CAT 3 Queering Climate Change

ANNOUNCEMENTS
•061521: Some folx have reported seeing an incorrect total percentage for your grade in canvas. When I open canvas, I am seeing the correct percentages, which I have checked using a 20th century calculator. I am looking into why some of you are seeing the incorrect numbers (and will report here what I find), but I want to assure you that your grades were determined using the correct percentage. Feel free to ping bt if you have any questions.
•061521: Disaster Capitalism: Puerto Rico Plunged into Darkness After Privatization of Electric Utility
•061521: Global warming may have already passed irreversible tipping point
•061521: Burrito discourse factors in a dispute over alleged doping of athlete
•060921: Company drops contentious Keystone XL pipeline project
•060821: “Not Having It”: Winona LaDuke on Mass Protest by Water Protectors to Halt Line 3 Pipeline in Minnesota
•060221: Art Review Essay has been cancelled and replaced by a General Forum Post. See Instructions on the assignment page (click here).
•060221: Please submit extra credit assignments no later than Friday, June 4 11:59PM.
•053121: Remembering the Black Roots of Memorial Day and the Revolutionary Holiday That Might Have Been
Rennell Island, in Solomon Islands, has suffered the triple assault of extensive logging, bauxite mining, and a devastating oil spill
•052921: All groups should have received feedback on your draft video by e-mail. if you haven't received the feedback, sorry, e-mail me with your group number and I will get it to you asap!
•052921: Defeated by canvas again! Apparently you all can't see the comments on your draft videos because the assignment isn't graded. So I am working on sending you all e-mails with the draft video feedback. Should be done with that by ~ 330pm.
•052921: UPDATES on Due Dates:
Final Project Trailer: Still due Saturday May 29 11:59PM, but if you need to take another day, please make certain it is submitted no later than Sunday, May 30 at midnight
Final Project Video: Thursday, June 3 11:59PM
Art Review Essay: This assignment has been CANCELLED and will be replaced by a short forum post - more info in class on Tuesday.
Note that you still have a final reflection essay due Sunday, June 6 11:59PM
•052821: almost all the draft feedback is now uploaded. the rest will be available very late this evening...
•052821: most of the draft video comments now are posted for the person who submitted the video. the commenting process is going way slower than I had hoped, and I still have a bunch of videos to go through. I will be posting another batch of comments at ~ 7PM PDT Friday, and then the rest shortly thereafter. thanks for your patience and don't hesitate to contact bt with questions about your feedback, once you get it. sorry once again for the delay - as for many of you, I am slowing down at the end of this long year. more soon!
•052621: bt is behind schedule with the comments on the draft videos - all feedback will be available by Thursday at midnight. To give you extra time for your trailers and the final version of your group video, deadlines are extended as follows:
Trailer Video due Saturday, May 29 11:59PM
Final Video due Wednesday June 2 11:59PM
IMPORTANT - please pay attention to upload instructions regarding labeling and naming your videos and size limits in your draft video feedback Here I have repeated those instructions:
PLEASE PLACE THE FOLLOWING GROUP NUMBER PROMINANTLY AT THE BEGINNING OF YOUR TRAILER AND FINAL VIDEO. PLEASE ALSO PUT THIS NUMBER INTO THE NAME OF THE TRAILER AND FINAL VIDEO FILES YOU SUBMIT. CAT3C-[GROUP NUMBER] your group number is the number at the beginning of the list of your group members in your proposal feedback.
FOR YOUR TRAILER AND YOUR FINAL VIDEO, PLEASE SUBMIT THE FILE DIRECTLY TO CANVAS OR PROVIDE A LINK TO A FILE THAT IS PUBLICLY AVAILABLE AND HAS SIZE NO LARGER THAN 200 MBYTES (PLEASE HAVE ONE OF YOUR GROUP MEMBERS TEST THAT IT IS PUBLICLY AVAILABLE)
Thanks everyone in advance for adhering to these instructions - that will make it much easier for bt to make the trailers and final videos available for you all to view on the course web site.
•052421: Remember that CAT 3C lecture is cancelled on Tuesday, May 25, the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd.
•052421: What can you do to commemorate the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd? Many communities will be mourning/grieving on Tuesday. Here are some things you can do:
1) Attend the UCSD Vigil at Doyle Community Park, Monday May 24 6PM
2) Educate yourselves on anti-Blackness in universities and tech/science - join with your friends (or section-mates/grou-mates) to study and read together these three selections:
• T. Elon Dancy II, Kirsten T. Edwards and James Earl Davis (2018) Historically White Universities and Plantation Politics: Anti-Blackness and Higher Education in the Black Lives Matter Era, Urban Education, 53(2), 176–219.
• Ruha Benjamin (2019) Race After Technology, Polity Books, Chapter 1: The New Jim Code.
• Rayvon Fouché (2006) Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud: African Americans, American Artifactual Culture, and Black Vernacular Technological Creativity, American Quarterly, 58(3), 639-661.
3) Community Budget Alliance Rally Tuesday May 25 10AM (not directly tied to George Floyd protests, but advocating for community budget priorities)
•052421: UCSD Vigil on Anniversary of the Murder of George Floyd: 6PM Monday May 24 Doyle Community Park in La Jolla (TONIGHT!)
•052021: The Deadline for the First Draft of the Final Group Project Video is pushed back to Sunday May 23 11:59PM!
•051821: It appears that all problems regarding feedback for the fgp proposals have been resolved, and that the member who submitted the proposal should be able to see the comments. Let bt know if you have any problems accessing the comments!
•051821: Abolition May: May 19 UCSD Day of Action:
1) UCSD Cops off Campus: Abolition Square
