Ways of seeing on a dying planet: photography and the design of ecocide

This article weaves together a transnational visual history of the use of herbicides in war. I trace the photographic analysis of herbicidal warfare as it was employed as a tactic of colonial repression, used against anti-colonial struggles, in counterinsurgency campaigns in the Cold War and, eventually, to Colombia in the War on Drugs. I argue that this mode of analysis was key to the design of ecocide. The goal of tracing these histories in relation to ecocide is to open up transitional justice processes and legal forums to include the natural world as a subject that has also experienced the violence of war. In doing so, I argue for the cultivation of an ‘earthly memory’ that can bear witness to the destruction of war and ecocide, thus articulating the deep connections between political and environmental violence.