Where to from here?

This post is inspired by Rajani’s powerful poem https://thotpurge.wordpress.com/2024/06/01/thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-climate-change/

In the final verse of her poem Rajani suggests that there are ways forward but that we are just not seeing them. I thought I would pick up on this theme and explore some ideas that offer ways through the impasse of Anthropocentric thinking. Recently I’ve been going through the information I compiled while I was writing about the Anthropocene last year. In my final post in that series I wrote about the difference between Anthropocentric and anthropocenic thinking. Here’s the final paragraph of that post:-

Anthropocenic thinking calls into question some of the established assumptions, paradigms and theories of the dominate worldview. In so doing it opens the way for new ways of thinking and acting in relation to the natural world. Rather than seeing the Anthropocene as a closed, fixed epoch, anthropocenic thinking creates room for expansive ideas about what it means to be human to emerge. Through such thinking more holistic and ethical ways of living can develop – ways of living that sustain and nourish both human and non-human life. https://wayfaring9.wordpress.com/2023/11/15/anthropocentric-or-anthropocenic-thinking/

Climate change and environmental degradation are calling on us to grow up as a species and to realize that extractive capitalism is the problem. Not all human activities result in environmental catastrophes. There are ways for humans to live in harmony with the natural world. Many indigenous and traditional cultures live in ways that respect and nurture the environment. Permaculture and regenerative agriculture offer sustainable alternatives to current agricultural practices. Culturally there are many emergent ideas that point to ways society could be restructured along more equitable lines. Participatory democracy, the universal basic income, doughnut economics and post humanism suggest possible ways we could develop more egalitarian ways of living that respect all beings, human and non-human alike.

Currently over 50% of people in Australia, and possibly much of the developed world, think climate change won’t affect them. Living in suburban enclaves and surrounded by material goods, they think that climate change is something that happens elsewhere – and presumably only to poor people living in disadvantaged situations. While I could go into a rant about this I will just say I think they are wrong. Sooner or later climate change will affect all people regardless of how much money they have or how big their house is.

It would be great if governments suddenly woke up, stopped fighting and figured out how to work together to save the environment but there are very few signs that such a structural turnaround is likely to happen in the immediate future. Instead, governments and corporations are currently exerting more controls on citizens that, by and large, are further alienating us from each other. It would also be great if the majority of people woke up the existential threat of climate change but to do so would utterly undermine their world view. I can see how it is more comfortable to live in denial, at least until the seas are lapping at the door.

At the same time reports of environmental damage are increasingly dire. It is very easy to get depressed by all this and to feel powerless. Last year I wrote a few posts about the importance of hope and how we might find it in these times. Looking back at these posts I realize we find hope where we can. The ecologist, Anna Tsing finds hope in looking at the way fungi grow in decaying matter. To see nature regenerating itself is an inspiration to her. Others find hope in emergent political ideas and in technological possibilities.

The future is up to us and the seeds for that future can be planted in the present. The philosopher Timothy Morton speaks about the ‘dark sweet’ as an attitude that will support psychological survival during these times. He writes about the need to engage with ideas for possible futures in creative ways. To go back to Rajani’s poem, it’s time to look out the window and look for those alternative possibilities.

A is for Anthropocene

Rajani has been kind enough to include some of my poems in her latest chapbook “A is for Anthropocene”. I wish her every success with the publication.

New Chapbook ( a climate change dictionary)

A is for Anthropocene

Earth day haibun

Post-pandemic, life on the peninsula has changed. The seaside towns know no off season now. Ever expanding housing estates sprawl out across farmland. Narrow country roads are clogged with SUVs. The solitary tracks I used to walk have become bustling thoroughfares.

I’m past solastalgia* now but I don’t think they’ve coined a word for what I feel these days. This numbness. This sense of unreality and disbelief. Don’t people realise we’re killing the planet?

Driving at sunset yesterday an autumn mist hung in the air. Hazy lines of it streaked across the rising moon. The seas of tranquility were obscured. Despite the hour and the need to get home I pulled over by the old jetty for a moment. Seagulls wheeled overhead as I left my car. Out on the water recreational fishermen turned their boats back towards the harbour while all around me walkers, cyclists and joggers pursued fitness with vengeance. As I lifted my phone to take to a snapshot, I saw a professional photographer unpacking his gear. Suddenly I became aware of myself as the observer observing the observer.

