Soil, Spirit, and Solidarity #24
A Weekly(ish) Series
“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all...Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.” -Wendell Berry
Soil, Spirit, and Solidarity (formerly “Soil Solidarity” ) is a weekly(ish) series that delivers ecologically oriented seeds straight to your inbox. On most Sundays I will share a handful of recommended reads and other resources that I am finding helpful, interesting, or important for tending the “soil” of my heart and faith, helping me become a fully ensoiled human. This weekly haphazard list of reads and resources includes things that I have recently been reading, watching, and listening to as I seek to cultivate a spirituality, and way of life rooted din the work of re/membering the soil. My hope is that this weekly email will provide essential ingredients for the work of composting your own theology, spirituality, and politics, becoming rich fertilizer for cultivating your own healthy relationship with the soil.
Soil, Spirit, and Solidarity #24
Short Film: Ashes to Ashes
By Southern Exposure
A small community in Northeast Alabama. A mayor whose town sits on the river’s banks. A businessman in the Mobile Bay. All of these communities are impacted by coal ash in Alabama.
Coal Ash, a pollution by-product of burning coal, is impacting communities across Alabama. Billions of tons of ash are stored in unlined pits alongside our rivers and stream causing harmful pollution such as mercury, arsenic, and many other heavy metal to be dumped into our rivers, lakes, and bays where we fish, swim, and drink. This film tells the grim story of coal ash in Alabama and what you can do to call on the electric utility companies to become leaders by cleaning up the pollution they have created.
You can watch this film here.
Blog: 3 Old Technologies For A Sustainable Future
“We don't need high-tech innovation to create a sustainable future for humanity. In fact, all the tech we need to regenerate our ecosystem and provide a good life for all already exists. In the interest of exploring the already-existing technology of the ecological future..”
You can read this blog here.
Book: Envisioning Real Utopias
by Erik Olin Wright
From the Publisher:
Rising inequality of income and power, along with recent convulsions in the finance sector, have made the search for alternatives to unbridled capitalism more urgent than ever. Yet few are attempting this task—most analysts argue that any attempt to rethink our social and economic relations is utopian. Erik Olin Wright’s major new work is a comprehensive assault on the quietism of contemporary social theory. A systematic reconstruction of the core values and feasible goals for Left theorists and political actors, Envisioning Real Utopias lays the foundations for a set of concrete, emancipatory alternatives to the capitalist system. Characteristically rigorous and engaging, this will become a landmark of social thought for the twenty-first century.
You can order this book here.
Podcast: The Green Flame Podcast
The Green Flame is a Deep Green Resistance podcast that brings you revolutionary analysis, practical skills, and artistic expression from the grassroots movement to dismantle global industrial civilization.
You can listen here or on your podcast app of choice.