In September 2024, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences hosted a conference at the Vatican on the theme of “Sciences for a Sustainable Anthropocene: Opportunities, Challenges, and Risks of Innovations.” Invited scientists, scholars, and Church leaders delivered presentations and held discussions that considered the abundant scientific evidence for the human-caused alterations to Earth’s natural systems in tandem with the Catholic Church’s commitment to stewardship for God’s creation as exemplified in Pope Francis’s encyclical, Laudato Si’ (2015). Among the participants were geologist Francine McCarthy, historian of science Jürgen Renn, and Cardinal Peter Turkson, the Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Notre Dame is pleased to continue the conversation with these three major contributors to the Vatican conference at this Keeley Vatican Symposium hosted in partnership with the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. History professors Julia Adeney Thomas and Brad Gregory will join and help lead this conversation at Notre Dame along with:Cardinal Peter Turkson, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences;Francine McCarthy, Geologist at Brock University, Canada, whose work is the foundation for the proposed Anthropocene “golden spike”; Jürgen Renn, Director of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany.Clemens Sedmak, professor of social ethics and director of the Nanovic Institute, will serve as the event's host and moderator. A brief reception will follow. All are invited to attend. This event is part of the Anthropocene ND conference (April 23-25, 2025); other events include:"10 Years After Laudato si’: Faith, Anthropocene, and Justice in the Global South" (Friday, April 25, 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.), hosted by the Notre Dame Forum 2024-25 "What do we owe each other?" in the Smith Ballroom of the Morris Inn"Africa and the Anthropocene" (Friday, April 25, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m.), held in C103 Hesburgh CenterThe Anthropocene The Anthropocene refers to the newly destabilized and still evolving state of our planet which is threatening the survival of many species, including our own. The concept arose in Earth System Science as a means of summing up Earth’s rapid mid- 20th-century lurch away from the relatively stable Holocene epoch of the past 11,700 years to today’s unpredictable planetary condition. Our dangerous predicament is not just a scientific and technological problem — it poses unprecedented political, economic, cultural, and ethical challenges. SpeakersCardinal Peter TurksonCardinal Archbishop of Ghana Since 2022, Cardinal Peter Turkson has been the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. He was ordained a priest in 1975 and consecrated as Archbishop of Cape Coast in 1992 by Pope John Paul II, who also made him the first Cardinal Archbishop of Ghana in 2003. He has been a member of multiple pontifical councils, including president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (2009-2017) and prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Human Development (2017-2021). He has served as a mediator in numerous politically volatile situations on the African continent and been a tireless champion of human rights and sustainable human development. In addition to his knowledge of Latin and Greek, he speaks six languages.Brad GregoryProfessor of History at Notre Dame Brad Gregory, professor of history at Notre Dame, specializes in Western Europe in the Reformation era. His scholarship has analyzed the effects of early modern religious disagreement and religio-political conflict, not only in the 16th and 17th centuries, but also in the long-term shaping of Western modernity down to the present. In recent years, the scope of his work has further expanded and takes the Anthropocene as its point of departure, while retaining an emphasis on the assumptions, ambitions, practices, and institutions of premodern Western Europeans that antedated the Industrial Revolution while fostering the anthropogenic trajectories that led our planet out of the Holocene. He is currently at work on a major project about the relationship between Western Christianity and the long-term formation of our current global environmental realities, the working title of which is "The Way of the World: Power, Wealth, and Civilization from the Last Ice Age to the Anthropocene."Francine McCarthyGeologist at Brock University, Canada Francine McCarthy is a micropaleontologist who is interested in paleoenvironmental reconstruction, primarily using acid-resistant organic-walled microfossils, including pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs. Her research has spanned small lake to abyssal marine environments and everything in between, primarily at mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Her interdisciplinary research has been conducted in collaboration with several geologists, biologists, geographers, and archaeologists from government, university, and private sectors. She has been on the boards of several organizations, including current membership on the board of the International Association for Great Lakes Research. A leading member of the Anthropocene