Global Environmental Speaker Series: Delaney Demaret '24

“Knowledge, Power, & Place: Mapping Climate Advocacy in Southwestern Amazonia.”

Delaney Demaret ’24
MSc Candidate at Oxford University
Amazon Borderlands Spatial Analysis Team Researcher 2020-24 (ABSAT)

Climate scientists argue that the Amazon rainforest is weakening even as Indigenous Amazonians also note changes in the length and intensity of their seasons, local humidity and temperature, and the resilience of the forests they depend on. The residents of the remaining intact rainforest are often Indigenous, but their expert knowledge and agency has been historically marginalized.  Now, ironically, Indigenous environmental defenders are celebrated as development advances and the climate crisis accelerates. Cartography was historically used to dispossess Indigenous peoples of their territory in the name of progress. This research analyzes how maps of climate and forest change may bridge the gap between expert Indigenous knowledge and cutting-edge climate science and geo-technologies to argue for a sustainable future.

Each year the Department of Geography, Environment, & Sustainability, the Environmental Studies Program, and Global Studies Program partner to bring noteworthy speakers and scholars to Richmond to present lectures related to our global environment. All events are free and open to the public.