Wind and Power in the Anthropocene: Cymene Howe, Ecologics and Dominic Boyer, Energopolitics.

Abstract

Wind and Power in the AnthropoceneCymene Howe, Ecologics and Dominic Boyer, Energopolitics Nathan Kapoor (bio) In Wind and Power in the Anthropocene, a two-volume "duograph" (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019. Pp. 600, $49.95), Cymene Howe, in Ecologics, and Dominic Boyer, in Energopolitics, explore the development of wind parks during the early twenty-first century on the isthmus of Tehuantepec. The project grew out of their joint ethnographic research conducted in Mexico between 2009 and 2013. Rather than produce a multiauthored work based on the joint research, they elected to produce two distinct volumes that share a coauthored introduction and conclusion, which creatively present the value of multiple academic perspectives flowing from the same resource. Ecologics examines the failures and successes of the Mareña Renovables Wind Park by surveying the human (advocates, power companies, and international investors) and nonhuman (wind, environment, and animals) "battle" over the wind (p. 44). Using other projects on the isthmus, like the parks around La Ventosa, Energopolitics reviews "aeolian politics" (p. x), and indeed the politics of energy more broadly, as a means of describing how actors engage in politics through energy systems. Besides providing a thought-provoking case study about "alternative energy" in Mexico, their work critically challenges assumptions about the beneficence of wind power during the Anthropocene. In doing so, the authors write not to deter the transition to renewable energy resources but to implore those in power to avoid replicating the exploitative practices of the infrastructures they would replace. Collectively, each volume will be well received by historians of technology, environmental historians, and energy humanists. As the authors suggest, each book can be read alone, together, or interchangeably. Both present clear and distinct narratives about wind power in Mexico. In their [End Page 686] joint preface, Boyer and Howe detail their choice to pursue a duograph, introduce readers to the wind industry in Mexico, summarize their research timeline, and explain the utility of this model of research for ethnographers. One of the most refreshing components of their collaborative and individual writing is the clarity of their position as researchers in this project as they circulated among politicians, indigenous peoples, and corporate officials. It is a necessary exercise, as they argue, for appreciating the entrenchment of the wind in local political and social relations. Howe begins Ecologics, and the project itself, with an exploration of the wind as a "salvation object," or one of humanity's attempts to reverse its Anthropogenic contributions through an energy transition. However, throughout the course of the introduction and in her own work, wind power as the agent of an equitable energy transition becomes a paradox. Proponents of the projects, in line with so many other alternative-energy initiatives around the world, failed to appreciate the extent to which energy is embedded in culture and the environment. A transition to wind power and consequently away from a fossil fuel economy requires an appreciation for human action. It requires the confluence of politics and cosmologies of people, the environment, and inanimate technologies. In order to follow these perspectives on wind power, Howe follows the wind itself. By treating the wind as a subject in her narrative, she is able to chart the connections between people, the environment, and "things" to show that the wind is both the origin of Mareña Renovables and its downfall, the wind park that never was. In "Wind Power, Anticipated," Howe introduces the prevalence of wind on the isthmus. For residents of Tehuantepec, the wind was and remains a boon, a way of life or for some the very cause of life on the isthmus. The presence of the wind cannot go unnoticed, and therefore it is an integral part of life there. By the same token, wind did not escape the notice of the international communities who sought to implant wind farms in the region. Some argued that wind would benefit the local population, but others feared it might negatively impact their way of life, environment, or further expand the influence of external (colonial) authority. As is often the case with moments of energy transition, the presence of conflicting anxieties and hopes about an energy resource led to a...