Stepping back further,
retreating into silence
I pray for the Earth.

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*Solastalgia is a neologism that describes a form of emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change. It is a combination of the Latin word “sōlācium” (comfort) and the Greek root “-algia” (pain, suffering, grief)¹. The term was coined by the Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2003. Solastalgia is an emerging form of depression or distress caused by environmental change – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solastalgia

prompt: https://dversepoets.com/2024/04/22/haibun-monday-4-22-24-earth-day/

Wars for oil

I am a pacifist. I deplore war and murder of innocents wherever it occurs. While the situation in both Gaza and the Ukraine is utterly heartbreaking sometimes I feel the need to dig a little deeper than the horrific images and consider the undercurrents that lie beneath both these conflicts.  

Oil reserves in Gaza

“Talaat, founder and director of MENAFem Movement for Economic, Development, and Ecological Justice, which approaches the climate crisis in the Middle East-North Africa region through a feminist lens. “This genocide is about oil.”

Both off the coast and beneath the occupied lands of Palestine, over 3 billion barrels of oil are estimated to exist, according to a 2019 U.N. report. These numbers don’t even include the gas potential in Palestine. The Levant Basin, which sits in the Mediterranean, is estimated to have some 1.7 billion barrels of oil while over 1.5 billion barrels are estimated to lie beneath the occupied West Bank area… 

Though the U.S. is reportedly pushing Israel to allow Palestinians to profit and build an independent energy system from offshore gas post-war, under Israeli occupation, Palestinians cannot drill for oil and gas. Many communities are not allowed to build out solar energy, either. Israel, on the other hand, hasn’t wasted time in claiming these dirty resources for itself. On October 29, its government approved 12 licenses for six companies to look for more gas fields offshore.”
https://atmos.earth/this-genocide-is-about-oil/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWhen%20it%20comes%20to%20fossil,deeper%20here%2C%E2%80%9D%20Wakim%20said.

The war in Gaza is also linked to the colonialization of Palestine which, in turn, is further linked to oil.

“When it comes to the Israel-Palestine conflict, the history is a long and complicated one mired in blood and dispossession. 

“The struggle is a very deep struggle that goes back to the colonial times,” said Jamal Wakim, a professor of history and international relations at Lebanese University.  

In 1882, Zionists built their first settlement in Palestine. This small group of Jewish people left Eastern Europe to build homes in what they declared their Holy Land. In 1882, the Jewish population in Palestine was 24,000. By 1914, it had expanded to 85,000. Early on, tensions rose between the two inhabitants of the land—one group Indigenous and the other settlers, both seeking community and safety.

The division and disagreement over the land only heightened after 1917 when Great Britain conquered Palestine and issued the Balfour Declaration, where the government boasted its support for a Jewish state in Palestine. The Holocaust and the genocide of some 6 million Jewish people further encouraged survivors to migrate to Palestine. Mass displacement of Palestinians quickly ensued in 1948—what Palestinians call the Nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic.

As all this persecution, forced migration, and war were taking place, world powers were also in search of a crucial commodity: oil. In 1908, imperial forces discovered oil in Iran. In 1927 came the discovery in Iraq. At the time, these oil reserves sat largely within British territories, but by the 1920s, the U.S. entered the Middle East oil scene. By the 1970s, a third of U.S. oil consumption came from the region. The fossil fuel industry’s roots run deep in the Middle East. “ (also from the article cited above)

The war in the Ukraine is also linked to oil.

“Ukraine has a century-long history of oil and gas production and possesses substantial conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon reserves, estimated at 9 billion tonnes of oil equivalent (Btoe). Natural gas reserves are estimated at 5.4 trillion cubic metres (tcm), with proven reserves of 1.1 tcm of natural gas, more than 400 million tonnes (Mt) of gas condensate and 850 Mt of oil reserves.” https://www.iea.org/reports/ukraine-energy-profile/energy-security

Knowing these facts it’s easy to see that Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine has to be linked to a desire to control the oil and gas reserves of the area. Following on this line of thinking it doesn’t take much of a stretch of the imagination to see the tacit support of Israel from the US, British and Australian governments is driven by the desire to protect access to the oil and gas in the region. The same could be said for the military support these nations are providing for the Ukraine.

