“FROM REDUCTION TO REGENERATION: BEYOND CARBON FUNDAMENTALISM IN CLIMATE POLICY”

While the United States’ ever-expanding carbon emissions are an unequivocal cause of the climate crisis, in this talk Lennon questions the conventional wisdom that carbon emissions reductions represent a straightforward solution to the problem. Specifically, he suggests that the enumerated reduction of carbon emerges from a reductive environmentalism that reduces the interdependencies of life to an “environment” that certain humans can manage. As a corrective to this reductive approach, Lennon calls for climate mitigation projects that pair carbon reduction with two frameworks championed by the environmental justice movement: ecological unity and co-pollutants. These frameworks can ensure that carbon reduction projects truly address the causes and complications of the climate crisis.

Biography
Myles Lennon is an environmental anthropologist, Dean’s Assistant Professor of Environment and Society and Anthropology at Brown University, and a former sustainable energy policy practitioner. His first research project explores the intersectional dimensions of solar infrastructure in New York City, illuminating the sensorial and emotional power of renewable energy in a gentrifying skyline built on racial capitalism and threatened by climate collapse. He is currently conducting long-term research on young Black land stewards’ efforts to navigate settler colonialism and redress white supremacy through land-based labor in the United States. His research has been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. His research and scholarly objectives are informed by his experience as a sustainable energy practitioner and advocate in New York for eight years prior to beginning his Ph.D.