Why \u201cAnother Life\u201d?<\/p>\n
Because we have a problem. By \u201cwe,\u201d I mean most living beings now located on this tiny oasis floating in the middle of the cold immensity of space. The root of the issue is a certain species, known to scientists as Homo sapiens sapiens.<\/i><\/p>\n
To be more precise, we have a number of problems.<\/p>\n
The Anthropocene is officially upon us<\/a>. Its main impacts include:<\/p>\n \u2022 A mass extinction event<\/a>. The earth has lost 50% of its wildlife since the 1970s, and is on track to lose up to 67% of all vertebrates by 2020. While this is cause enough for concern, humanists should also remember that given how interconnected all ecosystems are, this ecological crash could snowball to the point of also threatening the survival of the human species itself. See here<\/a> for further discussion.<\/p>\n \u2022 Human-induced climate change, which not only severely contributes<\/a> to the mass extinction of species, but is also severely disrupting the natural systems<\/a> supporting the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of humans\u2014due to an increase of draughts, floods, extreme weather events, pest invasions, etc. Concretely, this is translated as decreasing food production and freshwater supplies. In the long run, sea level rise<\/a> will most probably lead to the disappearance of entire countries and the flooding of densely populated areas, thus provoking mass migration movements and increased social unrest worldwide. From the standpoint of basic human justice, climate change has been overwhelmingly caused by the inhabitants of developed countries, but it will hit hardest<\/a> the people who have contributed least to it around the world.<\/p>\n \u2022 Catastrophic loss of topsoil<\/a> worldwide, due to destructive agricultural processes. We might only have 60 years<\/a> of harvests left globally if soil degradation continues.<\/p>\n These issues are caused or compounded by interlocking\u00a0social, political and economic systems, which are notably characterized by:<\/p>\n \u2022 The dependence<\/a> of modern societies on continuous economic growth, which requires the consumption of ever-increasing quantities of natural resources and energy, and therefore ecological damage. When economic growth stops, society is thrown into chaos. We don\u2019t know (yet?) how to make our current economic systems work without growth. But these systems feed on the finite resources of our planet.<\/p>\n \u2022 An extreme reliance<\/a> on the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, which besides being the primary causes of human-induced climate change, are also causes of widespread local pollution, loss of biodiversity, and economic exploitation. This dependence also results in the major influence of the fossil fuel industry in political processes\u2014once again hampering a transition to cleaner and fairer ways of life.<\/p>\n \u2022 Huge wealth inequality<\/a> in the world, leading to the concentration of power into the hands of the super-rich and big business\u2014who overwhelmingly evade taxation, and thus contribute little to the global good.<\/p>\n \u2022 The widespread dominance of the neoliberal mindset<\/a> since the 1980s. On a political level, this ideology drives ever more wealth and power into the hands of a global elite, at the expense of social safety nets; and through the investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms<\/a> embedded in free trade treaties, among other means, it further undermines democratic governance. Economically, neoliberalism (financial capitalism) increases instability<\/a>, by hampering checks and balances mechanisms, bringing about economic upheavals repeatedly. On a psychological level, it promotes a vision of the human being as a discrete unit in perpetual competition with everyone else, thus creating atomized societies<\/a> afflicted by apathy, depression and loneliness.<\/p>\n \u2022 A growing democratic deficit<\/a> in a number of countries, often as a result of the aforementioned factors. This leads to feelings of powerlessness and resentment on behalf of ordinary people, and paves the way for the rise of authoritarian regimes<\/a>.<\/p>\n This blog exists as a pretext for me to think more constructively\u00a0about these delightful topics, and thereby clarify the way in which I could\u00a0get personally involved in making things (at least a little) better. For now, I will mostly focus on presenting the contents of certain books and articles I have been reading that touch upon these issues\u2014mostly as a kind of verbose memo to myself; but if anyone is interested, all the better. Some of these reviews will be in French.<\/p>\n All thoughtful feedback is welcome.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n \/!\\ Spoiler alert\u00a0\/!\\ <\/em><\/p>\n Some books likely to be reviewed at some point:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains are Wired to Ignore Climate Change<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>by George Marshall, 2014<\/p>\n \u2022 The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History<\/em><\/a>, by Elizabeth Kolbert, 2014<\/p>\n \u2022 Extinction: A Radical History<\/em><\/a>, by Ashley Dawson, 2016<\/p>\n \u2022 The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism<\/a><\/em>, by Naomi Klein, 2007<\/p>\n \u2022 The Leaderless Revolution: <\/em><\/a> How Ordinary People Will Take Power and Change Politics in the 21st Century<\/em>, by Carne Ross, 2012<\/p>\n \u2022 The Moneyless Man: A Year of Freeconomic Living<\/em><\/a>, by Mark Boyle, 2010<\/p>\n \u2022 Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi<\/em><\/a>, by Mark Boyle, 2015<\/p>\n \u2022 Revolutions in Reverse: Essays on Politics, Violence, Art, and Imagination,<\/em><\/a> by David Graeber, 2011<\/p>\n \u2022 The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement<\/em><\/a>, by David Graeber, 2013<\/p>\n \u2022 Capitalisme, Socialisme, \u00c9cologie,<\/em><\/a> by Andr\u00e9 Gorz, 1991<\/p>\n \u2022 Ecologica<\/em><\/a>, by Andr\u00e9 Gorz, 2010<\/p>\n \u2022 Utopian Bodies and the Politics of Transgression<\/em><\/a>, by Lucy Sargisson, 2000<\/p>\n \u2022 Direct Action: An Ethnography<\/em><\/a>, by David Graeber<\/p>\n \u2022 How Shall I Live My Life? On Liberating the Earth from Civilization<\/em><\/a>, by Derrick Jensen, 2008<\/p>\n \u2022 The Derrick Jensen Reader: Writings on Environmental Revolution<\/em><\/a>, by Derrick Jensen & Lierre Keith, 2012<\/p>\n \u2022 Parecon: Life After Capitalism<\/em><\/a>, by Michael Albert, 2004<\/p>\n \u2022 The One-Straw Revolution<\/em><\/a>, by Manasobu Fukuoka, 1975<\/p>\n \u2022 Introduction to Permaculture<\/em><\/a>, by Bill Mollison, 1991<\/p>\n \u2022 The Ecology of Freedom: The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy<\/em><\/a>, by Murray Bookchin, 1982<\/p>\n \u2022 Revolution in Rojava: <\/em><\/a> Democratic Autonomy and Women’s Liberation in Syrian Kurdistan<\/em>, by Anja Flach, Michael Knapp and Ercan Ayboga<\/p>\n \u2022 The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty<\/em><\/a>, by Benjamin H. Bratton, 2016<\/p>\n