culture

Aliases: 

“Thank God for the Coal Rollers”

Historian Timothy LeCain is interested in the bridge between humans and materiality. Last year, while driving his SUV home through the mountains of Montana, a large truck pulled in front of him and released a cloud of dense, noxious smoke. Like many cyclists, hybrid car drivers, and “No Kings” protestors, LeCain had been “coal rolled.” His tongue-in-cheek essay, “Thank God for the Coal Rollers,” explores the practice’s culture, intended victims, and even the unintended good it might enact.

“Mapped Futures, Vanishing Places: On Inheritance at the Water’s Edge”

In “Mapped Futures, Vanishing Places,” literary scholar Kumiko Kiuchi portrays the simple act of walking as an opportunity to inherit shared memory. Her writing takes off from Tokyo’s artificial waterfront into a creative space stretching from past generations into imagined futures, reminding us to remain “attentive to what cannot be fully possessed or understood.”

A Place Called Tana

 
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Perspectives Issue 2012/4

Bjarne Johansen advocates for the restoration of coastal Sami fishing rights and stricter limits on river and salmon farming practices to protect wild salmon, cultural traditions, and fjord communities from environmental and regulatory harm.

The Environment & Society Portal is a project of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, an institute founded in 2009 as a joint initiative of LMU Munich and the Deutsches Museum. Read more about the Portal in English and in German.