CAPITALOCENE -ECOLOGY : TWO ANTITHETICAL AND IRREDUCTIBLE TERMS

by
on
in Blog, capitalism, Capitalocene, Ecology
“Capitalism and its driving relations have indeed directed horrific violence towards human and extra-human life. I would go so far as to say that an unusual combination of productive and necrotic violence defines capitalism. The Capitalocene, as McBrien reminds us, is also a Necrocene – a system that not only accumulates capital, but drives extinction. At stake is how we think through the relations of Capitalocene and Necrocene – between the creativity of capitalist development and its deep exterminism. That exterminism is not anthropogenic but capitalogenic.” Jason W. Moore, “the Capitalocene, on the Nature & Origins of Our Ecological Crisis”

After Paris COP 25, in 2015, will take place this weekend in Glasgow, Scotland, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) designed to find agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the main cause of warming and climatic change. But, from the entrance, the ton is set by the UN chief Guteres predicting the failure of the meeting as the Governments are “seemingly light years away from reaching our climate action targets”.

In fact, at the current pace, the global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions risen by 1.5 billion tonnes in 2021, the second-largest increase in history, are expected to increase by 16% by 2030 compared with 2010 levels. None of the top three targets of the Glasgow COP26 is going to be agreed or to be implemented: 1) keep the global temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees celsius through “rapid, bold emissions cuts” and net-zero commitments; 2) increase international finance for adaptation to at least half the total spent on climate action; 3) meet the existing commitment to provide $100 billion in international climate finance each year by supporting the developing countries to invest in green technologies, and protect lives and livelihoods against worsening climate impacts.

CAPITALOCENE AND THE ROOTS OF AN ANNOUNCED DISASTER

Mainstream outlets and paid academics and pundits assign climatic disruption to so called human activities, that is Anthropocene, an absolutely nonsensical terms, making ALL MEN responsible for the damage inflicted to the environment, to the nature and to the whole planet by hiding the main cause, the implacable logic of a productivist system and deadly and destructive mode of production, capitalism that emerged in the wake of Industrial Revolution called also carboniferous capitalism, later extended to every corner of the earth during its primitive accumulation through western imperialism in search of cheap labour and material raw in Africa, in the south American continent,in the Antilles, the North America, Indian subcontinent, for the European developing industries. For example, cotton which was replacing wool, came from the European possessions in the West Indies and Cotton growing enterprises, based on the use of slave labor. To make more profit and to expand its empire, the accumulation of capital required a new industry, railroad building, with its twin satellites of steel production and coal mining. In parallel, to expand overseas, capital required sailing vessels and ships with metal hulls making them competitive as costs of ocean freight felt dramatically in the course of the XIX century.

To be continued

Related Posts