[WSMDiscuss] [REDlistserve] Fwd: Re: Green New Deal: how revolutionary?

[Escobar, Arturo]

Thanks, Ashish, and thanks to Corner House and to Larry for preparing such thoughtful and powerful view/vision of global climate change/climate collapse. I assume there is a new paper that goes along with the presentation, or there will be soon, Larry? If so, it'd be great to have it.

Two very quick reactions for now (I think this is a novel and important  perspective, in line with other important docs prepared by Corner House and Larry over the decades now, on energy, climate change, and so forth):

1) It points clearly at the limitations of current climate change discourse in various ways and the need to go beyond it (largely, making more explicit its connections to capitalism and the exploitation of labor, and, underneath it, an entire ideology or way of seeing reality: Cartesian, mechanistic (and organicist in a mechanistic way), reductionist etc., largely the product of a centuries-old objectifying paradigm of reality).  In my view, this latter aspect is hughly relevant, and it's being named by many activists and intellectuals in diverse ways (dominant Euro-modernity, ontology of separation, heteropatriarchal capitalist colonial civilizational model, or what you).  I think making this later aspect more explict is important. We are talking about capitalism indeed but also about more-than-capitalism --an entire mode of existence.

2) It points clearly at climate collapse/change as more than about carbon.  One brief comment: we should also make explicit the fact that the ecological crisis (as civilizational crisis or crisis of a mode of existence) goes well beyond climate, even if climate is central to it (destruction of biodiversity and ecosystems by extractive operations, pollution, impacts on the body, electromagnetic radiation,  etc are all part of this larger ecological crisis). The paper makes it clear that the technoscientific view of reality is at the basis of the idea that if we solve the "carbon" problem, everything will be all right, and with endless energy after a transition to renewables "civilization" can go on as usual -- a very dangerous idea, that the more profound versions of degrowth and Buen Vivir seek to dispel, it's not just a question of climate but of living with less, and otherwise.

The presentation reminded me of Bayo Akomolafe's notion that climate chance is not a "problem", it is a world:

"the reason we cannot solve the problem of climate change is because climate change is not a problem. We cannot save the world from climate change because climate change is the world – incalculably more complex and more multidimensional than our organizations can frame or address. .... We struggle because of a modernity-reinforced ‘feeling’ of entitlement that the world ought to be stable, convenient, and user-friendly." ("What climate collapase asks of us", you can find it easily on The Emergence Network webpage).

One minor point: Cybernetics was indeed quickly hijacked by military and industry-oriented sysgtems analysis, yet there were really interesting and creative outcomes from this whole, complex movements (including self-organization and emergence, autopoiesis, living systems theorym and the need for a more holistic understanding of life).

Again, I think this is very important contribution. Great visuals as well, as Ashish mentioned.

all the best,
arturo
________________________________
From: radical_ecological_democracy at googlegroups.com <radical_ecological_democracy at googlegroups.com> on behalf of Ashish Kothari <ashishkothari at riseup.net>
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2020 6:34 AM
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Cc: larrylohmann at gn.apc.org <larrylohmann at gn.apc.org>
Subject: [REDlistserve] Fwd: Re: Green New Deal: how revolutionary?

Friends, a v. interesting presentation on how the climate crisis can't
be reduced to a focus on carbon, with some great visuals.

this came from Larry Lohman of the Corner House ... he is marked here in
case anyone wants to get in touch directly.

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/resource/carbon-policy-not-climate-policy.
ashish

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