Lyla Mehta
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lylamehta.bsky.social
Lyla Mehta
@lylamehta.bsky.social

Professor of environment & development; Water, sanitation, climate, covid; human rights; displacement; feminist; anti-fascist; Editor @Natureandspace; UK, India, Austria, Norway. Twitter migrant; also on @Lylamehta@mas.to & LinkedIn. Views my own; .. more

Political science 40%
Sociology 14%
Pinned
I resisted signing on another billionaire-led app so it's taken me a while to get here. I had blocked #Musk & carried on Twitter despite unease. But now seeing how he is systematically promoting more far-right leaders is just too much. Looking forward to connecting with old & new friends here.

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

Repealing #MGNREGA alters the lives of at least 121 million active workers after just hours of parliamentary debate. A law that generated 3.8 billion person days of work amid #Covid-19 in 2020-21 crossed #Parliament in 3 days, writes Kavitha Iyer

article-14.com/post/right-t...
Right To Rationed Relief: How Repealing The World’s Largest Jobs-For-Work Scheme Will Hollow Out India’s Employment Guarantee To Millions
From participatory lawmaking to executive redesign; from a centrally funded legal guarantee of work to a new fiscal responsibility on state governments—the repeal of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural ...
article-14.com

It's the flagship employment guarantee scheme introduced by the former UPA government. While there have been many flaws, it's lifted millions out of poverty. The Modi led BJP government has always wanted to dilute and destroy it, and looks like they will succeed now. .

Unbelievable what a Labour government is doing to protesters right now. And to think Starmer used to be a human rights lawyer, and David Lammy, also a lawyer, is supposed to safeguard justice. #UK #Gaza #Palestine
"Our demands are simple."

"One: shut down the weapons factories." "Two, deproscribe Palestine Action." "Three, an end to the mistreatment of prisoners." "Four, immediate bail." "And five: a fair trial."
#UK #Gaza #Palestine #Israel #Incarceration #Food #Protest #Genocide #Military
Why We Are on Hunger Strike in UK Jails
Amu Gib is one of eight prisoners incarcerated for alleged involvement in direct action against Israeli genocide currently on hunger strike in UK jails.
www.counterpunch.org

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

"Our demands are simple."

"One: shut down the weapons factories." "Two, deproscribe Palestine Action." "Three, an end to the mistreatment of prisoners." "Four, immediate bail." "And five: a fair trial."
#UK #Gaza #Palestine #Israel #Incarceration #Food #Protest #Genocide #Military
Why We Are on Hunger Strike in UK Jails
Amu Gib is one of eight prisoners incarcerated for alleged involvement in direct action against Israeli genocide currently on hunger strike in UK jails.
www.counterpunch.org

The #Bondi beach attack on Jewish Australians on the first night of Hanukkah was truly horrfic. While anti-semitism is clearly on the rise, this should not be weaponized to justify crackdowns on Palestine solidarity movements or violent retribution against Muslims
www.972mag.com/bondi-massac...
After the Bondi massacre, we don't have the luxury to grieve silently
Before the blood had dried, the deadliest attack on Australian Jews was being used to justify repressing Palestine solidarity and retribution against Muslims.
www.972mag.com

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

OnlineFirst - "Casual killing in the home: Ecological citizenship and the micro-geopolitics of mosquito cohabitation" by Orlando Woods and Junxi Qian:

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

If Paul Doyle had been an immigrant we would never hear the end of it, it would be used non-stop to demonise migrants

Because he is a Right Wing 'victim' we will keep being reminded he's a father and how it was just a 'moment of madness'.

Our Media is not worth reading.

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

OnlineFirst - "Effluent-dominated rivers are the future waterways of arid landscapes: A case study of the Santa Cruz River in Arizona and its restoration with treated wastewater" by Rachel Cypher:

#anthropocene #SantaCruzRiver #wastewater #watergovernance

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

OnlineFirst - "Sea lice or subsistence? Peasant multispecies justice in the plantationocene" by @nickcopel.bsky.social and Marco de León:

#multispecies #peasantstudies #foodsovereignty #criticalagrarianstudies #anthropology #Guatemala #estuaries

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

In 2022, the Irish government launched a basic income scheme for artists. It randomly selected 2,000 artists and paid them about $1,500 a month so they could focus on their creative work. The government is now planning to make the program permanent.
Ireland hopes to make a program giving artists a stable income permanent - The World from PRX
In 2022, the Irish government launched a basic income scheme for artists. It randomly selected 2,000 artists and paid them around $1,500 a month, so they could concentrate on their creative work. Now ...
theworld.org

Developments in Asia can offer lessons for advancing transgender rights worldwide. Asia has seen notable progress in legal gender recognition without mandatory surgeries. #Asia #Transgender #Transrights #LGBTQI
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Lessons from Asia on transgender rights and health care
The urgent need to strengthen social safety for transgender and non-binary communities underscores the important challenges they face worldwide, especially in Europe and North America.1 Nonetheless, a...
www.thelancet.com

Excellent statement by the #LemkinInstitute calling out Clinton’s Genocide Denial
"Young people in the U.S. are not stupid or gullible. They simply reject genocide – something the Secretary might consider doing as well."
#Genocide #USA #Israel #Clinton

www.lemkininstitute.com/statements-n...
Statement on Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Genocide Denial at the Israel Hayom Summit
December 9, 2025 The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security feels called to point out that former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s recent remarks at the Israel Hayom Summit on...
www.lemkininstitute.com

