Weathering Palestine: Frontiering pollution

In this response, I further elaborate the notions of ‘colonial pollution’ and ‘malevolent weathering’ in relation to three aspects: ontology, frontiering, and ungovernability. First, I elaborate the ontological role of pollution in spatial processes of world(un)making, looking particularly at the enmeshing of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ pollution. By showing how self-harm remains an intrinsic part of the settler colonial appropriation of space through 'contaminating-cleansing', I expand the discussion to frontiering, arguing that colonial pollution operates through a distributed weathering of frontiers. Finally, I suggest settler colonial pollution remain entangled with unsettling conditions and ungovernabilities of frontier-weathering, including material frictions, escapes, and generosity. Altogether, the response maps a broader vocabulary for thinking space-making at the frontiers of colonial pollution.