Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jared Margulies @jaredmargulies.bsky.social · 2h

The #POLLEN2026 prelim program looks amazing! With that in mind, John Casellas Connors and I are going to be looking for paper submissions for our accepted session "Critical engagements in necropolitical ecologies" -check it out!

pollenpoliticalecology.network/pollen-2026/...

DESCRIPTION
In this proposed session, we welcome papers related to present currents and critiques of political ecology's engagements with Achille Mbembe's theory of necropolitics. Necropolitics, the “…contemporary forms of subjugation of life to the power of death” (Mbembe, 2005: 39), powerfully shows how politics becomes "the work of death" (Ibid., pg. 16). Necropolitics is a welcome antidote to Foucault's theory of biopolitics and its relatively anemic approach to race, the postcolony, and active geographies of death-making practices ranging from overt-geographies of violent confinement and killing such as in Palestine, to the spatial logics of the plantation and its ghostly afterlives (Mbembe, 2003). Necropolitics has quickly emerged as a powerful analytical theory embraced by political ecologists examining subjects ranging from spaces of killing in postcolonial landscapes (Cavanaugh and Himmelfarb, 2015), to climate change (deBoom, 2015), to state practices reconfiguring human relations with ecologies and nonhuman life (Adolfi and Fleishmann, 2024; Bluwstein and De Rosa, 2024; Margulies, 2019).

More recently, several critiques have questioned and raised concerns about the theoretical reading of Mbembe's necropolitics within political ecology (Gibson, 2024; Peters et al., 2024), as well as the political and theoretical consequences of a necropolitical turn away from historically more popular engagements with Foucauldian biopolitics and what might be pursued otherwise as a kind of 'anti-necropolitics' (Strange, 2024). With an openness to critique, generous dialogue, and debate in mind, our session proposes to develop a timely discussion around the (mis)uses of necropolitics in political ecology, welcoming both empirically-driven papers that productively engage with necropolitics as framework and mode of analysis, as well as more theoretically-oriented works that critique or demonstrated the place of necropolitical theory in political ecology today.

1 3 6

Reposted by Jared Margulies

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 1d

nice

Electrek @electrek.co · 1d

In a first, renewables generate more power than coal globally

Solar and wind power aren’t just keeping up with global electricity demand anymore – they’re pulling ahead. According to a new analysis from energy think tank Ember, solar and wind combined outpaced global electricity demand growth in the first half of 2025. That shift led to a drop in both coal and gas generation compared to the same period last year. For the first time ever, renewables generated more power than coal globally. more…

electrek.co

3 66 470

Reposted by Jared Margulies

Razzball @razzball.bsky.social · 7d

Zohran Mamdani calling it a genocide on The View and getting applause.

190 1.3K 7.6K

Reposted by Jared Margulies

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 8d

The president just gathered the highest ranking officers in the military to tell them that he may order them to kill American citizens -- and that they better follow his orders. All in response to a series of crises that have no basis in reality.

I don't know how to yell any louder.

540 6.9K 19K

Jared Margulies @jaredmargulies.bsky.social · 8d

amazing :)

1

Jared Margulies @jaredmargulies.bsky.social · 10d

I love a donkey as much as the next person (actually, a great deal more, I dreamed as a child of going on a great journey with a donkey as my trusted comrade) but I still don't understand why people in the UK seem really obsessed with donkeys and why they always appear to be in need of saving?

2

Jared Margulies @jaredmargulies.bsky.social · 10d

gorgeous!

1

Reposted by Jared Margulies

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 13d

"The Spanish government approves a “total” arms embargo on Israel, part of a package of measures aimed at halting what Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called “the genocide in Gaza.”"

www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

Spain approves ‘total’ arms embargo in Israel

* * *

www.timesofisrael.com

5 240 1.1K

Reposted by Jared Margulies

Nature Reviews Biodiversity @natrevbiodiv.nature.com · 22d

ICYMI: New online! The value of political ecology in biodiversity conservation

The value of political ecology in biodiversity conservation

Nature Reviews Biodiversity, Published online: 08 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s44358-025-00085-2Political ecology aims to understand how politics and power influence both social and ecological dynamics. Conservation biologists and political ecologists tackle many of the same pressing environmental problems, but from quite different perspectives. In this Viewpoint, five political ecologists discuss their views on how the field can understand and tackle the biodiversity crisis.

bit.ly

2 6

Jared Margulies @jaredmargulies.bsky.social · 24d

I love game days in the SEC. Hardware store midday Saturday is as busy as midnight on a Tuesday 😂

A completely empty Lowe’s at 1:30 pm
On a Saturday

3

Jared Margulies @jaredmargulies.bsky.social · 28d

Any group of people more despicable than a university board of regents? Y’all… the thing that just destroyed your reputation was the country watching your university president buckle to mere hours of pressure after the complaint of a single student. Just pathetic. Solidarity to my TAMU colleagues.

Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they) @katjathieme.bsky.social · 28d

Listen to the Board of Regents willfully destroy the reputation of the university while claiming to protect it.