Working Group, her work on Crawford Lake served as the proposed “golden spike” of the new epoch.Jürgen RennFounding Director, Max Planck Institute for Geo-Anthropology, Jena, Germany Jürgen Renn’s research focuses on the long-term evolution of knowledge in consideration of the historical dynamics that led to the global changes encapsulated by the concept of the Anthropocene. In almost three decades as director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, his numerous research projects have opened up new approaches, especially in the digital humanities. As founding director of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, he investigates, together with his team, the structural changes in the technosphere that have given rise to the Anthropocene. His central research topics include the history of science from antiquity to the 21st century, the history of the globalization of knowledge, the role of knowledge in global change processes, and the recent history of scientific institutions, particularly the Max Planck Society from its foundation to the present day.Julia Adeney ThomasProfessor of History at Notre Dame Julia Adeney Thomas is professor of history at Notre Dame and a member of the Anthropocene Working Group. She is an intellectual historian of Japan, photography as a political practice, and the Anthropocene. Her books include "Reconfiguring Modernity: Concepts of Nature in Japanese Political Ideology" (winner of the AHA John K. Fairbank Prize), "Japan at Nature’s Edge: The Environmental Context of a Global Power," "Rethinking Historical Distance, and Visualizing Fascism: The Twentieth-Century Rise of the Global Right." Her recent work on the Anthropocene includes "Altered Earth: Getting the Anthropocene Right" (Cambridge University Press, 2022); "The Anthropocene: A Multidisciplinary Approach," co-authored with geologists Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams (Polity, 2020); and, with Jan Zalasiewicz, "Strata and Three Stories" (Rachel Carson Center, Munich, 2020). She’s currently at work on "The Historian’s Task in the Anthropocene," which will explore the experiences, limitations, and breakthroughs of historical practice on our transformed planet.About the Keeley Vatican Lecture series The Keeley Vatican Lecture, facilitated annually by the Nanovic Institute, provides a way to deepen Notre Dame’s connection to the Holy See by bringing distinguished representatives from the Vatican to explore questions surrounding the University’s Catholic mission. Established in 2005 through the generous support of alumnus Terrence R. Keeley ’81, lecturers typically spend several days on campus, joining classes, celebrating Mass with students, and conversing with faculty members. Past Keeley Vatican Lectures have included Sister Raffaella Petrini (secretary-general of the Vatican City State), Rev. Fr. Hans Zollner, Dr. Barbara Jatta, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, and Ukrainian Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak. This year, the Keeley Vatican Lecture series has also manifested as the Keeley Vatican Symposium to provide a space for reflections upon the Catholic Church's understanding and actions surrounding the Anthropocene. Earlier this year, the series also welcomed Rev. Msgr. Anthony Onyemuche Ekpo, Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, for a lecture in February titled "The Reform of the Roman Curia and the Promotion of Integral Human Development." Originally published at nanovic.nd.edu.

All of the Notre Dame community is invited to come together once again to celebrate sustainability work at Notre Dame, connect with fellow sustainability champions, recognize campus partners, and see what’s on the horizon for campus sustainability! Join us on Thursday, April 24th from 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm in the Reyes Family Board Room in McKenna Hall. Formal remarks will begin at 4:30 pm. Drinks and appetizers provided. Registration is not required, but encouraged to help us plan accordingly as we strive to reduce food waste.   Register today to let us know you're coming 

Taking action to care for our common home takes many shapes. For some, it may be cultivating a community garden. For others, it looks like trash pick-ups or reducing your personal greenhouse gas emissions. For others, it can take shape through learning and gaining empowerment to be the change you want to see in the world. This year, Global Call to Action (formerly known as Global Day of Action) will be taking place throughout the entire month of April but is especially highlighted during the week of Earth Day (April 22). To answer the ND Forum Theme, What do we owe each other?, Notre Dame Global and Notre Dame Sustainability are encouraging the global Notre Dame community to take part through learning this year and ignite yourself into sustainable action. To get started, our teams have cultivated book recommendations for your reading list:All We Can Save by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (editor), Katharine K. Wilkinson (editor) (nonfiction, essays)There is a renaissance blooming in the climate movement: leadership that is more characteristically feminine and more faithfully feminist, rooted in compassion, connection, creativity, and