Renewing Destruction - (Transforming Capitalism) by Alexander A Dunlap (Paperback)

About the Book

Examines how wind energy projects impact people and their environments.

Book Synopsis

Examines how wind energy projects impact people and their environments.

Review Quotes

Renewing Destruction is an impassioned criticism of the green economy and current methods of climate change mitigation, and Dunlap is outspoken about his motivations to advance radical alternatives to development, "progress," and modernity as we know it. His writing is characterized by an intensity that reflects the sense of urgency he feels for the people caught up in wind energy conflicts in the Isthmus, as well as the broader "industrial- scale socio-ecological destruction" characterizing the Anthropocene (p. 15). Dunlap's writing exists in the messy borderlands of scholar-activism and it would not come as a surprise if some readers find his writing challenging because of his strong tone and critical delivery. However, I encourage readers to engage with his no holds barred examination into the social and environmental impacts of wind power.

Renewing Destruction is a fascinating and disturbing account of social injustice, protest and resistance. After a period of courageous field research to investigate the social impact of wind energy development, Dunlap reveals how neocolonial takeover and significant cultural and ecological degradation can come about in the name of economic prosperity, mitigating climate change and sustainable development.

Renewing Destruction is a systematic analysis of wind parks in Oaxaca, Mexico. Combining critical thought and engaged anthropological research, the author unveils the complex territorial and cultural implications of green energies for indigenous peoples. The book presents not only a strong critic of "green capitalist solutions" to climate change broadly but also how these "green" solutions are violent and generate dispossession and displacement as expressions of extractive capitalism.

Renewing Destruction lays bare the structural violence that underpins the imposition of industrial-scale wind energy projects in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Accessible, historically rooted, and attuned to popular resistance, Dunlap's writingblows apart the myths of clean power and green capitalism.

About the Author

Alexander Dunlap is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo.