Wildfires in Mount Cudi and the Ecological, Ideological, Political, and Historical Dimensions of Forest Fires: Turkey’s Destruction of the Kurdish Environment
By: Zozan Pehlivan and Anıl Olcan
Jadaliyya, 2020 interview. https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/41791
Pehlivan describes the political context of forest fires in the Kurdish regions of Turkey, showing how the Turkish government has used fires and other forms of environmental violence over decades to force people to leave their homes. It situates this history in the regional ecological context and in a longer Ottoman history, as well as addressing forest fires elsewhere in the world. The piece complicates the idea of climate change as a primary cause of forest fires and other natural disasters.
On Blaming Climate Change for the Syrian Civil War
By: Jan Selby
MERIP, 2020. https://merip.org/2020/10/on-blaming-climate-change-for-the-syrian-civil-war-296/
This piece describes the claims that the current catastrophic war in Syria has been partly caused by climate change and offers a critique of those claims as simplistic and deeply problematic, offering a more nuanced and critical reflection of decades-long political, economic and environmental crisis in Syria. It prompts students to think critically about how climate change can be used as a distraction from addressing and acknowledging structural issues within a society in crisis.
Environment in Context: Green Energy Colonialism in the Golan Heights
By: Muna Dajani, Wael Tarabieh
Status Audio magazine, 2020. https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/41447
This piece uses the example of a large wind farm project to demonstrate how green development and decarbonized economy must be analyzed within their local contexts. These types of development can still be tools for disposession and oppression.
Danger, Turbines! A Jawlani Cry against Green Energy Colonialism in the Occupied Syrian Golan Heights
By: Muna Dajani
Jadaliyya, 2020. https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/41010/Danger,-Turbines-A-Jawlani-Cry-against-Green-Energy-Colonialism-in-the-Occupied-Syrian-Golan-Heights
This piece describes how the Jawlanis have resisted settler colonial efforts to occupy the Golan Heights through the guise of green development. Dajani depicts how the Jawlanis are resisting the wind farm and its disruption to their way of life.
