African Airs

Inside-Out Earth, the larger project of which African Airs is a part, explores the vulnerabilities and residues generated by extraction and use of four energy materials: coal, oil, uranium, and lithium. How has the extraction and use of these materials both relied on and produced global (and often racialized) inequities? What governance challenges do they pose for marginalized communities? How can natural and social scientists collaborate to explore and mitigate the vulnerabilities generated by the extraction these materials? The broader project explores these questions in four sites that illustrate the consequences of inverting the planet: Svalbard, Abidjan, Johannesburg, and Chile’s Atacama plateau. African Airs homes in on Abidjan. The funding supports an initial trip to investigate a possible collaboration with atmospheric chemists in Abidjan and in Toulouse who study the composition of Abidjan’s air.