Globalization and climate weirding are two of the leading phenomena that challenge and change the way we need to think and act within the planetary community. Modern Western understandings of human beings, animals, and the rest of the natural world and the subsequent technologies built on those understandings have thrown us into an array of social and ecological crises with planetary implications. Earthly Things: Immanence, New Materialisms, and Planetary Thinking, argues that more immanent or planetary ways of thinking and acting have great potential for re-thinking human-technology-animal-Earth relationships and for addressing problems of global climate weirding and other forms of ecological degradation. Older and often-marginalized forms of thought from animisms, shamanisms, and other religious traditions are joined by more recent forms of thinking with immanence such as the universe story, process thought, emergence theory, the new materialisms (NM’s), object-oriented ontologies (OOO’s), affect theory, and queer theory. This book maps out some of the connections and differences between immanent frameworks to provide some eco-intellectual commons for thinking within the planetary community, with a particular emphasis on making connections between more recent theories and older ideas of immanence found in many of the world’s religious traditions. The authors in this volume met and worked together over five years, so the resulting volume reveals sustained and multifaceted perspectives on “thinking and acting with the planet.”

Globalization and climate weirding are two of the leading phenomena that challenge and change the way we need to think and act within the planetary community. Modern Western understandings of human beings, animals, and the rest of the natural world and the subsequent technologies built on those understandings have thrown us into an array of social and ecological crises with planetary implications. Earthly Things: Immanence, New Materialisms, and Planetary Thinking, argues that more immanent or planetary ways of thinking and acting have great potential for re-thinking human-technology-animal-Earth relationships and for addressing problems of global climate weirding and other forms of ecological degradation. Older and often-marginalized forms of thought from animisms, shamanisms, and other religious traditions are joined by more recent forms of thinking with immanence such as the universe story, process thought, emergence theory, the new materialisms (NM’s), object-oriented ontologies (OOO’s), affect theory, and queer theory. This book maps out some of the connections and differences between immanent frameworks to provide some eco-intellectual commons for thinking within the planetary community, with a particular emphasis on making connections between more recent theories and older ideas of immanence found in many of the world’s religious traditions. The authors in this volume met and worked together over five years, so the resulting volume reveals sustained and multifaceted perspectives on “thinking and acting with the planet.”

During Major William W. "Whit" Johnson's first deployment to Iraq from January to May 2003, he was attached to the U.S. Marine Corps' 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance (LAR) Battalion, part of Task Force Tripoli, and commanded a company-sized element of air defense variant of the light armored vehicle. He also served as the assistant air officer for 1st LAR. Involved in the initial assault in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, Johnson's unit conducted a variety of screening and mobile reconnaissance missions and developed intelligence along the drive north, which ultimately, for them, ended in the city of Tikrit. Before redeploying, he also participated in 1st LAR operations along the border between Iraq and Saudi Arabia "because of the potential Wahhabi threat." For his second deployment, which ran from February to September 2004, Johnson served as the operations officer for the 3rd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion (3rd LAAD), which deployed to Iraq as a provisional security battalion. Located on and around Al Asad Air Base, his unit coordinated entry for all personnel requesting admittance to the installation, conducted defensive patrols, and was responsible for exterior security for some 300 square kilometers around the base. According to Johnson, Al Asad had the reputation of being "the hardest base to get onto in all of Iraq."