ClimateCovid P1.3: Confronting Covid 19
CONFRONTING THE CLIMATE CRISIS WITH SYSTEMIC ALTERNATIVES IN THE AGE OF CORONAVIRUS
A NEARLY CARBON-NEUTRAL CONFERENCE | #EHIClimateCOVID
Panel 1.3: Confronting COVID-19
“Confronting COVID-19 Part 1”
Shrishtee Bajpai (Kalpavriksh, Vikalp Sangam, IN), Giorgos Kallis (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, ES), and John Foran (UC Santa Barbara)
“Confronting COVID-19 Part 2”
Ashish Kothari (Kalpavriksh, IN), Alfredo Saad-Filo (University of London, UK), and John Foran (UC Santa Barbara)
Q & A
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I’d like to start by expressing my gratitude to Ashish and Saad for this conversation, and to Shristee and Giorgos for their conversation, which together make up this panel.
I’d like to invite all four of them to tell us here about organizations and initiatives they are involved with, and post the links to these, so we can build a collection of resources to expand our networks in the climate fight and every inter-connected struggle for social justice.
I’m John Foran, and active with the EJ/CJ Hub [https://ejcj.orfaleacenter.ucsb.edu/] that is hosting this conference, Transition US [https://www.transitionus.org/], and a number of global networks around radical climate justice such as the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice [https://demandclimatejustice.org/], systemic alternatives such as the Global Tapestry of Alternatives [https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/introduction], and re-imagining our learning spaces to confront the climate crisis such as the Ecoversities Alliance [https://ecoversities.org/].
Hi John, Fernando, Giorgos, Shrishtee, happy to have been able to join this panel! I’ve been working with a 40-year old environmental action group in India, Kalpavriksh (https://kalpavriksh.org), have taught in the past at Indian Institute of Public Administration, and as guest faculty in various universities. More than academics, though, I’ve lived an activist-researcher’s life, being involved with or supporting movements for ecological and social justice. I’ve been on the Board of Greenpece International and India, and helped start a few global processes like ICCA Consortium (www.iccaconsortium.org), Global Tapestry of Alternatives (https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org), the Radical Ecological Democracy platform (https://radicalecologicaldemocracy.org), and Beyond Development Working Group (https://beyonddevelopment.net). In India I help coordinate the Vikalp Sangam process (www.vikalpsangam.org), which, like its global counterpart GTA mentioned above, brings together movements and groups working on radical alternatives. In the last few years I’ve been privileged to co-author or co-edit a number of books, including ‘Churning the Earth: Making of Global India’, ‘Alternative Futures: India Unshackled’, and ‘Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary’. I continue enjoying birding, and doodling, in the midst of all this!
Hi, Giorgos here. I am a professor/researcher at the ecological economics group at ICTA Barcelona (www.eco2bcn.com) and a member of the Research & Degrowth collective, also in Barcelona (www.degrowth.org). Happy to answer any questions you might have!
Thank you! I can’t think of any questions but wanted to say I appreciate your perspectives thank you for sharing!