In a new media collaboration, anthropologists from the AAA 2008 annual meeting double-session, “Pulse of the Planet—Human Rights, Environment and Social Justice in the 21^st Century” have teamed up with CounterPunch, the online news magazine, to launch an op-ed column that aims to reshape public debates on some of the biggest issues facing the U.S. and the world today.

From global climate change and the human rights disasters that accompany violent storms and droughts to the increasing assaults on biodiversity and cultural diversity in the name of economic, energy, food, and national “security,” the “Pulse of the Planet” op-ed series takes a probing look at the ulcerating conditions that may be driving up the planetary pulse and asks the question: Where are we going, and at what price? Collectively, these anthropologists urge our leaders to rethink the meaning of security and the role of government in achieving a sustainable and healthy way of life.

“Pulse of the Planet,” the op-ed column, features articles by scholars from the scheduled AAA 2008 annual meeting double session, “Pulse of the Planet – Human Rights, Environment and Social Justice in the 21^st Century,” a presidential panel organized by Barbara Rose Johnston and Gregory Button and co-sponsored by the Committee for Human Rights and the Anthropology and Environment section.

A presentation and discussion of the articles will take place at the “Pulse of the Planet” conference session during the 2008 AAA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Nov. 19-23. 

“Pulse of the Planet” essays will be published on the CounterPunch website. In the interest of wide dissemination of the series, articles also will be cross-published in relevant journals and other print or online publications.

Read the following “Pulse of the Planet” op-eds:
"The TVA Ash Spill One Year Later: Lessons Learned" ~ Gregory Button (Dec. 16, 2009)
"War, Peace and the Obamajority" ~ Barbara Rose Johnston (Oct. 19, 2009)
"Double Jeopardy: Carbon Offsets and Human Rights Abuses" ~ Melissa Checker (Sept. 9, 2009)
"The Search for Environmental Justice in Perry County, Alabama" ~ Gregory Button (July 16, 2009)
"Water Culture Wars" ~ Barbara Rose Johnston (Mar. 27, 2009)
"Ecological Crisis and Eco-Villages in China" ~ Shannon May (Nov. 21/23, 2008)
"How Dow Chemical Defies Homeland Security and Risks Another 9/11" ~ Brian McKenna (Nov. 20, 2008)
"The Inequities of Climate Change and the Small Island Experience" ~ Holly M. Barker (Nov. 4, 2008)
"What the Next President Must Do to Save FEMA" ~ Gregory V. Button (Oct. 28, 2008)
"The Clean, Green Nuclear Machine?" ~ Barbara Rose Johnston (Oct. 27, 2008)
"Carbon Offsets: More Harm Than Good?" ~ Melissa Checker (Aug. 27, 2008)
"The Human Right to Eat" ~ Joan P. Mencher (June 28/29, 2008)
"Dam Legacies, Damned Futures?" ~ Barbara Rose Johnston (May 24/25, 2008)

Photo: Barbara Rose Johnston, "Pulse of the Planet" session co-organizer