collaboration. While it's clear that women and girls are vital voices and agents of change for this planet, they are too often missing from the proverbial table. More than a problem of bias, it's a dynamic that sets us up for failure. To change everything, we need everyone.All We Can Save illuminates the expertise and insights of dozens of diverse women leading on climate in the United States—scientists, journalists, farmers, lawyers, teachers, activists, innovators, wonks, and designers, across generations, geographies, and race—and aims to advance a more representative, nuanced, and solution-oriented public conversation on the climate crisis. These women offer a spectrum of ideas and insights for how we can rapidly and radically reshape society.Intermixing essays with poetry and art, this book is both a balm and a guide for knowing and holding what has been done to the world, while bolstering our resolve never to give up on one another or our collective future. We must summon truth, courage, and solutions to turn away from the brink and toward life-giving possibility. Curated by two climate leaders, the book is a collection and celebration of visionaries who are leading us on a path toward all we can save.Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (nonfiction, memoir, science)As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return. Global by Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin (fiction, graphic novel)Time is running out for Sami and Yuki. Sami and his grandfather live in a village along the Indian Ocean. They earn their living by fishing. But the ocean is rising and each day they bring back fewer and fewer fish. Yuki lives in the far north of Canada where warming temperature are melting the ice. Polar bears have less food to hunt and are wandering into town looking for something to eat. Yuki is determined to do something to help the bears.     Go Gently by Bonnie Wright (nonfiction, self-help, science)An inspiring and approachable tip-filled guide to changing your habits, living more sustainably, and taking action, by Greenpeace ambassador Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter movies) Go Gently is a guide for sustainability at home that offers simple, tangible steps toward reducing our environmental impact by looking at what we consume and the waste we create, as well as how to take action for environmental change. The title reflects Bonnie Wright’s belief that the best way to change our planet and ourselves is through a gentle approach, rather than a judgmental one. This is a book of do’s rather than don’ts. It’s also an invitation to Wright’s followers to join her on this journey to sustainability. Going through every room in her home, Wright helps us assess which products are sustainable, and alternatives for those that are not. She shares recipes to avoid waste, homemade self-care products to avoid packaging, small space-friendly gardening ideas, and a template for creating your own compost system. Finally, to sustain yourself, there are exercises and meditation prompts to keep you energized, plus info on how to get involved in community and organizations.The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis by Amitav Ghosh (nonfiction, history)In this ambitious successor to The Great Derangement, acclaimed writer Amitav Ghosh finds the origins of our contemporary climate crisis in Western colonialism's violent exploitation of human life and the natural environment. A powerful work of history, essay, testimony, and polemic, Amitav Ghosh's book traces our contemporary planetary crisis back to the discovery of the New World and the sea route to the Indian Ocean. The Nutmeg's Curse argues that the dynamics of climate change today are rooted in a centuries-old geopolitical order constructed by Western colonialism. At the center of Ghosh's narrative is the now-ubiquitous spice nutmeg. The history of the nutmeg is one of conquest and exploitation—of both human life and the natural environment. In Ghosh's hands, the story of the nutmeg becomes a parable for our environmental crisis, revealing the ways human history has always been entangled with earthly materials such as spices, tea, sugarcane, opium, and fossil fuels. Our crisis, he shows, is ultimately the result of a mechanistic view of the earth, where nature exists only as a resource for humans to use for our own ends, rather than a force of its own, full of agency and meaning.Writing against the backdrop of the global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests, Ghosh frames these historical stories in a way that connects our shared colonial histories with the deep inequality we see around us today. By interweaving discussions on everything from the global history of the oil trade to the migrant crisis and the animist spirituality of Indigenous communities around the world, The Nutmeg's Curse offers a sharp critique of Western society and speaks to the profoundly remarkable ways in which human history is shaped by non-human forces.Picking Up by Robin Nagle (nonfiction, ethnography, anthropology)America's largest city generates garbage in torrents―11,000 tons from households each day on average. But New Yorkers don't give it much attention. They leave their trash on the curb