At odds with all of this is the fact that we must globally move away from fossil fuels. As long as we keep burning fossil fuels, we keep pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This leads to a carbon dioxide blanketing the Earth and trapping in warm air. This results in climate change and the devastating droughts, fires, floods and storms we are seeing at present.   

IMAGINE FOR A MOMENT

The global desire to combat climate change lessens the desire to burn fossil fuels.
Moving out of an oil economy means no more wars for oil.
The shadow puppet masters, the oil oligarchs lose power.
The move away from fossil fuels destablizes existing power structures.
The power, oil, military might nexus collapses.

There is a popular idea that if you can dream of something you can often work out ways to bring that dream into reality. Imagine if collectively we began to let ourselves dream of a world where positive change is possible and where people can co-operate and work together to create a better future for us all. It starts in individual hearts and minds but the change of consciousness can become global. 

Imagine what could happen if poets, artists and writers threw off the pervasive defeatist attitudes that keep so many oppressed at present and used their words, art and music to create visions of a better world.

?

An alternate view of COP28

I read an interesting article in ‘The Age’ newspaper on the COP28 summit over the weekend. https://qoshe.com/the-age/ambrose-evans-pritchard/hot-air-the-cop-climate-conference-is-a-fossilised-racket/168196487

According to the author, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the COP summits have outlived their usefulness and become ‘a jarring mix of climate doomerism and delaying tactics’. He writes:- ‘With each year the COP process is more clearly becoming a venue for vested interests – Big Oil, Industrial Meat, Old Auto, you name it – trying to slow down the post-carbon juggernaut.’

Pritchard argues that market forces are already moving away from the carbon economy and investing in new technologies. China is investing heavily in solar power and electric vehicles are readily there while in Europe they are becoming more affordable. Alongside the development of EVs, new solid state batteries are being developed that will reduce the need for lithium and cobalt.

Following up on the idea of solid state batteries I learnt:-

‘The lithium-ion batteries that we rely on in our phones, laptops and electric cars have a liquid electrolyte, through which ions flow in one direction to charge the battery and the other direction when it is being drained. Solid-state batteries, as the name suggests, replace this liquid with a solid material.

There are also technical advantages to solid-state batteries, as well as logistical and economic ones. Removing the liquid electrolyte makes batteries less susceptible to fires, for example. And while conventional lithium batteries quickly charge up to 80 per cent of their capacity, they charge slowly from there to 100 per cent. Solid-state batteries can be fully charged more quickly.

Crucially, though, solid electrolytes are less dense, so a solid-state battery can be smaller and lighter than its lithium-ion competitor. This could, in turn, make electric cars smaller and lighter, or give them a greater range for the same size and weight. The increased energy density and lower weight could even make electric aircraft a viable proposition.’ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2398896-what-are-solid-state-batteries-and-why-do-we-need-them/

While these batteries are still in the developmental stage it is encouraging news.

In his article Pritchard also writes about the development of green hydrogen that will eventually replace the hydrogen used in fertilizers and steel manufacture. Nuclear fusion is also mentioned but, as always, the predictions as to when this is likely to occur are way off in the future. Underlying any form of nuclear power is the debate about ethics we are yet to resolve.

One development Pritchard writes about took me by surprise. I had no idea that bioidentical meats and dairy products are already available. Cell-grown chicken and lab-fermented milk are on the market in the US. While this idea sends shivers down my spine, it has benefits. The environmental impact of reducing demand for the meat used in burgers, nuggets and sausages is huge. It takes far less water to manufacture bioidentical products than it does to farm the animals and grow the feed they need. Carbon emissions are also reduced and the land could be reforested.

Personally, I think an easier option is to move away from eating foods that have a negative impact on the environment. I’ve stopped eating meat and eggs but I’m still working on eliminating dairy products from my diet.

