In Rock | Water | Life, Green examines the interwoven realities of inequality, racism, colonialism, and environmental destruction in South Africa.
Lesley Green, Professor of Anthropology and founding director of Environmental Humanities South at University of Cape Town, presented her book Rock | Water | Life: Ecology and Humanities for a Decolonial South Africa (Duke University Press, 2020) on Monday, October 12, 2020, at 16:00 Central European time in our GH book talk series.
In Rock | Water | Life Green examines the interwoven realities of inequality, racism, colonialism, and environmental destruction in South Africa, calling for environmental research and governance to transition to an ecopolitical approach that could address South Africa’s history of racial oppression and environmental exploitation. Green analyzes conflicting accounts of nature in environmental sciences that claim neutrality amid ongoing struggles for land restitution and environmental justice. Offering in-depth studies of environmental conflict in contemporary South Africa, Green addresses the history of contested water access in Cape Town; struggles over natural gas fracking in the Karoo; debates about decolonizing science; the potential for a politics of soil in the call for land restitution; urban baboon management; and the consequences of sending sewage to urban oceans.