It’s been pretty clear for a while that the anthropocentric world is being destroyed by Capitalism, by the human, our society seems to amble on as though nothing is happening, walking blindly into a crisis. Though this is finally now frequently reported by news media, becoming the centre point of liberal white tv programmes, it seems that society for the most part doesn’t want to tackle the parallel growth spurts of climate change and Capitalist greed, deciding to focus on altering Capitalism, re-packaging it as ethical/green/environmentally friendly.

The TV and print news medias churn out the same neo liberal bile, this idea that we can simply barter with gaia, that the human world isn’t a speeding train heading towards the end of the tracks. The absurd reality is, and humanity seems totally unable to face it, the world is falling apart, accelerated by neo-liberal capitalism, but no immediate active change seems to be coming about, it’s all 10/20/50 year plans being promised.

Even contemporary ecological organisations such as the Extinction Rebellion movement choose to tackle climate change as an individual issue. Pushing the mentality that each person can “change the world” by recycling, by going vegan, by gluing yourself to a fucking train. My issues with the movement are twofold; one the form of activism that places itself in the extremely privileged position of undertaking arrest as a form of martyrdom is outright dangerous, and arguably racist (Galdem tackled the whiteness of X.R. in a recent article) -1, take into account the millions of POC incarcerated globally for far more minor crimes than civil disobedience, and the thousands of political prisoners on the left and in anarchist groups that are incarcerated due to activism. Secondly my largest concern with extinction rebellion exists in as much as what is their actual want, and how do they plan to facilitate a greater societal shift to green economics on a literally global scale? Take for example the protests in the uk, which is as a whole a large polluter, but when considered next to emerging super powers, next to the fashion trade (and textile trades in general), the motor trade, meat trade, and literally every other market in existence. Climate destruction is an inherent part of the western capitalist lifestyle, and this won’t simply change from within. What has been changed already? What is setting Extinction Rebellion apart from literally any liberal ecology based organisation that has been and gone before? Our already corrupt governments have signed pledges, made promises, had meetings, these very same governments who lie to us literally every single day to bolster their own individual wants and needs.

Further to the problematic ideals surrounding the movement I want to propose that the neo-liberal capitalist agenda has so inherently instilled the idea of the individual as a part of “the big society” that we no longer seek any active social change when it comes to ecology. I’m not by any means claiming that we should stop making attempts to better the society we live in, and it’s impact on the part of it that we have sectioned off as “nature” I’m simply pointing out the utter hypocrisy in pushing social change, and activism onto the responsibility of the individual achieved by guilt.

Stop attacking people as individuals, the problem of climate change cannot be resolved on an individual level, eating vegan, driving a hybrid, and flying less are all just ego massages that we give ourselves to mask the fact that we are literally tearing apart the planet by our very being here and existing in the way that we do. I don’t claim to have an answer to any of this, but we sure as fuck aren’t going to find the answer by trying to haggle with the planet on the cheapest way to keep it alive.

This is why there’s a resurgence in dramas both Historical and fictitious (Chernobyl, A Handmaids Tale), in horror films (It Comes at Night, A Quiet Place) and even Hollywood films (2012, Bird Box), all exploring in various forms either a man made disaster, a ‘natural’ disaster, an ‘un-natural’ disaster, or a drastic physical change manifesting, all themes that fracture our current ‘functioning’ societal way of life. These stories feed into our underlying fears, fears that have existed since the beginning of civilisation, I’d imagine since the beginning of consciousness, that the end times are coming and we are living on the cusp of them.

Let’s stop pretending that we can buy our way out of a climate disaster by dropping thousands on a fucking Tesla, let’s stop shaming people who choose to have children acting like it’s not some classist, racist, shitty attitude, pretending that it’s not going to be the people who are already living the toughest lives, in the hottest countries, that will be affected the most by the planet steadily heating up like a pan of water on the hob. Perhaps the only theoretical movement that makes any headway in addressing my own concerns is the undertaking of an Object Oriented Ontology standpoint, addressing the world as an object beyond something that is present for, and to be exploited by humans, Timothy Morton extends this understanding beyond the object, suggesting that by dismantling the differentiations between nature and human there may be some semblance of a continuation for humankind. -2

-All images are details of my own original art works

Bibliography

-1 Rahman, M (2019) This is what Extinction Rebellion must do to engage with people of colour on climate justice. Gal Dem

accessed at: https://gal-dem.com/this-is-what-extinction-rebellion-must-do-to-engage-with-people-of-colour-on-climate-justice

-2 Morton, T (2010) Queer Ecology. PMLA Journal of Modern Languages. Issue: 125. 2

accessed at: https://www.academia.edu/1050754/Queer_Ecology

Further Reading:

– Anonymous, (2011) Desert. Anarchist Library. accessed at: https://www.readdesert.org

– Haraway, D (2007) When Species Meet (Posthumanities). University of Minnesota Press. Minnesota.

– Harman, G (2018) Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything. Pelican. London.

– Morton, T (2016) Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence. Columbia University Press. New York.

– Morton, T (2019) Humankind: Solidarity with Non-Human People. Verso. New York

– Thacker, E (2011) In the Dust of This Planet (Horror of Philosophy). Zero Books. London.