Regardless of personal eating preferences, the idea that market forces are leading the charge away from fossil fuel industries is interesting. While governments and COP summits prevaricate, the desire to make a profit is actually beginning to change the world. What an unexpected development.

All the same, Pritchard’s article led me to think we are entering a strange new sci fi world. It’s easy to imagine AIs programmed to run machines that produce bioidentical food.

While the news that there are many developments in the post-carbon industries is encouraging there’s a part of me that wants nothing to do with this techno world. What is of deeper concern to me is how we are actually going to live healthy lives in the future. Over here in Australia our approaching summer has already produced some seriously hot days. Bushfires are already burning and some areas are experiencing unprecedented rainfall and flooding. The developments in green technologies are great but I think we need to be doing a lot more to draw down the carbon in our atmosphere. According to NASA ‘The concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere is currently at nearly 412 parts per million (ppm) and rising. This represents a 47 percent increase since the beginning of the Industrial Age, when the concentration was near 280 ppm, and an 11 percent increase since 2000, when it was near 370 ppm.’

Anthropocentric or Anthropocenic Thinking

I recently had a conversation with someone about the difference between anthropocentric and anthropocenic thinking. I used both terms in my recent posts on the Anthropocene but did not define the difference between the two. After doing some research I came up with the following definitions:-

In anthropocentric thinking humans are seen as separate and superior to nature. Human values and experiences are considered to be more important than those of all other living and non-living entities. The exploitation of the natural environment is seen as necessary for human development.

Anthropocenic thinking challenges this worldview for it recognises that humans are part of nature and are dependent upon it. Instead of being separate from the natural world, humans are embedded in a complex network of interactions with other lifeforms. This way of seeing the world incorporates many diverse perspectives and includes ideas from ecology, sociology, ethics, art, literature, spirituality and indigenous worldviews.

Anthropocenic thinking calls into question some of the established assumptions, paradigms and theories of the dominate worldview. In so doing it opens the way for new ways of thinking and acting in relation to the natural world. Rather than seeing the Anthropocene as a closed, fixed epoch, anthropocenic thinking creates room for expansive ideas about what it means to be human to emerge. Through such thinking more holistic and ethical ways of living can develop – ways of living that sustain and nourish both human and non-human life.

Journal spread – What does it mean to be human?

B is for Beauty

Seagrass fringe the blue bay,
golden filaments wave with the tide.
Further out, dolphins leap.
The waters shimmer in their wake.
On the farther shore blue hills dream.

The beauty, the calm
so desperate now –
the balance of life disturbed,
the sacred harmony ruptured.

A boy and a grandmother wander.
Beachcombing they find treasure
– a fragment of sea washed glass,
a spiral patterned shell.

The sun sets.
The boy dances, silhouetted by the light.
The grandmother whispers a prayer.
Let beauty open hearts,
let us find ways to heal ourselves,
each other,
all life on Earth.
May all beings dance as one.

Prompts:
https://desperatepoets.com/2023/10/02/desperate-beauty/
and
Rajani’s Anthropocene Alphabet – https://thotpurge.wordpress.com/2023/10/03/bramble-cay-melomys/

This poem also brings my series about the Anthropocene for a close for now. You can read the thoughts that led to the poem here – https://wayfaring9.wordpress.com/2023/10/04/dwelling-in-the-anthropocene/

Dwelling in the Anthropocene

Anthropocene dwelling is a term used to describe ways of living in the world that acknowledge the human impact on the environment and the opportunities this can present. Learning to live with uncertainty and paradox is a key aspect of this.

In this philosophical framework the Anthropocene is seen as a time of paradox where the boundaries between old categories are blurred. The distinctions between nature and culture, human and non human, local and global are not longer fixed. Dwelling in the Antrhopocene means confronting the implications of this breakdown. Old certainties have collapsed but no ideological framework has yet come along to guide us forward.

Global climate changes, ocean acidification, land degradation, biodiversity loss and other ecological crises threaten our way of life while also exposing the social injustices of our current system. Finding ways to work to change the current system is part of the challenge of Anthropocene dwelling.

