Desert is an unapologetically nihilistic treatise on climate catastrophe and the death cult of industrial production that has brought us to ongoing and worsening ecological disaster. it can be unrelentingly bleak in its first chapter if you still hope that we can collectively pull back from the brink. stick with this text until you finish the second chapter, even if the first chapter makes everything seem hopeless.

a lot of what Desert has to say is actively occurring in front of us, just as it was in 2011 when it was published. the global north extracting whatever resources it can by imperialist violence & capitalist accumulation, while tightening border controls, reducing or outright stopping the intake of refugees–many of whom are already climate refugees, and many more to come as the collapse deepens. I could go into more detail, but there's a whole little book here for you already!!

while some critique Desert as a defeatist text, a blindingly pessimistic view on the years ahead, this is by no means its intent. it's instead a clear-eyed call-to-arms that recognizes those in power have no desire to steer away from the iceberg ahead. rather than sit and watch as the world burns around us, praying that some divine bolt of realization will strike the world and suddenly bring the devastation of the natural world to a screeching halt—what if we instead abandoned hope in salvation? what opportunities for freedom will be crushes, and what opportunities will open? when no one is coming to save us, how can we work to save ourselves, or even to cushion the fall? what actions can we take as empires stumble and falter under the strain of the world they're making for us all? and when all else is exhausted, how will we take revenge?

i had to sit and stare at the wall for a bit when i read this the first time, there's a lot to chew on in here.

ReadDesert.org seen in Vienna.