshed in multispecies muddles. Utopias are seeded, possibilities anchored in the present…

Climate Resilient Seed-Worlds

…Seeds become worlds, worlds become seeds. In this piece, Diego Silva Garzon outlines the utopian ideal of an Argentinian high-tech seed system known as “ECOSeed” whose promise is to produce drought tolerant crops. Has ecomyopia, or the blind faith in utopic technologies of climate engineering, become so pervasive that it is now encoded into plants’ DNA?

Life at Indian Sundarbans: A Ray of Hope in Dystopian Times

….In this final piece, Dayabati Roy argues that Mother Nature acts as a moral arbiter that shapes indigenous peoples’ lives and livelihoods. Even though people from the Indian Sundarbans are aware of environmental degradation, they don't have many alternative livelihood choices. However, they still hope for a better future, as seen by their counter-hegemonic narratives of disaster-induced vulnerability after cyclone Amphan.