or drop it in a litter basket, and promptly forget about it. And why not? On a schedule so regular you could almost set your watch by it, someone always comes to take it away. But who, exactly, is that someone? And why is he―or she―so unknown? In Picking Up, the anthropologist Robin Nagle introduces us to the men and women of New York City's Department of Sanitation and makes clear why this small army of uniformed workers is the most important labor force on the streets. Seeking to understand every aspect of the Department's mission, Nagle accompanied crews on their routes, questioned supervisors and commissioners, and listened to story after story about blizzards, hazardous wastes, and the insults of everyday New Yorkers. But the more time she spent with the DSNY, the more Nagle realized that observing wasn't quite enough― so she joined the force herself. Driving the hulking trucks, she obtained an insider's perspective on the complex kinships, arcane rules, and obscure lingo unique to the realm of sanitation workers. Nagle chronicles New York City's four-hundred-year struggle with trash, and traces the city's waste-management efforts from a time when filth overwhelmed the streets to the far more rigorous practices of today, when the Big Apple is as clean as it's ever been. Throughout, Nagle reveals the many unexpected ways in which sanitation workers stand between our seemingly well-ordered lives and the sea of refuse that would otherwise overwhelm us. In the process, she changes the way we understand cities―and ourselves within them.Reconsidering Reparations by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (nonfiction, philosophy, history)Reparations for slavery have become a reinvigorated topic for public debate over the last decade. Most theorizing about reparations treats it as a social justice project - either rooted in reconciliatory justice focused on making amends in the present; or, they focus on the past, emphasizing restitution for historical wrongs. Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò argues that neither approach is optimal and advances a different case for reparations - one rooted in a hopeful future that tackles the issue of climate change head-on, with distributive justice at its core. This view, which he calls the constructive view of reparations, argues that reparations should be seen as a future-oriented project engaged in building a better social order; and that the costs of building a more equitable world should be distributed more to those who have inherited the moral liabilities of past injustices. This approach to reparations, as Táíwò shows, has deep and surprising roots in the thought of Black political thinkers such as James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr, and Nkechi Taifa, as well as mainstream political philosophers like John Rawls, Charles Mills, and Elizabeth Anderson. Táíwò's project has wide implications for our views of justice, racism, the legacy of colonialism, and climate change policy.Thirty-Two Words for Field by Manchán Magan (nonfiction, history, language, Irish literature)The Irish language has thirty-two words for field. Among them – a field of corngrass Tuar – a field for cattle at night Réidhleán – a field for games or dancing Cathairín – a field with a fairy-dwelling in it. The richness of a language closely tied to the natural landscape offered our ancestors a more magical way of seeing the world. Before we cast old words aside, let us consider the sublime beauty and profound oddness of the ancient tongue that has been spoken on this island for almost 3,000 years. In Thirty-Two Words for Field, Manchán Magan meditates on these words – and the nuances of a way of life that is disappearing with them.   Whittled Away: Ireland's Vanishing Nature by Pádraic Fogarty (nonfiction, science, Irish literature)Nature in Ireland is disappearing at an alarming rate. Overfishing, industrial-scale farming and pollution have decimated wildlife habitats and populations. In a single lifetime, vast shoals of herring, rivers bursting with salmon, and bogs alive with flocks of curlew and geese have all become folk memories. Coastal and rural communities are struggling to survive; the foundations of our tourism and agricultural sectors are being undermined. The lack of political engagement frequently sees the state in the European Court of Justice for environmental issues. Pádraic Fogarty authoritatively charts how this grim failure to manage our natural resources has impoverished our country.But all is not lost, he also reveals possibilities for the future, describing how we can fill our seas with fish, farm in tune with nature, and create forests that benefit both people and wildlife. He makes a persuasive case for the return of long-lost species like wild boar, cranes and wolves, showing how the interests of the country and its nature can be reconciled. A provocative call to arms, Whittled Away presents an alternative path that could lead us all to a brighter future.If you plan to purchase physical books, consider supporting a local store like Griffon Bookstore in South Bend. If you decide to read one (or more) of the books listed above, let us know! Email us at green@nd.edu. Consider sharing a photo of yourself with the book in hand.

“Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years. Yet we are called to be instruments of God our Father, so that our planet might be what he desired when he created it and correspond with his plan for peace, beauty and fullness.”Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on care for our common home, Laudato si’, offers both a stark portrait of the current global environmental reality and an urgent call to action. Many Earth Science scholars describe our current geological epoch as the Anthropocene, a newly destabilized state of the Earth where human action has an overwhelming impact on the functioning of the planet, leading not only to scientific and technological problems but also to political, economic, cultural, and ethical challenges. Climate change and environmental devastation have an outsize impact on communities in the Global South, but many of these communities are also at the forefront of developing strategies for resilience. Join us for a conversation with Church leaders on how the Anthropocene epoch changes the way we think about justice, the planet, the Church, and what we owe one another. This event will be livestreamed in both Spanish and English. More information about the  livestream will be added soon. Featuring:Cardinal Pedro Ricardo Barreto Jimeno, S.J. Archbishop Emeritus of Huancayo, Peru Cardinal Barreto currently serves as the President of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), a new international body linked to the Holy See. In this role, he promotes the recognition and appreciation of the charisms of all members of the People of God with an Amazonian identity, fostering a more participatory and synodal Church. He was created cardinal by Pope Francis in 2018, after serving as Archbishop of Huancayo since 2004. A Jesuit priest since his ordination in 1971, he has dedicated his life to the defense of human rights, ecology, and pastoral service. As Archbishop Emeritus of Huancayo, Peru, his trajectory reflects a deep commitment to social justice and the care of our Common Home.Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson Chancellor, Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences Since 2022, Cardinal Peter Turkson has been the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. He was ordained a priest in 1975 and consecrated as Archbishop of Cape Coast in 1992 by Pope John Paul II, who also made him the first Cardinal Archbishop of Ghana in 2003. He has been a member of multiple pontifical councils, including president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (2009-2017) and prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Human Development (2017-2021). He has served as a mediator in numerous politically volatile situations on the African continent and been a tireless champion of human rights and sustainable human development. In addition to his knowledge of Latin and Greek, he speaks six languages.In conversation with:Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. President, University of Notre Dame Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., serves as Notre Dame’s 18th president, having begun his tenure as president in June 2024. A faculty member in Notre Dame’s political science department since 2004, Fr. Dowd earned an undergraduate degree in psychology and economics from Notre Dame, and a Masters in African Studies and a doctorate in political science from UCLA. Prior to his election as president, Fr. Dowd served as vice president and associate provost for interdisciplinary initiatives. He was ordained a priest in the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1994 and has ministered to students on campus for many years as a priest-in-residence.Originally published at forum2024.nd.edu.

Join Notre Dame Sustainability for a walk around campus to experience the beauty of Notre Dame. Participants will learn about some of the sustainability initiatives and investments happening at the University that may otherwise go unseen! Only 20 spots are available, so don't wait to sign up! Register for the tourThis event is open to the public and will be weather permitting. Please be prepared to wear comfortable shoes and clothes for walking. Unable to attend the tour in person? Experience it virtually.

