amor mundi: Recent Ecosocialist Vid

Friday, January 04, 2008

Interesting Ecosocialist Video Resources Available here. Discuss.

Anonymous said...: Dale, have you read the book, "Break Through", by Shellenberger and Nordhaus? After Cascio critiqued it, I decided to pick it up. There was a lot I didn't like (eg, their apparent eagerness to make enemies of so many people, including Al Gore and Jared Diamond). There was also quite a bit I *did* like, such as their attack on the category of nature (which cites, for example, Bruno Latour).

"Given what's at stake and the quickly diminishing time frame for action, we must quickly embrace a politics that understands that humans are constantly creating new natures. We must abandon the environmentalism that thinks of itself as representing and defending -- but never imagining, constituting, or creating -- nature." (page 238)

Timothy Morton seems to have made a similar point in his recent book, "Ecology Without Nature" (which I haven't read yet).

Part of the reason why I find this thesis attractive is the same as the reason why, as you say, some find geoengineering attractive: Both geoengineering and the rejection of nature as a semantic, material, and moral category fit well with the idea of re-directing artifice, commerce, and industry toward values that technodevelopments have often and conspicuously ignored, like democracy and sustainability.

I haven't watched the videos yet, but I wanted to get your thoughts on the word "nature". The title of Joel Kovel's book (shown in your eco-socialist link) reminded me of this issue.; 2:12 PM

amor mundi