Chasing Ice recording of massive iceberg calving in Greenland

The clip below, from the recently released documentary Chasing Ice, is footage of the largest iceberg calving ever filmed–a total loss of 7.4 km³ off Greenland’s Ilulissat glacier, taking place over the course of a few hours.

Chasing Ice is directed by Jeff Orlowski; it focuses on the work of environmental photographer James Balog (National Geographic) to bring attention to the problem of the melting Arctic, as follows from capital-induced climate change.  Following an expedition to the Arctic in 2005 that dispelled his previous denialist views, Balog went on to found the Extreme Ice Survey, which monitors glacier retreat in Greenland, Iceland, the Alps, Canada, and the Andes.

The images recorded in the video clearly speak for themselves.

Recording of Imperiled Life presentation at Red Emma’s

Below can be found the audio recording of my comments on Imperiled Life: Revolution against Climate Catastrophe during a presentation I gave at Red Emma’s Bookstore and Coffeehouse (Baltimore, Maryland) in July 2012.  The file has recently been released by the Baltimore Indypendent Reader for consideration in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Many thanks to Gabby for the introduction.  The presentation lasts about 55 minutes; I have excised the question-and-answer portion, as the questions are difficult to hear.

Earth First! review of Imperiled Life

J.M.W. Turner, “The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons (The Houses of Parliament)” (1835)

Revolutionary Tradition Against Climate Collaborators

By Sasha (reposted from http://earthfirstnews.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/review-imperiled-life-by-javier-sethness-castro)

Picking up Imperiled Life by Javier Sethness-Castro, I felt the urgency of the work immediately. Illustrated with profound, gorgeous art by the fabulous Just Seeds Collective, the work mobilizes through an active discourse between theory and science. Measuring the weight of 20th Century Continental and Post-Colonial theory by its accuracy in predicting the ecological crisis of today, Sethness-Castro looks to the classic works of the Frankfurt School to show the way forward for anticapitalist revolution.

If you wanted to find a book that honestly and faithfully lays out the disaster of climate change, this is the book to turn to. Refusing to establish borders between thought and action, Imperiled Life illustrates the integrity of critical theory, developed along the imperative that the Holocaust not be reproduced. “The radical violence, alienation, and destructiveness overseen and directed by prevailing power,” says Sethness-Castro, “is but the continuation of long-standing social trends that have gone on for millennia—totalitarianism grew out of imperialism and gapitalism, while hierarchy has been sustained by patriarchy and religion.” Through Sethness-Castro’s book, we can point to the reasons: Climate change is not some fluke scientific problem that we can figure out through technical, instrumental solutions. Climate change is related to the historic repression of political activists, the third world, and marginalized peoples.

But for Sethness-Castro, the motto remains: Don’t Mourn, Organize! “It is now imaginable,” says Sethness-Castro, “that inclusive, egalitarian antisystemic movements will develop in core societies, hand in hand with resistance movements the world over, from striking Chinese industrial workers to Arab antistatist protesters, revolutionary Kurds, Indian Marxists, indigenous peoples, and the victims of global militarism everywhere.” Any climate activist should take one look at this revolutionary assemblage and throw their fist in the air.

Solidarity on this broad of a scale is virtually unprecedented throughout the history of the struggle against colonialism. Thus, Sethness-Castro’s short book is more than a kind of accusation against the state form; it is also a call to action, not only of mass mobilizing, general striking praxis, but of love, friendship, and respect. “Radical exclusion would be overthrown,” he states, “with human multiplicity and plurality seen as traits to be cherished and celebrated rather than suppressed.” In this sense, we return to Sethness-Castro’s drawing upon the Frankfurt School as the inaugurator of Critical Theory, which helped to usher in women’s studies, post-colonial studies, black studies, latino studies, gender studies, and so on. Although the “identity politics” of such multitudinous, hermetic disciplines has been attacked in recent years by revolutionists seeking a simplicity of class analysis over a discursive polyphony of unconventional research, Sethness-Castro stands defiantly and firmly in defense of such diversity.

