COVID 19 PLACES: ECUADOR
This essay supports an upcoming discussion of how COVID-19 is unfolding in Ecuador and a broader discussion within the Transnational STS COVID-19 project.
Shuar Testimony
This audio was sent by Manuel Maiche, community leader of Kuamar, part of the Shuar territory in Ecuador.
Ecuador Place Essay Image
Image created with the use of a free image by Crystal Mirallegro (Unsplash website) for Ecuador's covid19 place essay
Kaleidos - Center for Interdisciplinary Ethnography
A research Center at the University of Cuenca with the collaboration of FLACSO-Ecuador
What have you learned about anthropocenics in this place?
AllanaRossMy interests center around soil--its preservation, regeneration, and remediation. Living farther up North on the Mississippi in Saint Louis has changed my thinking around the relationships between soil, water, and contamination. Saint Louis and New Orleans are linked not just through their shared river and its attendant water management issues, but through patterns of extraction and contamination. New Orleans may also provide some clues (and potential solutions) to my community's changing relationship with water as we confront climate change. My work as an artist explores our relationship with landscape through tours of contaminated sites and remediative interventions in the landscape, so I approach New Orleans with questions about contaminated environments and water management through landscape design, gardening, and education.
West Lake Landfill
AllanaRossMost of the citizen-produced data is discounted by officials. There is little authorized data, though data has been collected and can be found with some effort. Dissemination of information is on a grassroots level. PRPs have been engaged in misinformation campaigns as well, creating organizations with misleading names who advertise on the radio and distribute flyers.
West Lake Landfill
AllanaRossMonitoring. Decisions from the EPA about 'safe' levels of radiation exposure.
The Ahoskie Plant is the first Enviva plant that was opened in North Carolina. This plant has a production capacity of 410,000 metric tons annually.