A statement from the office of the Board of Regents that reads: The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents will not tolerate actions that damage the reputation of our institutions. The Board has called for immediate and decisive steps to ensure that what happened this week will not be repeated. To that end, the Regents have asked the Chancellor to audit every course and ensure full compliance with all applicable laws.

2 10

Jared Margulies @jaredmargulies.bsky.social · 29d

That will soon be a bit easier… at least on my end 😉

1

Jared Margulies @jaredmargulies.bsky.social · 29d

I wish this could have been an interactive conversation because its a wonderful group of folks, but nevertheless I enjoyed taking some time to reflect on questions related to the value of political ecology for biodiversity conservation with @brambuscher.bsky.social and others rdcu.be/eEKqA

The value of political ecology in biodiversity conservation

Nature Reviews Biodiversity - Political ecology aims to understand how politics and power influence both social and ecological dynamics. Conservation biologists and political ecologists tackle many...

rdcu.be

1 12

Reposted by Jared Margulies

Steven Mazie @stevenmazie.bsky.social · Sep 8

SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in a college applicant's file is blatantly unconstitutional

ALSO SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in targeting whom to detain and deport is cool cool cool

200 5.8K 15K

Reposted by Jared Margulies

Rosaleen Duffy @rosaleenduffy.bsky.social · Sep 4

Yet another example of ruthless targeting by Israeli gvt #ecocide #genocide #FreePalestine

Truthout @truthout.org · Sep 3

This summer, Israeli bulldozers rolled through the West Bank city of Hebron with ruthless efficiency, targeting Palestine’s only surviving national seed bank. What happened in Hebron fits the legal definition of ecocide — the deliberate destruction of ecosystems to undermine human survival.

Israel’s Attacks on Seed Banks Destroy Millenia of Palestinian Cultural Heritage

When Israel targets Palestinian seed banks, it’s not just destroying buildings. It’s attacking the future itself.

truthout.org

6 11

Jared Margulies @jaredmargulies.bsky.social · Sep 5

Your good news article of the day in a bleak mediascape- TL;DR- give the land back to the tribes.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/s...

In Yellowstone, Migratory Bison Reawaken a Landscape

www.nytimes.com

3

Jared Margulies @jaredmargulies.bsky.social · Sep 5

www.idsnews.com/article/2025...

Abdulkader Sinno: Why I left IU, Indiana and the United States

Selfish politicians, irresponsible trustees and unethical administrators are destroying a once great university.

www.idsnews.com

1

Jared Margulies @jaredmargulies.bsky.social · Aug 28

I just learned that the UK doesn't know about or have access to Duke's Mayo and this is extremely concerning to me for... reasons.

1

Jared Margulies @jaredmargulies.bsky.social · Aug 19

alabamareflector.com/2025/08/18/t...

The University of Alabama's refusal to defend its students will be a disaster | Alabama Reflector

The school's administrators seem more interested in bending and scraping to the powerful than standing up for those enrolled at UA.

alabamareflector.com

2

Jared Margulies @jaredmargulies.bsky.social · Aug 19

So at this point Netanyahu is really just following the third reich’s playbook. When the Nazi Madagascar Plan fell apart, they just opted for total annihilation. Hard to imagine what Bibi is planning next when the world doesn’t get on board with Plan South Sudan.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/w...

Israel Is in Talks to Send Gazans to South Sudan, Officials Say

www.nytimes.com

1 3 4

Jared Margulies @jaredmargulies.bsky.social · Aug 11

really fantastic article, Hannah.

1 1

Jared Margulies @jaredmargulies.bsky.social · Aug 6

Wow!

1

Reposted by Jared Margulies

Monica Vasile 🐾 @monicavasile.bsky.social · Aug 2

1/ Happy to share that my article “Beyond Homecoming: The Reintroduction of Seven Przewalski’s Mares in the Gobi Desert” has been published in Environmental Humanities.

It is the story of seven mares flown from Australian zoos to Mongolia’s Gobi Desert in the 1990s
doi.org/10.1215/2201... #envhist

Reintroduction of Przewalski's horses in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, 1990s. Transported by aircraft, arriving in crates. Photo by ITG, Ruth Baumgartner.

3 14 52

Reposted by Jared Margulies

Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · Aug 4

Sure this looks bad when you put it like this, but some college kids in America waved signs that frightened me so it is complicated.

News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · Aug 4

This is amongst the most impactful two minutes of broadcasting I’ve ever seen.

By Emma Murphy, International Editor, ITV News. #Gaza

1 110 540

Reposted by Jared Margulies

Rosaleen Duffy @rosaleenduffy.bsky.social · Jul 24

1/ 📄New paper! Alison Hutchinson @georgeiorda.bsky.social Teresa Lappe-Osthege & myself have developed a new harms-based #PoliticalEcology as a way of understanding the #WildlifeTrade published in @jpoliticalecology.bsky.social ⬇️
beastlybusiness.org/2025/07/23/n...

New paper on harms-based political ecology - Beastly Business

Our team members Alison Hutchinson, Rosaleen Duffy, George Iordachescu and Teresa Lappe-Osthege developed an idea of bringing together debates on harms from green criminology with political ecology co...

beastlybusiness.org

4 20 32