This
is more than an economic and political crisis: it’s a crisis of
civilization
Among
European citizens, it is not uncomm to believe that our present
consumerism society can (and must) “progress” into the future.
Meanwhile, a the majority of the inhabitants of the planet just dream
in achieving our same level of material comfort. However, our level
of production and consumption has been achieved at the cost of
exhausting natural (including energy) resources and by disrupting the
equilibrium of Earth’s ecosystems.
But these
are old news. The most lucid researchers and scientists have warned,
since the 1970′s, thatif humans were to maintainthe current trends
of growth (economic, demographic, resource use, pollution and
increase in inequality), the most probably outcome during the 21st
century is the collapse of civilization.
Today there
is a growing evidence in the news indicating how the path of
unlimited growth is similar to a slow motion genocide. The end of
cheap energy, the catastrophic scenarios of climate change, and the
geopolitical conflicts over the natural resources illustrate that the
years of the apparently unlimited progress are forever gone.
To cope with
this challenge, the flimsy mantra of sustainable development is not
enough; nor are betting on eco-efficient technologies; nor a supposed
transition to any “green economy”. Indeed, all these versions of
friendly development hide plans for the general commodification of
natural resources and ecosystemic services. Technological solutions,
supposedly adressing the so many environmental crises, or the decline
in energy production, are insufficient. In addition, the ecological
crisis is not an incidental problem, but an essential one affecting
many societal issues: food, transportation, industry, urbanization,
military conflicts… In fact, it concerns the base of our economy
and our lives.
We are
trapped in the perverse dynamics of a civilization that does not work
if it does not grow, even if growth destroys the resources that
maintains the civilization. Our culture, completely addicted to
technological and market solutions, has forgotten that, in fact, we
are, at our roots, part of an interdependent ecosystem.
Our
production- and consumption- oriented society cannot be sustained by
the planet. We need to construct a new civilization able of securing
the dignity of a huge, and constantly growing, human population
(today more than 7.2 billion) in a world of diminishing resources.
This would be possible only after radical changes in our lifestyle,
production forms, urban design, and organization of territories. We
need a society that focuses to recover the equilibrium with the
biosphere by using research, technology, culture, economy, and
politics to advance towards this end. However, to do this we will
need all the political imagination, moral generosity, and technical
creativity we are able to deploy.
Such Great
Transformation would have to confront two obstacles: the inertia of
capitalist lifestyle and the interests of privileged groups. However,
to avoid the chaos and barbarity that that would ensue if we were to
maintain our current trends, we need both a political rupture of the
current stablished polytical system, and the stablishment of an
economy whose goals are the satisfaction of social needs within the
limits imposed by the biosphere and not the accumulation of private
profit.
Fortunately,
more and more people are resisting the attempts of elites to make
them pay for the consequences of the crisis. Today, in Spain, the
awakening of dignity and democracy emerged from the 15M movement
(during the spring of 2011) is creating a constituent process that
opens possibilities for other forms of social organization.
However, it
is fundamental that the various social alternative projects become
fully aware of the implications of the limits to growth. This is the
only way they would be able to design sound proposals for durable
social change. The economic and political crises would only be
overcome at the same time as the ecological crisis is. In this sense,
old Keynesian policies are far from being enough. Those policies led
us, in the decades following the Second World War, to a cycle of
expansion that have brought us to the brink of exceeding the planet’s
limits. At this point, any new cycle of expansion is unfeasible:
there is no material basis, ecological space, or natural resources to
sustain it.
The 21st
Century will be decisive in the history of humankind. It will be a
great test for cultures, societies, and even for the species as a
whole. It will be a test that will decide our continuity on the Earth
and the appropriateness of qualifying the future social organization
as “humane”. We face a transformation akin to major historical
events such as the neolithic revolution and the industrial
revolution.
But just
beware: The window of opportunity is closing. Certainly there are
many social movements around the world pursuing environmental justice
(the organization Global Witness has registered almost a thousand
environmentalists murdered during the past decade, killings during
demonstrations against mining or oil projects, or against people
defending their land and water). But we have at most five years to
settle a broad debate about the limits of growth, and to construct
democratic ecological and energy alternatives that are both rigorous
and feasible solutions. We should be able to convince large
majorities willing to promote a change in economic, energetic,
social, and cultural models. It is not only about fighting against
theinjustices resulting from the exercise of domination and the
accumulation of wealth; we are speaking about defining a new model of
society that acknowledges reality, makes peace with nature, and makes
possible the good life within the ecological limits of the earth.
One
civilization is ending and we must build a new one. Doing nothing, or
too little, will lead us directly to the social, economic, and
ecological collapse. But if we start today, we can still become the
protagonists of a society that is unite, democratic, and in peace
with the planet.
Written
at many locations aroundthe Iberian Peninsula, Balearic and Canary
Islands, during the summer of 2014.
Translation
by Popular Resistance & Joaquim Ballabrera
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