Source: Image taken from the conference presentation

Conference I: Júlia Martí Comas from the Observatory of Debt in Globalization (ODG)

On Tuesday, March 4, Júlia Martí Comas from the ODG came to the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology to talk to us about the climate crisis and environmental justice from an ecofeminist perspective. The Debt Observatory in Globalization is a research observatory that produces critical analyses of complex and/or structural processes, to show the visible and invisible impacts and risks of the political and economic system, producing tools that facilitate the interpretation of the current context.

Júlia has recently published the book “Ecofeminist Decreixement. Desaccelerar per recuperar la vida” where she articulates the proposals of ecofeminisms and degrowth with the aim of seeking alternatives to the capitalist system. You can obtain more information and download it freely at the following link.

  • Multiple crises

The view of 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 care, but also democratic (lack of legitimacy of the institutions of representative democracy).

By understanding this crisis as a multidimensional phenomenon, we avoid tunnel vision. Which only focuses on carbon emissions to carry out a sustainable transition. In this complex and multidimensional context we must promote a critical analysis of the green transition. A broader look at the ecosocial crisis must be able to see how the precariousness of life, the degradation of ecosystems and social conflicts have to do with the consequences of climate change.

  • Global impacts

Our energy production and consumption model has gas, oil and coal as its main sources. Renewable energies are a minority source. Green extractivism seeks to maintain our level of consumption but with renewables, which generates geopolitical tensions and impacts on a global scale.

The ODG has published the report “Neocolonialism in the name of the green transition. Rare earth mining in Madagascar” where it explains how the mining of rare earths (essential for the energy transition) in Madagascar is an example of neocolonialism in the name of the green transition promoted by the countries of the Global North. At the end of the session we watched the recently published short documentary, which you can find freely accessible at the following link.

  • Ecofeminist perspective

Source: Image taken from the conference presentation, obtained from the report “Ecofeminisms: notes on the twin domination of women and nature”

The ecofeminist perspective provides a critical look at the iceberg model of patriarchal capitalist economies. There is a part of the economy that is made invisible: care work, subsistence work and informal work.

The idea is raised that not only nature is finite, but also care work. The times of reproduction are incompatible with the times of capitalist production, which are increasingly accelerated and demanding. Life is becoming more precarious, and there are increasing difficulties in accessing resources for the reproduction of life, due to factors such as inflation, impoverishment or climate change.

When we talk about ecofeminism we refer to the current that intersects ecology and feminism. It is a theoretical current, a political and mobilization proposal and a vital proposal. It connects the domination, exploitation and degradation of non-human nature and the oppression of women and other social groups (indigenous peoples, LGTBIQ…). Life is sustainable, according to ecofeminism, when social interdependencies and ecological ecodependencies are taken into account.

  • Ecofeminist alternatives

Júlia proposes five ecofeminist alternatives: rootedness, collective right to care, resilience and solidarity, sufficiency and climate and reproductive justice. Which she explains in more detail in her work “Decrecimiento Ecofeminista. Desacelerar para recuperar la vida”. Regarding practical proposals, she proposes politicizing the everyday, a practical intersectionality to expand the ecofeminist subject and an internationalism from spaces of struggle.