What does it mean to bring deserts, the humanities, and climate change together? Come to this Noons for Now to find out! You will never think about deserts in the same way again.
Speaker: Veronika Kratz is completing her PhD at Carleton University. She will be taking up a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Queen’s University in the Fall. She is also the Carleton Climate Commons’ Web Coordinator.
Resource List:
To Read
Desertification in US Fiction
Claire Vaye Watkins, Gold, Fame, Citrus (2015)
Frank Herbert, Dune (1965)
Mary Austin, The Land of Little Rain, 1903
Desertification in International Policy
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
Desertification is also central to number 15 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals,
Great Green Wall project
Desertification in Academic Writings
Diane K. Davis, Scholarship on Desertification, Deserts, Drought, and Land Degradation, The Arid Lands: History, Power, Knowledge, 2016
Michael Mortimore, The End of Desertification? Disputing Environmental Change in Drylands, eds. Roy Behnke, 2016
Jeremy Swift, “Desertification: Narratives, Winners, & Losers.” In The Lie of the Land: Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment, edited by Melissa Leach and
Robin Mearns, 73–90. The International African Institute, 1996.
David S. G. Thomas, and Nicholas J. Middleton. Desertification: Exploding the Myth. John Wiley & Sons (1994).
Vittoria Di Palma, Thinking about American Deserts and Drylands, Wasteland: A History, 2014.
John Beck, “The American Desert as Trope and Terrain.” Nepantla: Views from South, vol. 2, no. 1, 2001, pp. 63–83.
Valerie L. Kuletz, The Tainted Desert: Environmental and Social Ruin in the American West, Routledge (1998)
To-Dos
Start noticing the Desertification Narratives in your everyday life and try to see how they might shape your relationship with Deserts
Follow the research on Non-GMO drought tolerant plants and crops
Pay attention to drought conditions in Canada as we enter into drought season thanks to The Canadian Drought Monitor