Generally, the problem with “multiculturalism” and “diversity” in academia lies in the usage of these words to undermine the intention of genuine scholarship with capitalist homogenization. In Imperiled Life, however, we find dignity, not hollow “diversity”, a bursting apart of institutional frames through what Chua called “polyversity” in 1982. The implications of this form of research tends to suggest further methodological expansion into set theory, differentials and combinatorics, and so on. Catherine Malabou has discovered fascinating principles of neuro-plasticity that suggest a sort of transversal potentiality of recovery, which could break through to establish revolutionary (anti)paradigms, while Bracha Ettinger has brought psychoanalysis to new levels of differentiation and combinatorics, considering a “matrixial borderspace” between subjects and objects. Of course, Alain Badiou is also particularly fascinating in his studies of “The Event” through a kind of existential set theory.

But how do we literally go about “changing the world”? In geographical terms Sethness-Castro points out a contradiction in David Harvey’s theories, pointing to an optimistic chance of a “neutralization” of the military industrial complex through massive non-violent civil disobedience. However, Sethness-Castro also indicates that, in ignoring the postcolonial theorist and psychoanalyst, Franz Fanon, many contemporary theorists have exposed a lack of understanding of revolutionary tactics. What Imperiled Life calls for, in the end, is a social revolution, a revolution of the people to transform the institutions of society. In this sense, one gets the same feeling reading Sethness-Castro as with the Rebel Worker in the 1960s, and the contemporary lectures of Penelope Rosemont.

These are some ideas for the next routes that organizers can take to set Sethness-Castro’s brief, but thorough, exposition of the relationship between capital and ecology. In the meantime, those thinking philosophically about the reasons for climate change and the redemptive potential, if it exists at all, that can be derived from it, this book will come as a handy guide. It is a spontaneous and ecstatic read, which can be returned to for details, and has an important place on your bookshelf.

Statement regarding Anti-Colonial, Anti-Capitalist March in San Francisco

As published on Indybay:

“Around 150 people gathered in Justin Herman Plaza [on Saturday, October 6]. They were against everything: the military jets making metal of the air, the hordes of tourists thoughtlessly awing at the spectacular display of death above the city, the office towers and malls hanging above the waterfront, the unrestrained and uninterrupted reign of capitalism, slavery, colonialism, the empire.

At 3:30 pm they left the plaza carrying a banner that read RESIST GENOCIDE – DESTROY WHAT IS CIVILIZED. They headed towards the streets behind the Embarcadero Center mall. The riot police immediately began to follow alongside the march, and just as quickly the first paint bomb was thrown at them. The police declared the march illegal before it had walked a block. Along the route several luxury cars had their windows smashed and their tires deflated. The cops continued to get hit with bright paint as people proceeded towards Market Street.

They attempted to stop the march at one point but were outmaneuvered and the march was able to continue another two blocks. It was not until the police attempted to apprehend a single individual that the march was halted and a brawl began. The police swarmed in, two dozen of them on motorcycles, and began to isolate lone individuals and smaller groups of people. A Starbucks had its windows smashed as people were dispersing and in the end at least 19 people were beaten and arrested as the military jets thundered overhead.

The hordes of enthusiastic and wonderstruck tourists and baseball fans coursed through the metropolis, unaware of what was taking place behind Embarcadero Plaza. The virus that was planted in San Francisco hundreds of years ago was still expanding, neutralizing all resistance, and keeping itself alive. To all those marveling at the war jets in the sky, it is difficult to make sense of a mob of people who are against the colonial system. To be against colonialism, capitalism, and civilization are not popular causes—at least in affluent places like San Francisco wherein most have been convinced by the virus that its glitters are to their benefit. But this was why people went onto the street, and this is why they were attacked so severely.