“The Anthropocene is uncharted territory for humans and the planet; and navigating pathways through its unsettled dimensions demands attentiveness to the full range of human faculties.”
“Unsettling the Anthropocene: Experiments in dwelling on unstable ground” by Justin Westgate (uow.edu.au)

Just how we navigate these times is a matter of personal interest and inclination. As many commenting on these posts have indicated, finding political and economic alternatives of a major concern for you. I’ve shared a few such possibilities I’ve come across but there are whole avenues of investigation I’ve only glanced at. One of these is the way patriarchy is tied up with capitalism and colonization. I did take a brief look at alternatives to patriarchy and discovered a few that I will pass on here:-

Diarchy – societies where the members of the male/female pair are ordered by difference and interdependence, rather than dominance and subjugation. A doctrine of mutuality and shared concerns is expressed in ideas of delegation and oscillating rule.

Matrism – societies that value both feminine and masculine qualities and where gender equality and partnership are the norm.
Matriarchy – Alternatives To Matriarchy: Matrism, Gender Egalitarianism, And Diarchy – Women, Male, Female, and Societies – JRank Articles https://science.jrank.org/pages/10119/Matriarchy-Alternatives-Matriarchy-Matrism-Gender-Egalitarianism-Diarchy.html#ixzz8F7FRFqcA

While the article cited above looks at anthropological examples anarcha-feminism presents the idea of a society based on voluntary associations, direct action and diversity of expression for all people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcha-feminism

Another set of possibilities I came across for Anthropocene dwelling involves taking a more scientific approach. As well as working within established organisations that have set up reforestation programs and bush reclamation projects there are possibilities for the citizen scientist to collect data that expands our understanding of environmental issues. Other people chose to work as biosphere stewards and actively seek to protect specific species. The video above tells the inspiring story of a man in Tasmania, Australia who took it upon himself to save the platypus in a degraded river in a city. In doing so he not only improved their habitat, but also inspired his local community to join in the task.

My own inclinations take me down different pathways. I began this series as a personal quest to find psychological strength while dwelling in the Anthropocene. My investigations have led me to embrace a sense of curiosity about the natural world in my own locality as well as with the wider world.

I have also learnt about the possibility of making hope and using it to inspire action. Creative expression through writing and art making is the course of action I am most often inclined to take. I will leave this series here and wander on my way seeking always to find creative paths that take me always into greater ecological consciousness.

Beyond the Anthropocene

Writing of the politics and economics of the Anthropocene I got bogged down. I printed out many articles that outlined all the woes that now that confront us and all the obstructions that stand in the way of effective change. Shuffling through the pages, shifting through the word mazes, gleaning bits of information here and there, my eyes glazed over. I got to the point where couldn’t read another in depth analysis of why we can’t change, of how futile it is to take on the fossil fuel industry and neo liberal governments. I could not bring myself to read yet another account of how people have been exploited, thrown off their land, persecuted and even killed by greedy capitalists with no moral code whatsoever. I could not read every word in an article I found on the terrible health consequences of living on land polluted by miners. It was all overwhelming and I found the hope I had managed to find, learn and make in my earlier posts diminishing. In the end only one sentence leapt out at me;-

“The social and ecological contradictions inherent to authoritarian neoliberal capitalism are serving to create the conditions for the emergence of a more radical transformative politics.”
_{https://www/tandfonline./com/doi/full/10.1080/10455752.2023.2242653}

There is a tough and radical hope underpinning that statement. It is hard to believe that we will all just lie down and give up at this point. While some people are deeply entrenched in this system and refuse to reflect on the reality of the Anthropocene, many are seeking to find pathways that will take us forward to more holistic ways of being.

The Jungian writer, David Tacey, wrote that nature “is not only outside us but also within, and ultimately, what we do to nature we do also to ourselves… In killing off the spiritual essence of the Earth, we end up killing ourselves, for this essence nourishes our own biological and spiritual life.”

This idea could be extended to include the idea that in healing nature we heal ourselves and that in loving the world, we nourish our own biological and spiritual life.

Our deep grief over species extinction and environmental destruction could be seen as a measure our deep love the Earth. We are tied to this planet through ancestral connections that go back so far in time we can barely comprehend just how long it is that humans have walked this Earth. For millennia people have faced unimaginable hardships, environmental catastrophes, economic and political oppression and persecution yet somehow the human race has gone on. The will to live and the ability to adapt have ensured our survival.