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

OnlineFirst - "Historicising sanitation work: Value, infrastructural labour and representation in colonial Bengal" by @sallycawood.bsky.social and @pratik752001.bsky.social:

#humanwaste #caste #colonialarchive #value #infrastructurallabour #nightsoil #Bengal

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

"Ecocide" -- Russia's invasion of Ukraine has caused dangerous environmental destruction: https://therevelator.org/locusts-landmines-ukraine/
Locusts and Landmines Threaten Ukraine’s Farmland • The Revelator
Ecosystems have also come under threat from toxic plants whose spread has been difficult to control during the Russian invasion.
therevelator.org

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

OnlineFirst - "A ‘City in Nature’ and its porcine interlopers: Confronting the edges of urban ecological order" by Sayd Randle:

#wildboars #infrastructuralnature #multispecies #Singapore #cityinnature

www.saydrandle.com

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

Jean-Pierre Filiu. a historian who spent more than a month in Gaza at the turn of the year says he saw “utterly convincing” evidence that Israel supported looters who attacked aid convoys during the conflict.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Convincing evidence Israel backed aid convoy looters in Gaza, historian says
Account of visit to Gaza by French professor describes Israeli military attacks on security personnel protecting convoys
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

In response to news of 25% staff cuts at FCDO
@petertaylor-uk.bsky.social, IDS Director says:

“We strongly urge the Government to pause these cuts, set out a coherent vision for UK development leadership, and ensure that decisions are driven by evidence rather than urgency."

shorturl.at/5XUVZ
Government must pause FCDO staffing cuts or risk exodus, Committee Chair says - Committees - UK Parliament
Plans to cut 2,000 UK staff at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) may breach the department’s obligations to its workforce and cause an exodus of staff, the Chair of the Int...
committees.parliament.uk

Imagine being proud to meet 'friend' #Netanyahu who's wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes & genocide & starvation in #Gaza. #PritiPatel should be upholding international law but, of course, she's always lacked moral compass or decency
www.thenational.scot/news/2565426...
Priti Patel slated after meeting with 'friend' Benjamin Netanyahu
Priti Patel has been slated for meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who she described as a 'friend'
www.thenational.scot

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

OnlineFirst - "An uncooperative transition: Material contradictions in Chile's renewable energy boom" by Caroline White-Knockleby, Elena Louder, and Manuel Prieto:

#energytransition #commodification #socioecologicalfix #Chile #neoliberalnatures

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

"The roots of sustainable development are (...) deeply shaped by the legacies of colonisation and coloniality", writes @ids.ac.uk's @lylamehta.bsky.social on our blog, suggesting pathways towards decolonising the discipline and calling out remaining challenges.
www.developmentresearch.eu?p=2402
The Challenges of Decolonising Sustainability and the Environment in Development Studies
By Lyla Mehta The colonial roots of sustainability  Since the Brundtland Commission advanced the concept of sustainable development in 1987, a lively strand in Development Studies (DS) has eng…
www.developmentresearch.eu
OnlineFirst - "Living space and the struggle against geothermal energy projects in Flores, Indonesia" by @mleyeh.bsky.social, @cypripajudale.bsky.social, @afiomagr.bsky.social, and Shae Frydenlund:

@cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp @cugeography.bsky.social

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

OnlineFirst - "Strange birds of a feather: Israeli common myna, between invasiveness and belonging" by Eran Nisan Schwarzfuchs:

#Invasionbiology #multispecies #environment #alienspecies #Israel

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Yes I agree. But not sure they will be held accountable for any of this. Also later in the pandemic they claimed they were always against herd immunity

I think they have all been elevated to national treasures now. To be fair I think they rolled back quickly on their early positions and even denied that they had endorsed Herd Immunity etc

This is today at 13 GMT/ 14 CET . Please join us
Please join @justwaterfutures.bsky.social for a discussion on: Do we need the Global Commission on the Economics of Water to Value Water? November 21, 2025, 14:00-15:00 CEST. Register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/do-we-need...
#Water #Justice

In March 2020 other European countries were in lockdown. #Johnson said the #UK should take it on the chin. Advisers like Whitty, Edmunds & Vallance initially advocated herd immunity & nudge theory. 20,00 lives could have been saved without this chaos. #COVID19
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
‘Too little, too late’: damning report condemns UK’s Covid response
Report on handling of pandemic contains stinging criticism of ‘toxic and chaotic’ culture inside Boris Johnson’s No 10
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

Giving a shit about genocide on #WorldToiletDay

IDS research fellow @lylamehta.bsky.social & Alan Nicol (IWMI) write today for @newhumanitarian.bsky.social on how genocidal wars in Gaza and Darfur leave people without even basic forms of sanitation 👇

https://thenewhumanitarian.pulse.ly/jajfkcbtd8
Giving a shit about genocide on World Toilet Day
Genocidal wars not only force people to move away from homes, schools, and places of work, but away from even the most basic forms of sanitation.
thenewhumanitarian.pulse.ly

Reposted by Lyla Mehta

UN expert expresses serious concern with Security Council’s Resolution 2803, saying it runs counter to Palestinian right to self-determination, consolidates Israel’s unlawful presence, including unlawful policies and practices, and risks legitimating ongoing violence.
www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...
UN Security Council resolution a violation of Palestinian right of self-determination and UN Charter, UN expert warns
GENEVA – A UN expert today expressed serious concern with the Security Council’s adoption of Resolution 2803, warning that it runs counter to the Palestinian right to self-determination, consolidates ...
www.ohchr.org