The Colonial Machine, with their cops, laws, and order, attacked in order to silence our resistance and solidarity with others against a toxic system created to keep us in cages. From the belly of the beast, people rebelled against everything that fuels this empire. Cops attack to maintain order with their guns and badges, people attack with paints to liberate walls and brighten the darkness. There is no freedom in Amerikkka, there is no justice on occupied land. 520 years later, Indigenous people resist genocide and slavery through occupations. Decolonize the Empire, rebel for life. Decolonize the New World, liberate all walls, brighten the darkness.”

Imperiled Life interview on Davis independent radio

Richard Estes, host of the “Speaking in Tongues” radio show (which is dedicated to the investigation of “Social commentary and interviews with people directly involved in struggles related to anti-imperialism, civil rights, the environment and the workplace, with an emphasis upon anti-authoritarian practice”) broadcast by the KDVS 90.3 FM community-independent radio station of Davis, California, was kind enough to invite me to speak on his show regarding Imperiled Life this past Friday, 14 September.  Below is the audio recording of that conversation.

Imperiled Life U.S. South and East Coast tour

“Todavía tenemos tiempo,” Santi Armengod

The presently ongoing book tour for Imperiled Life: Revolution against Climate Catastrophe continues on during the summer through parts of the U.S. South and East Coast.  Below are the details so far:

Treasure City Thrift, Austin, Texas, 10 July, 7:00pm

APOCalypse 2012, New Orleans, Louisiana, 12-15 July

The Iron Rail, New Orleans, Louisiana, 15 July, 6:15pm

The Birdhouse, Knoxville, Tennessee, 16 July, 6:30pm

Firestorm Café and Books, Asheville, North Carolina, 17 July, 6:00pm

Internationalist Books, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 19 July, 7:00pm

Emergence Community Arts Collective, Washington, D.C., 24 July, 7:00pm

Red Emma’s Bookstore and Coffeehouse, Baltimore, Maryland, 25 July, 7:00pm

A-Space, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 28 July, 7:30pm

The Wooden Shoe, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 30 July, 7:00pm

Bluestockings Radical Books, New York City, New York, 1 August, 7:00pm

Inquiring Minds Bookstore, New Paltz, New York, 3 August, 7:00pm

Lucy Parsons Center, Boston, Massachusetts, 7 August, 7pm

Food for Thought Books, Amherst, Massachusetts, 9 August, 7:00pm

At Red Emma’s, 25 July

At the Wooden Shoe, 30 July

At the Lucy Parsons Center, 7 August

Hansen, protesting climate-destruction

World-renowned NASA physicist James Hansen, author of Storms of My Grandchildren (2009) and numerous critical climatological reports, gives a TED address regarding the dire problem of climate change.  Recommendable comments, despite Hansen’s racist-reformist insistence that his suggested fee-and-dividend model be accessible only to legal residents of the U.S.

Blue marvel

A “blue marble” image focusing on the northern half of Earth’s Western hemisphere, this was taken by the Suomi SPP satellite on 4 January 2012, following the example of the Apollo astronauts of the 1970′s.

As Dr. Jeff Masters writes, analyzing the photo:

“The image is very interesting meteorologically, and extremely strange. It is obvious that it is a winter image, as revealed by the large area of stratocumulus clouds off the U.S. East Coast all the way to South Florida, caused by cold Canadian air blowing offshore. However, the U.S. and Canada are virtually snow-free and cloud-free, which is extremely rare for a January day. The lack of snow in the mountains of the Western U.S. is particularly unusual. I doubt one could find a January day this cloud-free with so little snow on the ground throughout the entire satellite record, going back to the early 1960s.”

On the other hand, the tropical waters off Florida, the Yucatan Peninsula, and Cuba look beautiful.