Now we face the fact that our species could become extinct because of our own selfish, greedy and thoughtless actions. In this moment we face what is perhaps the most profound challenge that has ever faced humanity. Do we continue on with our self serving, self indulgent behaviours or do we rise to challenge and learn how to behave in life enhancing ways?

The anthropologist, Deborah Bird Rose wrote:-

“_{Visions of the holistic Earth, combined with the rapidly increasing understanding of how badly she is being damaged, forces us to confront difficult questions. How do we, as individuals, assert our right to take responsible care of the systems with which we interact and on which we are dependent? What wisdom have we inherited, what systems and knowledge do we bequeath to the future?}”

There is no way we can know what will happen a hundred or a thousand years from now. The only place where we can act is in the present but the way we choose to act can influence the future. Words have power, art can change the way people see the world, love can make hope.

The Australian novelist and environmental activist Tim Winton sees hope not as a feeling but as action. He says:-

If it doesn’t feel hopeful, you don’t pretend to be hoping for something, you have to strive to create conditions where hope is possible and then likely. I guess it’s just a sense of agency – in the most basic terms that life is not what happens to you, it’s what you make happen,”

Powerlessness in the Anthropocene

The environmental results of ecological damage are not restricted by geography. Wild weather caused by climate change is not limited by national boundaries. It is indiscriminate and global.

The same can be said for the oppression of people at society’s margins. Increasingly the economic repercussions are felt by poorer people in rich countries as well as those in global south. My heart goes out to indigenous people displaced from their traditional homelands to make way for cattle farming or lithium mining to make batteries for electric cars. Their plight is tragic. At the same time the number of families sleeping in tents and people unable to buy enough food is on the increase here in Australia. As an older white woman experiencing housing insecurity I speak from firsthand experience. Apparently too, other countries in the developed world are experiencing similar economic conditions.

The current political and economic conditions are divisive and marginalize those on the edges of society – indigenous communities, the disabled, the aging and those with mental health issues struggle to make their voices heard over the rush and roar of the post-pandemic ‘getting back to normal’ frenzy and paranoia.

Underneath more recent economic impacts the long term and historical impacts of colonial capitalism fester as an unhealed wound in many parts of the world. Recognition of the injustices wrought by colonization is a fraught issue that haunts the present.

This can be seen in Australia where we are being asked to vote on whether Aboriginal people should have a legally constituted voice to parliament to give advice on issues that impact their communities. Voting occurs on October 14. In the build up vitriolic, and sometimes racist, opinions are getting a lot of media attention. Misinformation is rife and wild speculations about property ownership highlight the underlying unease of many Australians living on unceded Aboriginal land. Somehow we have to find our way to a peaceful solution that gives all Australians a say in how we live upon this ancient land that works its way into the soul of most who live upon it. At times such equitable co-existence seems a long way off.

The political machinations of these times go hand in hand with the economic hardships many are experiencing and with the impact of environmental disasters wrought by climate change – the extreme bushfires, the floods that alienate whole towns, the droughts that go for decades etc.

Meanwhile the fossil fuel and other extractive industries continue to pollute, exploit, degrade environments and dump waste. These activities are aided by government subsidies and neo-liberal policies that actively suppress opposition.

Once again, I come up against the impasse of the Anthropocene. Whichever way I approach the problem, I come to the realization that the only way forward is through changing and transforming way we live on Earth.

As much as we need to deconstruct the thinking that sees humans as separate from nature, we need to overhaul the political and economic frameworks that support extractive capitalism.

There are many different economic that provide for more equitable social conditions. These include doughnut economics, ecological economics and decolonial economics. Alternatives to capitalism in the 21st century include decolonial and eco-feminist social practices and the concept of direct democracy.

One thing all these ideas have in common is that they require a radical re-imagining of how we think and live. As a creative person communicating with other creatives I see there are opportunities for us here. We can contribute to the dialogue that leads us forward through our writings, poetry, art and other creative endeavours. I will look at this idea next.