DECELERATION.NEWS. Deceleration Podcast is an irregular podcast talking all things climate and environmental justice, rooted in San Antonio and the South Texas bioregion with global concerns. For the Earth. And all Her families.
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Deceleration’s Greg Harman speaks with Dave Cortez, Executive Director of the Lone Star Sierra Club, as part of Preparing to Protect, a series of interviews with those most targeted by the eliminationist engine of MAGA on how they are organizing to bash back to keep our communities safe. Topics in this podcast include right-wing organizing and rising autocracy in the United States, failures of organizing in Texas environmental movements, strategies to mobilize people around pocketbook concerns, ...
It’s the hottest year ever…again. Heat-related deaths have been spiking year over year. As Deceleration wrote recently, there were nearly 600 heat-related deaths in Texas last year. In Bexar County, 12 local residents died from the heat that same year, according to data released to the Texas Tribune. Border counties have seen hundreds die from the heat since 2010, according to data released to Deceleration. So how are cities responding? What emergency hearings have been convened, let’s say, in S...
Boca Chica, the “little mouth” of the Rio Grande/ Rio Bravo is increasingly the epicenter of NewSpace new colonizing impulses bridged by an explosion of billion-dollar LNG projects seeking to feed Texas-fracked methane to the world market. It’s here in the lower Texas coast that has so far avoided much of the spoilage of the upper and middle coasts, themselves awash with petrochemical and fossil fuel facilities and all the risk and damages they pose to the land and peoples of the region. Next we...
Deceleration Conversation: An April 2023 community conversation with Colombian decolonial scholar-activist Arturo Escobar, produced by Deceleration in partnership with UTSA. Financial support from the La Fundación Estudio, Mediación, Paz y Resolución de Conflictos (CEMPROC). Guests: Arturo Escobar, Scholar/Activist; Diana Lopez, Southwest Workers Union; Society of Native Nations; Kimiya Factory, Black Freedom Factory; Maria Turvin, Yanawana Herbolarios. Facilitator: Marisol Cortez, Deceleration ...
What do building relationships of trust and care between neighbors have to do with climate justice? Everything, according to local organizer Kara Jordan, an herbalist, regenerative agriculture specialist, and mother whose work highlights the interdependence of all beings. Focusing on social and environmental justice, Jordan explores the spaces between grassroots and institutional initiative with curiosity and play. Her passion for food sovereignty is the thread that weaves these efforts together...
We've heard that this summer has been one of the hottest the Earth has seen since long before official record-keeping began. But policymakers and public health officials too often strain to understand how that heat is impacting people. Medical anthropologist Rose Jones has called the systems of tracking and understanding heat a “train wreck.” Here in dialogue with Deceleration Jones explains why our understanding of heat's impacts is so poor—including unnecessary politicization and official disi...
Attacks on US energy infrastructure across the US are increasing. Incidents in Texas logged by the US Department of Energy shot up in 2021 and 2022. Meanwhile, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is mulling shifting more security obligations from plant owners to local law enforcement. Deceleration spoke with with Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, about all this and more. Guest: Edwin Lyman, Union of Concerned Scientists Support the show Decelera...
Deceleration Podcast #28: In the middle of October, San Antonio played host to the Climate Justice Alliance's Our Power Communities Summit. The gathering called together roughly 50 frontline community environmental-justice organizers from around the nation to “reground” the alliance members and begin developing a collective response to emerging so-called false solutions to the climate crisis. Guests (in order of appearance): Christian Rodriguez, Ironbound Community Corp; Angel Ramos, The People'...
In the shadow of the port shipping most of all US crude oil to the rest of the world, four 'Clean Slate' candidates are running for local City Council seats. They are bound together by shared values and policy interests—including a prioritization of clean air and water and the defeat of proposed desalination projects being built almost exclusively to benefit industrial users. One candidate is the president of the local teacher's union. One is a history professor and Sierra Club member. Another h...
