{"product_id":"global-warming-and-the-sweetness-of-life-a-tar-sands-tale-9780262037648","title":"Global Warming and the Sweetness of Life: A Tar Sands Tale","description":"\u003cb\u003eSeeking new definitions of ecology in the tar sands of northern Alberta and searching for the sweetness of life in the face of planetary crises.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eConfounded by global warming and in search of an affirmative politics that links ecology with social change, Matt Hern and Am Johal set off on a series of road trips to the tar sands of northern Alberta--perhaps the world's largest industrial site, dedicated to the dirty work of extracting oil from Alberta's vast reserves. Traveling from culturally liberal, self-consciously \"green\" Vancouver, and aware that our well-meaning performances of recycling and climate-justice marching are accompanied by constant driving, flying, heating, and fossil-fuel consumption, Hern and Johal want to talk to people whose lives and fortunes depend on or are imperiled by extraction. They are seeking new definitions of ecology built on a renovated politics of land. Traveling with them is their friend Joe Sacco--infamous journalist and cartoonist, teller of complex stories from Gaza to Paris--who contributes illustrations and insights and a chapter-length comic about the contradictions of life in an oil town. The epic scale of the ecological horror is captured through an series of stunning color photos by award-winning aerial photographer Louis Helbig.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSeamlessly combining travelogue, sophisticated political analysis, and ecological theory, speaking both to local residents and to leading scholars, the authors propose a new understanding of ecology that links the domination of the other-than-human world to the domination of humans by humans. They argue that any definition of ecology has to start with decolonization and that confronting global warming requires a politics that speaks to a different way of being in the world--a reconstituted understanding of the sweetness of life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished with the help of funding from Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan fund\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMatt Hern is a founder of Solid State Industries, teaches at multiple universities, and lectures widely. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eWhat a City Is For: Remaking the Politics of Displacement\u003c\/i\u003e (MIT Press) among many other books. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAm Johal is Director of Simon Fraser University's Vancity Office of Community Engagement and author of \u003ci\u003eEcological Metapolitics: Badiou and the Anthropocene.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJoe Sacco is a cartoonist and author of \u003ci\u003ePalestine\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSafe Area Gorazde\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFootnotes in Gaza\u003c\/i\u003e, and other works of journalism. He lives in Portland with a vodka martini.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50900444446994,"sku":"9780262037648","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_69bba775-3dc1-4848-a075-021f85e8c158.jpg?v=1738382688","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/global-warming-and-the-sweetness-of-life-a-tar-sands-tale-9780262037648","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}