we have two upcoming shows:
30 march 2019 @ la pata fria (newark, de)
w/ break down the walls, the zheros, hive mind
7pm $5
25 april 2019 @ no face studios (philadelphia, pa)
w/ terry green, supine, pique
7pm $7
as we enter the month of april we will be embarking on a long journey to west philadelphia to record our upcoming EP
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Monday, March 25, 2019
"fix" for a crisis: why neoliberal conservation does not fucking work
I recently wrote a piece for the DisturbancE zine (check them out: https://disturbancede.wordpress.com/) on how neoliberal ideas of conservation and sustainability are cancerous. It is going to in the April issue, which should be coming out very soon. I plan to dive more into political economy/leftist theory with future writings... so this will be one of many. enjoy
The first large scale environmental harm and large release of greenhouse gases was caused at the beginning of the industrial revolution in the 19th Century – first in England, then in the United States and other Western European nations. It is important to note that none of these places would be able to support such an industrial appetite without exploiting labor and resources from colonies in what we now call the Global South. This exploitive process was, and still is, powered by fossil fuels.
Fast forward to the 1980s, when neoliberal leaders were moving into positions of power in the same nations that began to exploit the Global South. The most notable leaders being Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan in the United States. Neoliberals like Thatcher and Reagan supported and implemented policies that promoted privatization of EVERYTHING, austerity, deregulation, “free trade”, and reduced government spending. All of this was done in order to increase the presence of the private sector in public life.
In addition to domestic policy manipulation, neoliberal leaders in industrialized nations expanded their influence around the globe in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The IMF and World Bank would give loans out to developing nations with struggling economies. These are known as structural adjustment programs (SAPs), the effects of which are most visible in Latin America and Africa. Countries that received loans from the IMF/World Bank often did not have the resources to pay them back. As a result, these countries went into debt and subsequently allowed the IMF/World Bank to heavily influence governments and agencies in those countries.
Under the premise of severe loan debt, the IMF/World Bank was able to implement regulatory capture methods into the governments and agencies of developing nations for the benefit of the Global North. Regulatory capture occurs when an agency or authority set up to protect the public interest is manipulated to advance the commercial and political interests of special interests or the private sector that the agency was originally charged with regulating. This opens up a host of issues within struggling nations- not just with politics or the economy, but also with the environment.
Capitalism, an inherently violent and unequal economic system, will continue to face crises over and over again through one of two ways: a crisis of overproduction, where a market is saturated and no one wants to buy or cannot afford what a producer is selling, and a crisis of environmental degradation, where resources and environmental services needed for production are depleted. Neoliberal conservation is a last-ditch attempt at averting the crisis of environmental degradation.
The neoliberal conservation method functions in a number of ways. Due to the influence of the IMF/World Bank with debt control, regulatory capture can reduce the strength of environmental laws in nations subject to SAPs. This allows the production of capital and waste to be outsourced to these nations and the profit to be extracted for the benefit of the Global North. Similar attacks on environmental regulations that are meant to protect citizens from health and climate change issues and advocate for environmental justice have also been attacked and repealed to give advantages to the private sector. International trade deals also allow corporations to sue governments if environmental regulations hinder the ability of the private sector to generate a profit. World trade law protects these rights for corporations and ultimately hinders global action on climate change.
In addition to policy manipulation, the neoliberal conservation method also employs market mechanisms that attempt to address the environmental degradation caused by capitalism. Policies like cap & trade, carbon taxes, REDD+ all provide the opportunity to turn negative externalities into places to invest, grow, and profit from. This still does not adequately address the environmental issues and instead commodifies environmental degradation. In a way, it twists environmental disasters to become a benefit for neoliberalism and provides a means of social control through capital.
To summarize, capitalism and sustainability are not compatible. Neoliberal conservation methods fail to address the sources of environmental problems: the quest for infinite economic growth and profit generation. This is not possible on a planet with finite resources and policies like these instead preserve the status quo and prolong the problem. If we are to ever be sustainable as a species, we need a serious paradigm shift towards a regenerative, socially equitable economy. We cannot pretend that the free market or corporations will fix their own issues anymore, because it has been proven that it will not happen.
Spread anarchy, live communism, listen to Earth Crisis. Thanks for reading.