No Rain in the Amazon

U.S. journalist Nikolas Kozloff’s No Rain in the Amazon (2010), a work that focuses principally on the devastation being wrought by capitalist relations on the peoples and ecosystems found in the South American countries of Peru and Brazil, is a more considered set of reflections on the present socio-environmental crisis than is to be found for example in the works of Bill McKibben or Mark Lynas—to name two well-known hegemonic commentators on global environmental matters.¹ This difference arises from the fact that Kozloff presents his analysis of social and environmental destructiveness within a mildly critical framing of the processes of neoliberal capitalism, one which includes concern for exploited Southern proletarians and threatened indigenous peoples within its general regard for the life-world imperiled by the capitalist system. Kozloff correctly notes that “we are surely living in an ecological dystopia now”; this dystopia will only worsen considerably if it is not interrupted, just as the future reproduction of present trends will ensure that “chronic hunger [will] be the defining human tragedy of the twenty-first century.” To use reason in contemplating Kozloff’s findings, then, could in theory contribute to the possibility of overcoming these negations, their direness notwithstanding.

Reviewing climatological reports, Kozloff warns that future climate change will likely bring with it more frequent and intense El Niño meterological events. This climatic phenomenon, which follows from the warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean, brings about dry conditions in Southeast Asia, southern Africa, and the Brazilian Amazon; by increasing oceanic temperatures, it results in decreases in plankton populations, thus disrupting marine food chains, and provides bacteria like Vibrio cholerae with more amenable growth-environments. For countries like Peru and Ecuador that face increased rainfall and flooding from El Niño events, the return of the phenomenon threatens greater incidence of diarrheal conditions, dengue fever, and malaria. In this sense, as in its disruption of agricultural production and hence food security by means of drought, increases in the frequency of the emergence of El Niño would demand that governments of affected societies dedicate greater resources to addressing public-health emergencies. Beyond consideration of these realities, as of the numerous non-human animals endangered by extended El Niño conditions (primates, frogs, manatees, tapirs, turtles, the spectacled bear, the jaguar), remains reflection on the 2005 drought in the Amazon, which, as Kozloff reports, released 5 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere—the equivalent of Europe and Japan´s annual emissions. The 2010 Amazon drought, an El Niño-induced event which Kozloff could not consider in the work, released 8 billion tons—that is, as much as does China each year, being the present country-leader in carbon emissions.²

Turning specifically to consideration of Peru, Kozloff immediately reveals why it is that the country is considered to be among the most vulnerable to the projected future effects of climate change: because two-thirds of its population reside in the arid coastal region and depend upon the Andes glaciers for water. Kozloff tells us that Peru, home to 71 percent of South America’s glaciers, has reportedly seen a 22 percent decline in glacier surface area over the last few decades. These alarming threats to water supplies aside, the loss of glacial ice in the Andes also threatens sudden outburst floods from lakes formed by the retreat of glaciers, like those that destroyed much of the city of Huaraz in 1941. Moreover, as Kozloff writes, there is fear that warmer overall temperatures could grant better growing conditions to late blight, a fungal disease that could threaten the all-important Peruvian potato crop just as it did that in Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century. On the other hand of socio-environmental realities determined largely externally by the history of imperialism are those induced at least partly internally, such as the widespread logging of mahogany trees and the material poverty that leads many Peruvians to clear the rainforest to make way for coca production. These export-oriented trends, which Kozloff rightly observes as responding to the consumer demand from relatively affluent Northerns made possible by the globalized market, are of one hand with former President Alan García’s mass-awarding of concesions for oil and gas exploration in 70 percent of Peru’s Amazonian rainforest.

In Brazil, Kozloff’s second case study, the situation is perhaps even more dire than in its western neighbor. Beyond the bleak future that global warming itself promises for the Amazon rainforest, the mass-expansion of cattle-ranching which has brought Brazil the dubious distinction of leading global beef has required the clearing of vast stretches of the Amazon and the Pantanal wetlands. The implications for the health of the Amazon system itself, great regulator of the global climate, are clear; removing large sections of this highly photosynthetic biome only to replace them with pasture for methane-belching beasts is self-evidently highly irrational—in keeping with dominant trends. Beyond these threats, the Amazon, like its adjoining cerrado grassland biome, is further imperiled by the expansion of mass soy monocultures and agrofuel crops, these being driven by the mass money-making schemes of capital. In his diagnosis of this web of problems, Kozloff is right to emphasize the close relationship these destructive interests have with Brazil’s developmentalist State authorities and to stress the responsibility that Northern international financial institutions bear for having provided funding for these schemes; he is moreover correct to recognize in the reign of cattle-ranchers and agribusiness the unresolved perpetuation of the social inequality and class privilege that has marred Brazil’s historical development. Kozloff’s discussions of the effectively enslaved laborers who carry out the desires of the Brazilian oligarchy and of the MST countercurrent speak to this.

