Re: <nettime> Biocultural Corridors

[Ryan Griffis <ryan.griffis@gmail.com>]

Hey Brian and all,

> The urgent issue is therefore not degrowth but energy transition and
> geoengineering. Despite that I would rather not live in an authoritarian
> eco-state, I am convinced that both the forced transition away from coal
> and petroleum, and the implementation of global-scale geoengineering, will
> be tried within the next two decades.
...
> 
> The project which launched this thread - biocultural corridors - may appear
> to be a simple conservationist program, totally inadequate to what's
> coming. Well, that's largely true. However, I am approaching it as a chance
> to analyze an extremely complex and threatening situation (that's the
> critical part), while building a collective ethical and spiritual posture
> toward that situation (that's the biocultural part). I expect that project,
> and everything else I am involved in, to change rapidly over the course of
> this decade. It's daunting.

Thanks for all of these exchanges, in all their various directions. I’ve been following, as I’m sure lots of other folks have.

I’m not sure this is an either/or proposition, but a yes/and one. While I feel even weighing in here is an act of undue hubris on my part, maybe we can consider “degrowth” not as an alternative to the state-scaled projects Brian is describing, but a necessary *response* to them?

As Brian very rightly points out, none of us here can make decisions that opt us out of the consequences of state-level actor actions. We’re not gonna vote our way out of catastrophic climate chaos (it’s obviously already here), where in the US our electoral choices seem to be between neoliberal-technocratic governance or white nationalist fascism. And, it’s a toss up which way we’ll go! But, we can have some determination of how we organize ourselves in ways that leave us more/less prepared for the combination of organized abandonment and violent, assertive control by the state.

In this sense, “degrowth” can be approached as a form of “prepping” that is collectivist, rather than heroic/individualist. In NGO lingo, this seems to be called “resilience.”
Anyone remember these discussions?:
https://www.resilience.org/team/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jun/15/transition-towns-way-forward

Maybe one reason I’m arguing (am I?) that “degrowth” is a worthwhile term/strategy, is it encourages us to think outside of the de-humanizing scales of the state. For example, here’s Mariame Kaba, a beloved prison abolitionist organizer:

"We need to skill up on de-escalation, mediation, and resolving conflicts. We need to be able to do medic work. The folks that created CPR models were onto something. They realized that sometimes there are no doctors around, and we need to be able to know how to help somebody who is choking not choke, because we’re not going to have time to call 911. Capitalism has deskilled us from things that we should know how to do and that we should not be outsourcing. It’s going to take a lot to change that. This is why I’ve always struggled alongside and respected my anarchist friends. I wonder how we’re going to do things without a government, however that government gets reconstituted. How are we going to be able to distribute resources en masse or do things in common like build roads? I don’t know. We as individuals can do a lot, and we also need spaces where we do things collectively toward survival. We have to do both, and then some more. I’m open to alternate configurations.”

I believe that prison abolitionists have a lot in common with those working to confront climate chaos. Not in terms of what state policies to support (Green New Deals, etc), but how we organize our communities regardless of what policies we do/don’t end up influencing at the state level. Again, not surrendering the state, just preparing for always/already aspects of the state that are not about our collective survival. At the end of the day, someone’s going to have to wash the proverbial dishes… as long as we plan on surviving, we’re going to have to eat.
https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/mariame-kaba-interview-til-we-free-us/

Wow, this is probably way longer than necessary… and apologies for the US-centric aspects of my comments here on such a global-scale concern.
Take care everyone,
Ryan


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