This week, Deceleration speaks with the amazing team behind the Anti-Creep Climate Initiative, who utilize Marvel characters to educate the public about the dangerous fallacies behind fascistic thinking on global environmental challenges. Their webzine is a powerful and gorgeous read. In it they demonstrate how many of these dangerous concepts come straight out of Western environmental canon. They also show clearly why they are logically wrong. And who they ultimately serve. Wanna help stop the ...
Somewhere in between decentralized rooftop solar and sprawling rural utility-scale solar farms is a middle path that could allow companies go 100-percent renewable in under a year. New solar startup Evergreen is about to unleash the "Goldilocks" of solar with a trio of projects in South Texas. And they expect to scale up quickly in this overlooked niche, says Evergreen CEO Cris Eugster. Local listeners may recognize that name as the former CPS Energy COO and one-time sustainability manager. "I f...
Who are the Tree and Bird Protectors of Brackenridge Park? They've been smeared as disinformation agents for linking a campaign to forcefully dislocate a thriving rookery of migratory birds the Brackenridge bond project that would claim more than 105 trees, ostensibly to restore and repair historic structures in the park. After saving the trees they pivoted to resist ongoing efforts to drive migratory birds away from Brackenridge's headwaters and uncovered evidence of forced displacement inside ...
What do we learn from a year-long intervention on behalf of an unhoused neighbor who lost limbs to Winter Storm Uri? That it takes dozens of interveners to make up for San Antonio’s broken safety net and lack of climate preparation. A serialized intervention by Deceleration Co-Editor Marisol Cortez. Guests: Maria Turvin, Yanawana Herbolarios; Rachel Tucker, Office of Councilmember Teri Castillo (D5); Marisol Cortez, Deceleration Co-Editor, Author; Hosting: Greg Harman, Deceleration Co-Editor Mor...
Deceleration talks to San Antonio musician George Garza Jr., well known and loved for this work with Pop Pistol and other projects, about the ideas and processes that went into creating the new Deceleration theme music. Some sound recordings came right off the street, but that world-to-come vibe came straight from the heart. Guest: George Garza Jr. More about George Garza Jr . Support the show Deceleration.news : 'For the Earth. And all Her families.'...
Deceleration talks to Mary Elizabeth Cantú, founder and director of the Spare Parts Center for Creative Reuse, on their decade of work using ethics of reuse to assist underfunded educators in promoting creative work and critical thinking. How can waste open up space for thinking about the ecological and human labor devalued within capitalist economies? Support the show Deceleration.news : 'For the Earth. And all Her families.'...
Several incoming San Antonio Council members want to freeze utility disconnections, reform CPS Energy rates, and close the Spruce coal plant early. They'd do well to listen to the attorney fighting CPS Energy's lawsuit to preserve the people's right to reform the utility by petition. Guest: Darby Riley Support the show Deceleration.news : 'For the Earth. And all Her families.'
Deceleration caught up with Karla Aguilar, development director of American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions about a number of pressing political issues, including potential state recognition for the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation, now pending at the Texas Legislature. We speak at some length about the Settler/Colonial mindset at an outgrowth of white supremacy and how such ways of thinking manifest in the struggles around the redvelopment of San Antonio de Valero, aka The Alamo....
Day One of the 13th Annual "Words for Birds": A Poetic Celebration and a Cry for Protection! Featuring Masauki & Guadalupe Lagunes Jimenez, Dyhanara Rios, RitaMaria Contreras, Eddie Vega, Erika Maria Garza Johnson, Javier Fuentes Vargas, Alesia Garlock, the puppeteering of Mobi Warren, Kamala Platt, Laura Schultz, Megha Sood, Norma Jean Moore, and Odilia Galván Rodríguez, Author. Support the show Deceleration.news : 'For the Earth. And all Her families.'...
Two years ago, the City of San Antonio launched a war on the bird of Elmendorf Lake. The target was the hundreds of cattle egrets who have been roosting at this Westside ecological gem for decades. By razing the island to the ground, and dismantling possibly hundreds of nests, the assault destroyed the nesting ground for many related migratory birds. Many young were killed. The action was justified as protective of military flights at Kelly Air Field on the Southeast side. Data points to one bir...