Taking action to care for our common home takes many shapes. For some, it may be cultivating a community garden. For others, it looks like trash pick-ups or reducing your personal greenhouse gas emissions. For others, it can take shape through learning and gaining empowerment to be the change you want to see in the world. This year, Global Call to Action (formerly known as Global Day of Action) will be taking place throughout the entire month of April but is especially highlighted during the week of Earth Day (April 22). To answer the ND Forum Theme, What do we owe each other?, Notre Dame Global and Notre Dame Sustainability are encouraging the global Notre Dame community to take part through learning this year and ignite yourself into sustainable action. To get started, our teams have cultivated book recommendations for your reading list:All We Can Save by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (editor), Katharine K. Wilkinson (editor) (nonfiction, essays)There is a renaissance blooming in the climate movement: leadership that is more characteristically feminine and more faithfully feminist, rooted in compassion, connection, creativity, and collaboration. While it's clear that women and girls are vital voices and agents of change for this planet, they are too often missing from the proverbial table. More than a problem of bias, it's a dynamic that sets us up for failure. To change everything, we need everyone.All We Can Save illuminates the expertise and insights of dozens of diverse women leading on climate in the United States—scientists, journalists, farmers, lawyers, teachers, activists, innovators, wonks, and designers, across generations, geographies, and race—and aims to advance a more representative, nuanced, and solution-oriented public conversation on the climate crisis. These women offer a spectrum of ideas and insights for how we can rapidly and radically reshape society.Intermixing essays with poetry and art, this book is both a balm and a guide for knowing and holding what has been done to the world, while bolstering our resolve never to give up on one another or our collective future. We must summon truth, courage, and solutions to turn away from the brink and toward life-giving possibility. Curated by two climate leaders, the book is a collection and celebration of visionaries who are leading us on a path toward all we can save.Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (nonfiction, memoir, science)As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return. Global by Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin (fiction, graphic novel)Time is running out for Sami and Yuki. Sami and his grandfather live in a village along the Indian Ocean. They earn their living by fishing. But the ocean is rising and each day they bring back fewer and fewer fish. Yuki lives in the far north of Canada where warming temperature are melting the ice. Polar bears have less food to hunt and are wandering into town looking for something to eat. Yuki is determined to do something to help the bears.     Go Gently by Bonnie Wright (nonfiction, self-help, science)An inspiring and approachable tip-filled guide to changing your habits, living more sustainably, and taking action, by Greenpeace ambassador Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter movies) Go Gently is a guide for sustainability at home that offers simple, tangible steps toward reducing our environmental impact by looking at what we consume and the waste we create, as well as how to take action for environmental change. The title reflects Bonnie Wright’s belief that the best way to change our planet and ourselves is through a gentle approach, rather than a judgmental one. This is a book of do’s rather than don’ts. It’s also an invitation to Wright’s followers to join her on this journey to sustainability. Going through every room in her home, Wright helps us assess which products are sustainable, and alternatives for those that are not. She shares recipes to avoid waste, homemade self-care products to avoid packaging, small space-friendly gardening ideas, and a template for creating your own compost system. Finally, to sustain yourself, there are exercises and meditation prompts to keep you energized, plus info on how to get involved in community and organizations.The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis by Amitav Ghosh (nonfiction, history)In this ambitious successor to The Great Derangement, acclaimed writer Amitav Ghosh finds the origins of our contemporary climate crisis in Western colonialism's violent exploitation of human life and the natural environment. A powerful work of history, essay, testimony, and polemic, Amitav Ghosh's book traces our contemporary planetary crisis back to the discovery of the New World and the sea route to the Indian Ocean. The Nutmeg's Curse argues that the dynamics of climate change today are rooted in a centuries-old geopolitical order constructed by Western colonialism. At the center of Ghosh's narrative is the now-ubiquitous spice nutmeg. The history of the nutmeg is one of conquest and exploitation—of both human life and the natural environment. In Ghosh's hands, the story of the nutmeg becomes a parable for our environmental crisis, revealing the ways human history has always been entangled with earthly materials such as spices, tea, sugarcane, opium, and fossil fuels. Our crisis, he shows, is ultimately the result of a mechanistic view of the earth, where nature exists only as a resource for humans to use for our own ends, rather than a force of its own, full of agency and meaning.Writing against the backdrop of the global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests, Ghosh frames these historical stories in a way that connects our shared colonial histories with the deep inequality we see around us today. By