Uranium and Religion: Toward a Decolonial Temporality of Extraction
Uranium mining for the production of nuclear technologies has left visible scars across the United States and perpetuated legacies of extraction that extend beyond material consumption to the exploitation of people and the environment. Influenced by important ongoing conversations in the environment...
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MDPI AG
2024-12-01
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/1/16 |
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| author | Amanda M. Nichols |
| author_facet | Amanda M. Nichols |
| author_sort | Amanda M. Nichols |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Uranium mining for the production of nuclear technologies has left visible scars across the United States and perpetuated legacies of extraction that extend beyond material consumption to the exploitation of people and the environment. Influenced by important ongoing conversations in the environmental and energy humanities, posthumanism, and decolonial studies, I analyze how uranium extraction has been conceived of as an “event” within a colonial temporal framework. A critical examination of how religious worldviews have informed the ways that time is conceptualized and understood shifts thinking about extraction away from colonial temporalities and helps reimagine extraction through a decolonial perspective as temporally distributed, enmeshed, and complex. This reframing is imperative to foster an understanding that the radioactive byproducts of uranium created through the nuclear production process are globally dispersed, will persist across generations, and will have transgenerational implications for human and non-human organisms and the health and viability of ecologic systems. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-0ca94f5a2b5b4404910df89cbe95f15d |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2077-1444 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Religions |
| spelling | doaj-art-0ca94f5a2b5b4404910df89cbe95f15d2025-01-24T13:47:16ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442024-12-011611610.3390/rel16010016Uranium and Religion: Toward a Decolonial Temporality of ExtractionAmanda M. Nichols0Environmental Studies Program, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USAUranium mining for the production of nuclear technologies has left visible scars across the United States and perpetuated legacies of extraction that extend beyond material consumption to the exploitation of people and the environment. Influenced by important ongoing conversations in the environmental and energy humanities, posthumanism, and decolonial studies, I analyze how uranium extraction has been conceived of as an “event” within a colonial temporal framework. A critical examination of how religious worldviews have informed the ways that time is conceptualized and understood shifts thinking about extraction away from colonial temporalities and helps reimagine extraction through a decolonial perspective as temporally distributed, enmeshed, and complex. This reframing is imperative to foster an understanding that the radioactive byproducts of uranium created through the nuclear production process are globally dispersed, will persist across generations, and will have transgenerational implications for human and non-human organisms and the health and viability of ecologic systems.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/1/16uraniumextractionnuclear technologiestemporality(de)colonialenvironmental justice |
| spellingShingle | Amanda M. Nichols Uranium and Religion: Toward a Decolonial Temporality of Extraction Religions uranium extraction nuclear technologies temporality (de)colonial environmental justice |
| title | Uranium and Religion: Toward a Decolonial Temporality of Extraction |
| title_full | Uranium and Religion: Toward a Decolonial Temporality of Extraction |
| title_fullStr | Uranium and Religion: Toward a Decolonial Temporality of Extraction |
| title_full_unstemmed | Uranium and Religion: Toward a Decolonial Temporality of Extraction |
| title_short | Uranium and Religion: Toward a Decolonial Temporality of Extraction |
| title_sort | uranium and religion toward a decolonial temporality of extraction |
| topic | uranium extraction nuclear technologies temporality (de)colonial environmental justice |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/1/16 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT amandamnichols uraniumandreligiontowardadecolonialtemporalityofextraction |