May 19, 10AM-4PM @ Ridge Walk near Social Sciences Building A day of free food, books, arts and talks about abolition
Join us in building communities of care on campus
Stories in the Data: Critically Analyzing Police Reports (Online/In-Person Workshop)
1:30-2:50pm on Wednesday May 19th at Abolition Square (Social Science Building Courtyard) and on Zoom.
•051821: Cops Brutalize Houseless Neighbor - Call for Action! Go here for links to sign petition and help
•051721: Broken link fixed for Week Eight podcast - thanks once again Genavieve!
•051721: Feedback for final group project proposals should be available on canvas for the person who uploaded the proposal (please distribute to other group members). Let bt know if probs!
.051721: Some problems with the canvas grades and comments on the final group project proposals have emerged, and some groups cannot see their comments. bt is working on fixing this and hopefully it will be resolved later Monday afternoon or evening.
--->>>the deadline for the draft video is pushed to Sunday, May 23 1159PM. The draft video should be a version of your 10 minute presentation video that bt can give you feedback on.
•051321: SPECIAL OFFICE HOURS: Friday, May 14 5-6PM and 7-9PM. Drop by to discuss/ask questions about the feedback on your Final Group Project Proposals. If these times don't work, e-mail bt to set up an appointment. **I had to cancel the early office hours because of a schedule change beyond my control. sorry! I added office hours later in the day. if someone from your group can't make these times, let me know your availability!**
•051121: The Movement to Abolish Forced Labor/Involuntary Servitude in California: Jim Crow: From Then To Now
•051021: New Extra Credit Opportunity here
•050921: I'm a little behind with grading the Final Group Project Proposals - I will post the feedback and grades on Monday. thanks for your patience!
•050821: Rich countries drained $152tn from the global South since 1960: article || original research || more research (published article here)
•050821: Links for the Red Deal and Rethinking the Apocalypse in the Week 7 reading are now fixed. Thanks Genavieve!
•050721: The week 6-B video and the Asynch forum are now uploaded. thanks for your patience!
•050621:Ruth Tyson's Ketter to the Union of Concerned Scientists: An Open Letter to the Union of Concerned Scientists: On Black Death, Black Silencing, and Black Fugitivity
•050621: Mona Chalabi on Racism in the U.S.
•050621: "The history we teach must investigate the core conflict between a nation founded on radical notions of liberty, freedom and equality and a nation built on slavery, exploitation and exclusion." Idaho governor signs bill to ban critical race theory from being taught in schools
•050421: Stan Cox's article Biden’s Climate Proposals: Tiptoeing Across the Starting Line give a nice critique of carbon capture and biofuel methods of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
•050221: Carbon Colonialism and REDD: Reflections on Resistance
•043021: Upcoming Due Dates:
Sunday May 2 11:59PM - Week Five Annotated Bibliography || General Forum and Asynchronous Forum Week Five Posts
Tuesday May 4 11:59PM - Final Group Project Proposals
Sunday May 9 11:59PM - Major Writing Assignment First Draft || General Forum and Asynchronous Forum Week Six Posts
Friday May 14 11:59PM - Major Writing Assignment Peer Review
•043021: First draft of major writing assignment is now due Sunday May 9 11:59PM.
•042921: The Week Five Asynchronous Forum is now visible - thanks to Cynthia for reminding me! the Asynchronous Forum should go up Thursday evening - if you don't see it, don't hesitate to e-mail bt!
•042821: **********Thoughts and Suggestions on picking a resistance movement and which citations you can use for your annotated bibliography and final project proposal.**********
-- Pick a different resistance movement for your major writing assignment and for your final project group.
-- There are a lot of organizations that fall within a gray area about whether they are part of a resistance movement. Perhaps they are getting foundation or government funding, but their work is disruptive nonetheless. If you focus on one of these organizations, include a critique of their resistance status as part of your analysis. The three panel members of the Black Climate Feminist Leadership Roundtable that you will be watching for Week 6 illustrate some of the difficulty - arguably, all of them are engaged in disruptive work aimed at changing the dominant society, but the orgs they are working for are funded in ways that would lead us to question whether they could be part of a resistance movement.
-- Some of your sources can include citations that discuss the background and injustices that motivate the resistance movement, even if they don't directly discuss the resistance movement itself.
-- Contact bt if you have any questions!
********************
•042821: May 3 - UCSD Day of Refusal
•042821: “Shelter from the Storm”: Climate Change Is a Driving Force in Central American Migration
•042821: The climate crisis: Is capitalism the problem?
•042821:The priorities of the settler state! Violations of the sovereignty of unceded Secwepmc Land, mancamps that bring sexual violence, disease and drugs into Indigenous communities, damage to ecosystems and pollution of water and dangerous acceleration of greenhouse gas emissions could not stop the Transmountain pipeline expansion, owned and operated by the so-called Canadian government. But the discovery of a hummingbird's nest did.
•042721: Abolition May - Nationwide resistance against anti-Black police violence: May 3 Day of Refusal and May 19 and May 25 Days of Action. For more information: Abolition May web site || UCSD Cops off Campus Coalition || Abolition 101 Video from UC Davis Prof ||
•04721: United Students Against Sweatshops phone banking for Tammy and Ahhley, the only Black employees at UCSD Health's care management unit, after Tammy filed a discrimination complaint against her supervisor... We want to invite you to join a phone bank event at 12pm this Saturday 5/1 to put pressure on UCSD Health in rescinding the racist layoffs.