interweaving discussions on everything from the global history of the oil trade to the migrant crisis and the animist spirituality of Indigenous communities around the world, The Nutmeg's Curse offers a sharp critique of Western society and speaks to the profoundly remarkable ways in which human history is shaped by non-human forces.Picking Up by Robin Nagle (nonfiction, ethnography, anthropology)America's largest city generates garbage in torrents―11,000 tons from households each day on average. But New Yorkers don't give it much attention. They leave their trash on the curb or drop it in a litter basket, and promptly forget about it. And why not? On a schedule so regular you could almost set your watch by it, someone always comes to take it away. But who, exactly, is that someone? And why is he―or she―so unknown? In Picking Up, the anthropologist Robin Nagle introduces us to the men and women of New York City's Department of Sanitation and makes clear why this small army of uniformed workers is the most important labor force on the streets. Seeking to understand every aspect of the Department's mission, Nagle accompanied crews on their routes, questioned supervisors and commissioners, and listened to story after story about blizzards, hazardous wastes, and the insults of everyday New Yorkers. But the more time she spent with the DSNY, the more Nagle realized that observing wasn't quite enough― so she joined the force herself. Driving the hulking trucks, she obtained an insider's perspective on the complex kinships, arcane rules, and obscure lingo unique to the realm of sanitation workers. Nagle chronicles New York City's four-hundred-year struggle with trash, and traces the city's waste-management efforts from a time when filth overwhelmed the streets to the far more rigorous practices of today, when the Big Apple is as clean as it's ever been. Throughout, Nagle reveals the many unexpected ways in which sanitation workers stand between our seemingly well-ordered lives and the sea of refuse that would otherwise overwhelm us. In the process, she changes the way we understand cities―and ourselves within them.Reconsidering Reparations by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (nonfiction, philosophy, history)Reparations for slavery have become a reinvigorated topic for public debate over the last decade. Most theorizing about reparations treats it as a social justice project - either rooted in reconciliatory justice focused on making amends in the present; or, they focus on the past, emphasizing restitution for historical wrongs. Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò argues that neither approach is optimal and advances a different case for reparations - one rooted in a hopeful future that tackles the issue of climate change head-on, with distributive justice at its core. This view, which he calls the constructive view of reparations, argues that reparations should be seen as a future-oriented project engaged in building a better social order; and that the costs of building a more equitable world should be distributed more to those who have inherited the moral liabilities of past injustices. This approach to reparations, as Táíwò shows, has deep and surprising roots in the thought of Black political thinkers such as James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr, and Nkechi Taifa, as well as mainstream political philosophers like John Rawls, Charles Mills, and Elizabeth Anderson. Táíwò's project has wide implications for our views of justice, racism, the legacy of colonialism, and climate change policy.Thirty-Two Words for Field by Manchán Magan (nonfiction, history, language, Irish literature)The Irish language has thirty-two words for field. Among them – a field of corngrass Tuar – a field for cattle at night Réidhleán – a field for games or dancing Cathairín – a field with a fairy-dwelling in it. The richness of a language closely tied to the natural landscape offered our ancestors a more magical way of seeing the world. Before we cast old words aside, let us consider the sublime beauty and profound oddness of the ancient tongue that has been spoken on this island for almost 3,000 years. In Thirty-Two Words for Field, Manchán Magan meditates on these words – and the nuances of a way of life that is disappearing with them.   Whittled Away: Ireland's Vanishing Nature by Pádraic Fogarty (nonfiction, science, Irish literature)Nature in Ireland is disappearing at an alarming rate. Overfishing, industrial-scale farming and pollution have decimated wildlife habitats and populations. In a single lifetime, vast shoals of herring, rivers bursting with salmon, and bogs alive with flocks of curlew and geese have all become folk memories. Coastal and rural communities are struggling to survive; the foundations of our tourism and agricultural sectors are being undermined. The lack of political engagement frequently sees the state in the European Court of Justice for environmental issues. Pádraic Fogarty authoritatively charts how this grim failure to manage our natural resources has impoverished our country.But all is not lost, he also reveals possibilities for the future, describing how we can fill our seas with fish, farm in tune with nature, and create forests that benefit both people and wildlife. He makes a persuasive case for the return of long-lost species like wild boar, cranes and wolves, showing how the interests of the country and its nature can be reconciled. A provocative call to arms, Whittled Away presents an alternative path that could lead us all to a brighter future.If you plan to purchase physical books, consider supporting a local store like Griffon Bookstore in South Bend. If you decide to read one (or more) of the books listed above, let us know! Email us at green@nd.edu. Consider sharing a photo of yourself with the book in hand.