Multispecies technical democracy: Earth observation and the rights of nature in Ecuador

Who can speak for nature in the realms of politics, economics, and ethics? Join us to explore the concept of earth observation through work of the Earth Imagination Network in Ecuador, and how this might create the possibility of seeing Earth not only as a damaged environment in need of protection, but also as a living ecology with democratic voice.

Since the 1970s, states and corporations have produced satellite images to map, manage, and exploit the environment. Earth observation, as this practice is called, has mostly been deployed in resource extraction, scanning the planet for minerals, petroleum, and natural gas. But in recent decades, this technology has been taken up by new hands for environmental justice and ecological reconstruction.

In this talk, Jorge Núñez Vega analyses the formation of a research collective concerned with the defense of the rights of nature in Ecuador, amid a government-declared internal armed conflict. The Earth Imagination Network brings together communities affected by contamination, remote sensing experts, environmental lawyers, and multimodal artists. Through collaborative satellite visualisations, this collective explores who can speak for nature in the realms of politics, economics, and ethics. Ultimately, what is at stake is the possibility of seeing Earth not only as a damaged environment in need of protection, but also as a living ecology with democratic voice.