Writing week

This week I’m settling in to write the first chapter of the book I’ve been researching. I’ve re-worked the introduction and first chapter in rough draft and am now ready to set into the meatier portions.

Of course, tuning to this project also requires tuning out some things. As such, I think I will forgo posting about the large demonstrations against the Keystone XL pipeline that were held primarily in Washington but also in many other places. These protests do figure into the larger set of ideas the book grapples with, particularly the ways in which particular environmental activities gain symbolic meaning when, in the political economy of things, its just another pipeline.

How we got to that conflict is part of what I will be seeking to explain, although I will be looking through the lens of water to do so. Water is of course caught up with many other sectors and often is the instrumental, if not intrinsic reason certain projects are opposed – tanker spills, pipeline leaks & Keystone XL’s original route all motivate dissent not only by appealing to globally normalized carbon emissions but also by rendering risks palpable through something that is meaningful locally. Often this is water.