The Ecological is Political

Context: The Anthropocene era has placed an ethical challenge before the human race.

Reasons for increased emissions: in the Anthropocene Era.

• Historical Imperatives:
  • The Great Acceleration: With the rapid advance of manufacturing sector & deeper penetration of global market since the Second World War, the emissions have increased geometrically.
  • Keynesian revolution (the 1940s to 1980s): promoted large investments in infrastructure to increase demands. (Keynesianism did not replace capitalism but made it ordinary, acceptable to the masses.)
  • Adoption of neoliberalism: the Thatcher-Reagan joint economic regime (1980’s) dismantled the welfare system of the previous decades and heralded the turn towards neoliberalism.
  • Technological developments: Like the rise of digital, virtual, and biotechnological systems from the 1990s, have created nations as rationalised regimes of market projections.
• Predominance of economy:  Every human affair being explained in market terms. Not only capitalism but also socialism results in emissions due to increased purchasing powers (despite being equitable)
• Exclusionary human-social thinking: Aspects of humans like language, justice were prioritised while those resembling the animal world like food, nutrition, and reproduction were left out.

Potentials of the Anthropocene era: in developing ecological solutions

• Technologistic market-based solutions: Like Bioengineering will create a new human being with a smaller ecological footprint because it uses fewer proteins, oxygen, and water- As predicted by the French philosopher Paul Virilio.
• Develop an ethical sense of species:  The sense that we as a species were born through the long duration of geological and biological changes.
• Adopt a global systemic alternative for capitalism: where the human considers itself a part of the natural order and actively cooperates with it.
  • Include ecological in the compass of political: weaving the question of ecological impact into the question of justice in human affairs. (Equating ecology with justice)
  • Reduce population and change lifestyle: Drastic reduction of the global population to half the present number in the next 30 years and practice of ascetic life.