•042321: Anti-Greenwashing Educational Toolkit from the Center for Interdisciplinary Environmental Justice - check it out! "GREENWASHING makes things seem more environmentally friendly than they are, hiding environmental neglect or harm. Greenwashing in the climate movement distracts us with technological fixes that still rely on the fundamental structures that caused climate change in the first place. ​This toolkit highlights how greenwashing plays out in the push for widespread electrification, which requires lithium and other industrially mined metals for batteries. We hope it will help guide activists, students, community organizers, and anyone who seeks a path of justice and liberation from co-constitutive systems of oppression, toward a decolonial approach to climate action and environmental justice."
•042321: Jonathan Cook on Science, Technology and Climate Change.
•042221: Reminder - bt's office hours are: Mondays 2-4PM; Tuesdays/Thursdays 330-5PM; Thursdays 8-9PM PDT.
•042221: Because we are a bit behind in talking about Resistance and how to research it, write about it and be inspired by it, the deadline for the Final Group Project Proposal is extended to Tuesday May 4 11:59PM. We will discuss these topics thoroughly next Tuesday. The Assignments page, canvas and syllabus will be updated to reflect this change over the next few days.
•041821: She survived Hurricane Sandy. Then climate gentrification hit
•041721: Extra Credit Opportunities: click the link to the right. This Thursday April 22 100-230PM PDT Climate Intersections.
•041621: Following your comments last week, General Forum and Asynchronous forum posts (including this week's tweets) are now due on Sundays at 11:59PM to the end of the quarter.
•041521: The concluding session video is now available (COP 99 page --> Videos Page) - unfortunately some parts were lost in the computer crash. The COP 99 Tweets/Asynchronous Journalist forum also is available. The full dropbox videos are available as a download or for streaming if you have a dropbox account - otherwise, only the first 15 minutes can be streamed. I am working on getting these up on the course web site, but this might not happen until sometime friday.
•041521: Many of the sub-session videos now are available - go to the COP 99 page --> Videos Page. More videos, the Asynchronous/tweets forum and the agreements reached at the meeting will be available late Thursday evening PDT. Thanks to the asynchronous folx for their patience!
•041521: thanks everyone for their fantastic performances in COP 99! as you know, my computer crashed after the resistance staged their demo - I apologize for that added bit of chaos, but it looks like I only lost a few parts of the concluding session, so those videos and the links to the sub-session videos will start to appear on the web site after my afternoon class. thanks to the asynchronous folx for their patience with this process - everything will be up on the web site sometime Thursday evening.
Special thanks to the Secretaries for facilitating the sub-sessions, to Aedan for facilitating the concluding session, to the media folx for putting in the work to record/document the sessions and conduct interviews! and to everyone for putting yourself in the shoes of the stylized versions of the participants in a COP meeting amidst the chaos of this rendition of COP 99. it might be an understatement to say that in 80 minutes you accomplished more than 25 years of the actual COP meetings.
•041421: hey folx - getting the sub-session summaries and science summaries out kind of got away from me (unfortunately, I cannot get a no fault extension), but you can now find the science summaries at the top of the COP 99 page and the sub-session summaries as well. We will go over the session summaries at the start of every sub-session, in case you don't have time to read them before lecture. let bt know if you have any questions!
•041421: IMPORTANT: for updates to the assignments and due dates, please consult the Assignments link on the course web site or the assignment description on canvas - changes to the syllabus are lagging behind adjustments being made to the assignment (a new version of the syllabus with all updates will be posted late in week 3).
•041321: I will be responding to e-mails about roles and other questions about COP 99 later today (and I have another class to teach). thanks for your patience! bt
•041121: we will be using jitsi online rooms for the UN Climate Simulation on thursday. please test your ability to connect to this room using your browser:
https://meet.jit.si/cat3c.cd7a4a419c981040
and if your camera and mic work. if they don't, try checking out the Jitsi guide link on the right, or come to one of it's office hours on Monday:
NOON-100PM; 200-400PM or 800-900PM at it's office hours link.
•041121: Saami indigenous back down Gates-funded geoengineering experiment
•040621: I have posted the link to the news article for Writing Assignment Week Two and added some clarifying language to the description of the assignment in the Assignments page on this web site and on the canvas page for this assignment. Thanks for your patience. For those we are taking the course asynchronously, please watch Thursday's lecture before doing the assignment (Thursday's lecture video will be posted soon). Note that I have not updated the syllabus with this info - I will be adding a syllabus update incorporating your comments in class on thursday in the next few days.
•040621:
Asynchronous folx and weekly forum posts (if you cannot attend one or both lectures):
1 - make one regular post to the forum for that week (an original post or comment on someone else's post)
2 - make one post to the asynchronous forum with the answers to the questions in lecture (I will post the questions after lecture on thursday)