With much of Texas icing over due to Arctic weather's dangerous slide across the Plains over normally not 10-degree San Antonio, Ralph Garcia has had access to power for no longer than 45 minutes at a time for the last 48 hours. In this sustained cold-weather assault, millions have lost power because of the failure of state energy planners and reduced energy flowing from all power networks, but most conspicuously gas power plants. The climate crisis is no game. But the disabled community is an o...
Deceleration talks with housing justice activist Molly Wright about her decision to begin a hunger strike to protest the City of San Antonio's inadequate response to homelessness and housing insecurity. Support the show Deceleration.news : 'For the Earth. And all Her families.'
Deceleration talks with attorneys and organizers affiliated with the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER) about the Rights of Nature movement globally, as well as what it might look like locally in San Antonio. Support the show Deceleration.news : 'For the Earth. And all Her families.'
Dancer and community organizer Fabiola Ochoa Torralba delves into her "bird movement vocabulary" research, using dance to address issues like environmental justice, housing, and displacement at San Antonio's Bird Island. She explains how the COVID-19 pandemic led her to redefine her practice, embracing solo work and a "responsive" approach. Fabiola elaborates on decolonizing dance, challenging Euro-Western centric views by advocating for dance as an active, participatory, and ethically engaged practice deeply connected to land, ancestral identities, and community responsibility.
San Antonio poet Jim LaVilla-Havelin discusses the origin and significance of National Poetry Month's Words for Birds and reads one of his poems included in the digital zine "Words for Birds 2020: Poetics for Pandemics." Support the show Deceleration.news : 'For the Earth. And all Her families.'
Deceleration speaks with local runner, writer, and environmental educator Liberty Heise about her participation in the Monarch Ultra, a 4300km, transnational run that follows the migratory path of monarch butterflies from Ontario, Canada to the Sierra Madre mountains in Central Mexico. Support the show Deceleration.news : 'For the Earth. And all Her families.'
Speaking with Peter Bella, organizer for March for Science San Antonio, and Gunnar Schade, atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University about MfS, San Antonio's draft climate action plan, climate denialism, Greg Abbott, and more. Support the show Deceleration.news : 'For the Earth. And all Her families.'
Members of San Antonio's Climate Action & Adaptation Plan's Technical Working Groups and Steering Committee (plus one consultant) describe their experiences helping develop what could be the city's first climate plan—and their hopes and concerns for its future implementation After more than a year in the making, the plan is being released for public consideration on Friday, January 25, 2019. More at: https://deceleration.news/2019/01/18/san-antonio-climate-action-planning-members-speak/ Supp...
A conversation with Ursula Rakova of Tulele Peisa, a nonprofit formed by the elders of the Carteret Islands to direct the relocation of their communities from their low-lying island chain to the “big island” of Bougainville in Papau New Guinea. While the Paris framework considered 1.5 Celsius an aspirational target, increasingly cities are declaring 1.5 their goal right out of the gate, as has San Antonio. This movement from 'less-than-two' to 1.5 or less is hardly incidental but rather life or ...
This morning, Deceleration had the opportunity to interview representatives of Pocacito (Post-Carbon Cities of Tomorrow), an initiative of Ecologic Institute whose goal is to build trans-Atlantic solidarity and intellectual exchange around local creative efforts for a renewable economy and planet. As part of their “Eight to Infinity” tour (think eight cities, then lay the eight on its side to invoke ideas of a permanent economy/culture), they are on a mission to seed community building efforts a...
Not all was well at this month's Global Climate Action Summit, heralded as a significant milestone in the world struggle with climate crisis. And not all the solutions were being found inside the conference rooms and banquet halls. Outside, protestors, led by indigenous leaders from around the country and beyond, were warning that in order respond effectively to this moment of dangerous imbalance requires bottom-up and community-level engagement. Greg Harman of the Texas Sierra Club speaks with ...
