First lecture: complex crises and ecofeminist responses
On Tuesday, February 27, Júlia Martí, from the Global Debt Observatory, came to the Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology to talk to us about the climate crisis and ecofeminism. Let’s summarize it.
- Multiple crises
The view of the multiple crises understands the current ecosocial situation within a crisis of the system itself (financial, stagnation, inflationary), as ecological (climate change, loss of biodiversity, depletion of resources), and of social reproduction and cures, but also democratic (lack of legitimacy of the institutions of representative democracy).
- Focused on C02
It involves conceptualizing the climate crisis as a problem derived mainly from the emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), including carbon dioxide. A broader look at the ecosocial crisis must be able to see how the precariousness of life, the degradation of ecosystems and social conflicts (in short) have to do with the consequences of climate change visible to human eyes. The concept of ecosocial crisis tries to avoid this view that only points to emissions and temperatures.
- Anthropocene or Capitalocene
In this “new plant cycle” the changes in the climate are not due solely to the geophysical cycles of the planet, but to the anthropic action (of humans). This era has been called the Anthropocene for this reason. Júlia asks if the concept of Capitalocèn would better capture the idea that it is not the human system, but the socio-economic system, which generates this great impact on the Earth ecosystem.
- Power consumption in eternum
Another context data to understand the branches of the ecosocial crisis is the growing energy consumption, which is due to the increase in socio-economic activity together with the demand for new technologies to sustain it. The research speaks of the moment we live in as “the great acceleration”, while maintaining that sustained socio-economic growth leads to biophysical changes with the risk that we cannot slow them down.
- Ecofeminism and the sustainability of life
Ecofeminisms are multiple because they need to be considered from different perspectives. However, they share the idea that care (which includes reproductive tasks) is central to giving life, and is also, therefore, work.
Júlia very quickly summarizes the history of ecofeminism for us, situating three currents that, at bottom, are still parallel. The only difference between them is the role they give to women in the reproduction of life.
In the 70s, for example, we find a classic or essentialist ecofeminism, which focuses on the link between women and care, a fact that naturalises. On the other hand, in the 90s, constructivist feminists would criticize this naturalized link, considering that care should not necessarily be a task specific to the female identity. These theories are nourished with spiritual ecofeminist aspects, or with community and indigenous feminism that comes to us from Latin America (Abya Yala) and share the idea of the sustainability of life.
Life is sustainable, according to ecofeminism, when social interdependencies and ecological ecodependencies are taken into account.
[For more information on these two ideas you can review the conference on ecofeminism that Yayo Herrero offered at the UAB in 2020.]
The concepts of co-responsibility and reciprocity, along with interdependence and eco-dependence, are part, Júlia explained, of this idea of the sustainability of life.
This valuing of reproduction and care often comes into conflict with techno-optimistic voices, who believe that the solution to the environmental problem is technical and technological, production, and not reproduction.
Regarding the techno-optimistic view, a very specific example is the drought in Catalonia and the reactions it is evoking. While campaigns such as #NoEnRajaexclaim that the drought is due, in part, to poor water management, certain political and business voices continue to put on the table infrastructures with a large water impact. In this case, prioritizing water for the most basic consumption would be more than an eco-feminist proposal.
- Inspirational examples: Greenham common
Ecofeminism is remembered (although perhaps not enough) for a struggle that took place in Great Britain between 1981 and 2000, in which a group of women around the collective Women for Life on Earth, camped to an English military base (in Berskhire) to paralyze its missile launch.
[Read more in this article!]
*Pikara Magazine cover image.