•040621: Nick Estes on Bill Gates is the biggest private owner of farmland in the United States. Why?
•040521: Please do not post to the general forum or the asynchronous forum until after the Thursday lecture of that week - forum posts should be based on the lectures and reading for that week. thank you!
•040221: Another minor hiccup - I accidentally turned off the Edit your password feature, but now it is restored. You will see the Edit tab after you log in, and as long as you are logged in you can get the Edit tab back by clicking on Login at the top. let me know if probs, and thanks for your patience! bt
•040221: IMPORTANT: A minor hiccup with the course web site; you might be getting the message: This site has been moved to a new server. Sorry about that - I requested faster connections, and apparently the web hosting folx moved it to a new server without letting me know. You should be able to connect to it in 24 hours. In the meantime:
(1) Deadline for General Forum posts for Week 1 has been extended to Monday, April 5 at 11:59PM
(2) Course materials for Weeks 1-2, including reading, are available temporarily on canvas.
(3) Deadline for Week 1 writing assignment remains Sunday April 4 at 11:59PM - this assignment is to be submitted on canvas
(4) If you encounter any other difficulties, don't hesitate to e-mail bt. thank you for your patience!
•040121: When should you complete the reading for each week? It would be best if you can have it done before Tuesday's lecture, because I will be talking about and referring to the reading (and also clarifying aspects of it) during lecture. Weeks 2-3 reading selections are challenging. Pace yourself and take care of yourself and those around you!]