However valuable much of Kozloff’s reporting and analysis may be, there is more to take issue with in No Rain in the Amazon. For one, Kozloff significantly over-represents state ministers and representatives as figures to navigate his exploration of the crisis, with voices from civil soceity largely absent. Brazilian ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is portrayed as a “Third World defender” for resisting notions that Southern societies must not mimic the historical development of the North, when his policies of facilitating the degradation of the Amazon stand greatly and disproportionately to harm Southern peoples through their exacerbation of climate catastrophe—just as China’s capitalist development threatens to worsen the lot of residents of several Pacific island-societies that face annihilation by rising sea-levels. Similarly, Kozloff’s claim that the Obama administration “takes global warming more seriously” than did Bush is now seen to be an entirely absurd one—though it was also foreseeably a false one at the time of the writing of the book. On the other hand, Kozloff does righteously engage in a critique of neo-liberal institutions like the World Bank and IMF as well as of those Northern consumers whose appetites for meat, leather, cocaine, and soy drive much of the destruction observed in Amazonia, and he does at times concede that economic growth and the “free-trade model” are inherently unsustainable. However, at no point does he suggest that corporations be dismantled, that workers and communities take control of production, that capitalism be abolished. The most he can recommend is that the World Bank be reformed and persuaded to finance “alternative development schemes,” that a “Manhattan project for conservation” be undertaken, and that environmentalists continue with the “provocative” traditions of Greenpeace and use of the courts.

In essence, Kozloff holds it to be the politicians and capitalists who are principally to respond to the possibly terminal threats posed by capital-induced climate destabilization. In his conclusion, he claims that “international capital is [itself] going to have to radically rethink its entire modus operandi” in light of the climate crisis. Here he is rather mistaken; capital, like the State, can offer no resolution to the socio-environmental darkness it promises. Instead, the prospect for the successful aversion of climate catastrophe depends critically on the intervention of the multitudes of subordinated humans who consciously and convivially unite their collective efforts against the mindless destructiveness of the capitalist system. Toward this end, Kozloff’s stress on the need for a greater sense of urgency and the related exercise of solidarity among Northerners with Southerners are key.

To close, then, as Kozloff does No Rain in the Amazon, citing an Arhuaco elder: global capitalism is “waging a war on the earth [and its peoples], and it must stop!”

—————————————————————————

1Bill McKibben, Eaarth (Times Books, 2010); Mark Lynas, Six Degrees (National Geographic, 2008) and The God Species (Fourth Estate, 2011)

2Damian Carrington, “Mass tree deaths prompt fears of Amazon ‘climate tipping point,’” The Guardian, 3 February 2011

Atmospheric Dialectics: Reflections on Climate Catastrophe

This talk, entitled “Atmospheric Dialectics: Reflections on Climate Catastrophe,” was given on 25 June at the 3rd Annual Los Angeles Anarchist Bookfair.  It takes after the talk of the same name presented at the April 2010 Encounter for Autonomous Life in Oaxaca de Juárez, México, and is in some ways an adaptation of “Atmospheric Dialectics: A Critical Theory of Climate Change,” published in the Fall 2010 issue of Perspectives on Anarchist Theory.  A PDF of the presentation slides is available below.  Thanks goes to comrade L for the introduction and the Anarchist Bookfair Collective for the invitation to speak.

The talk is a little more than 22 minutes in length.

Atmospheric Dialectics: Reflections on Climate Catastrophe (pdf)