• If you haven't received account information for this web site, or your login credentials don't work, please e-mail bt.

•040121: I believe I have fixed all the problems with the forum and accessing all the pages on the web site. if you encounter any problems, please e-mail bt!
•040121: There is a permissions problem with the General Forum. I might have fixed it, but will have to wait to verify that until after I teach my next class, so probably around 400PM pdt. thanks for your patience!
•040121: For those folx who have written me because they can't log in to the site, I will get back to you later today (by ~ 4pm pdt) after I teach another class. thanks for your patience!
• As multiple intersecting crises continue, please prioritize taking care of yourself, your family and friends, and all your relations.
•033021: Slides and videos for this week can be found on the syllabus page - once you all get your accounts, those will be moved to the Notes, Slides and Videos page.
•032921:
You will receive your accounts for this web site, which will give you access to reading and other downloads, on Tuesday March 30 or Wednesday March 31.
The CAT3 Queering Climate Change Syllabus is located at the syllabus link.
Please be certain to go to your first section meeting, even if it is before lecture on Tuesday.
If you want to take this class but can't access the class link on canvas, please e-mail bt or your TA with as much lead time as possible.
Accounts for the course web site will go live between Tuesday and Wednesday. Thanks for your patience!
•032621: API Media and UCSD Mutual Aid are hosting an event on March 27 1130AM-1PM PDT for Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders in Kumeyaay Territory (the San Diego area) who need space to process and heal in community. Activities will include: Creative writing session, inspired by Bhanu Kapil’s “12 Questions”; Processing discussion in small groups; Mapping our relationships and roles in mutual aid and resistance. Contact bt for the registration link.
Center for Interdisciplinary Environmental Justice's Workshop: No Comemos Baterias: Against Extractivism in the Green New Deal
• Check out Vijay Kolinjivadi's critique of extractive tourism.
• Check out this awesome roundtable with three Black women climate change/environmental justice activists: Katrina 15: Black Climate Feminist Leadership Roundtable
• Naomi Klein on the Fossil Fuel Shock Doctrine
• See these amazing poems of resistance from the Marshall Islands by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner:
Anointed || Dear Matafele Peinem || Rise: From One Island to Another (by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner and Aka Niviána)
• Myanmar Punk Band Rebel Riot's video track One Day about the anti-coup protests.
• List of topics and course flyer coming in 'Winter' Quarter Week 6, with draft syllabus soon thereafter -- draft syllabus coming sometime during week nine - thanks for your patience and e-mail bt bwerner AT UCSD DOT edit if you have any questions! UPDATE: pandemic conditions are slowing everything, so the draft syllabus probably won't be available until early finals week of winter quarter - thanks for your patience and please feel free to contact bt with any questions you have about the course!
• Matt Shaw's critique of billionaire futurity- check it out
• The Center for Interdisciplinary Environmental Justice is applying a feminist, decolonial framework in critiquing green technologies and taking action.

CAT 3 Queering Climate Change /\ Spring 2021
Online - Meeting Tuesdays and Thursdays 1100-1220PM P.D.T.
CAT 3 Queering Climate Change Flyer

The current time (P.D.T.) in Kumeyaay Territory (so called San Diego) is:

The dominant discourse on climate change centers on past and possible future trajectories mapped out by scientists for Earth's climate, the origin of climate change in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, the disastrous consequences that will ensue if action isn't taken immediately and the secure and sustainable, although perhaps difficult, future that will result if the advice of scientists, engineers and policymakers is followed. In effect, if the future is put in the hands of these experts, catastrophe will be averted. This discourse has given rise to a focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions through incentives or restrictions and has narrowed popular and political discussion on climate change to peripheral arguments over whether change is happening, whether anthropogenic emissions are responsible, and what forms of green technology and geoengineering are best.

In other words, there is a difference between accepting the science as a technical description of the past and potential future behavior of Earth's climate and allowing science and scientists to determine the range of possible futures.

In this course, we are going to queer climate change by critiquing the science-based climate change discourse and by envisioning alternate futures. First, we will sample well-established critical analysis frameworks such as indigenous ways of knowing, ecofeminism, ecowomxnism, critical race theory, postcolonialism, intersectionality, disaster capitalism/NGO industrial complex, environmental justice, crip theory and queer theory to provide us with a lens and a set of tools to deconstruct the assumptions and logic that underlies climate change discourse. Then, guided by the foregrounding of marginalized voices, including BIPOC, People from the Global South, Womxn, Dissident Artists, People with Disabilities, Activists, and Queers, we will open up and explore the space of possible societal relationships to Earth's climate.

Students in this course will construct arguments surrounding climate change through writing, presentations and art to chart an alternate description of where we've been, where we are and where we are going.

CAT 3 Queering Climate Change will be taiught ONLINE during Spring Quarter 2021. Visit this page for updates, a draft syllabus and more information about the course.

Contact the instructor bt werner bwerner AT ucsd DOT edu with questions.