Sources & further reading:
The Bridge at the End of the World: Capitalism, The Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability by James Gustave Speth
The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many by Noam Chomsky
Nature™ Inc.:Changes and Continuities in Neoliberal Conservation and Market‐based Environmental Policy by Murat Arsel and Bram Büscher
A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey
“fix” for a crisis: why neoliberal conservation methods do not fucking work
Liam Warren
Liam Warren
So far, the planet has warmed 1 degree Celsius since the beginning of the industrial revolution. We could experience 1.5 degree increases in average temperatures by the middle of this century. And if we do absolutely nothing about our impact on the planet, we could be on track to fueling the increase of average temperatures as much as 12 degrees Celsius. This would ensure the collapse of human civilization and the extinction of most life on Earth. The effects of this warming, including but not limited to sea level rise, shifts in weather patterns that increase flooding & droughts & extreme weather events, food shortages, political conflicts over resources, etc., will disproportionally affect people in developing nations in the Global South. The places and people that are least responsible for this calamity will be the most affected. And as the globe continues to warm, and the tally of climate change refugees continues to climb, billions of people will migrate north to more hospitable climates. Will they be welcomed and accommodated for? Or will they be met with xenophobic violence?
How did we get here?
How did we get here?
The first large scale environmental harm and large release of greenhouse gases was caused at the beginning of the industrial revolution in the 19th Century – first in England, then in the United States and other Western European nations. It is important to note that none of these places would be able to support such an industrial appetite without exploiting labor and resources from colonies in what we now call the Global South. This exploitive process was, and still is, powered by fossil fuels.
Fast forward to the 1980s, when neoliberal leaders were moving into positions of power in the same nations that began to exploit the Global South. The most notable leaders being Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan in the United States. Neoliberals like Thatcher and Reagan supported and implemented policies that promoted privatization of EVERYTHING, austerity, deregulation, “free trade”, and reduced government spending. All of this was done in order to increase the presence of the private sector in public life.
In addition to domestic policy manipulation, neoliberal leaders in industrialized nations expanded their influence around the globe in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The IMF and World Bank would give loans out to developing nations with struggling economies. These are known as structural adjustment programs (SAPs), the effects of which are most visible in Latin America and Africa. Countries that received loans from the IMF/World Bank often did not have the resources to pay them back. As a result, these countries went into debt and subsequently allowed the IMF/World Bank to heavily influence governments and agencies in those countries.
Under the premise of severe loan debt, the IMF/World Bank was able to implement regulatory capture methods into the governments and agencies of developing nations for the benefit of the Global North. Regulatory capture occurs when an agency or authority set up to protect the public interest is manipulated to advance the commercial and political interests of special interests or the private sector that the agency was originally charged with regulating. This opens up a host of issues within struggling nations- not just with politics or the economy, but also with the environment.
Capitalism, an inherently violent and unequal economic system, will continue to face crises over and over again through one of two ways: a crisis of overproduction, where a market is saturated and no one wants to buy or cannot afford what a producer is selling, and a crisis of environmental degradation, where resources and environmental services needed for production are depleted. Neoliberal conservation is a last-ditch attempt at averting the crisis of environmental degradation.
The neoliberal conservation method functions in a number of ways. Due to the influence of the IMF/World Bank with debt control, regulatory capture can reduce the strength of environmental laws in nations subject to SAPs. This allows the production of capital and waste to be outsourced to these nations and the profit to be extracted for the benefit of the Global North. Similar attacks on environmental regulations that are meant to protect citizens from health and climate change issues and advocate for environmental justice have also been attacked and repealed to give advantages to the private sector. International trade deals also allow corporations to sue governments if environmental regulations hinder the ability of the private sector to generate a profit. World trade law protects these rights for corporations and ultimately hinders global action on climate change.
In addition to policy manipulation, the neoliberal conservation method also employs market mechanisms that attempt to address the environmental degradation caused by capitalism. Policies like cap & trade, carbon taxes, REDD+ all provide the opportunity to turn negative externalities into places to invest, grow, and profit from. This still does not adequately address the environmental issues and instead commodifies environmental degradation. In a way, it twists environmental disasters to become a benefit for neoliberalism and provides a means of social control through capital.
To summarize, capitalism and sustainability are not compatible. Neoliberal conservation methods fail to address the sources of environmental problems: the quest for infinite economic growth and profit generation. This is not possible on a planet with finite resources and policies like these instead preserve the status quo and prolong the problem. If we are to ever be sustainable as a species, we need a serious paradigm shift towards a regenerative, socially equitable economy. We cannot pretend that the free market or corporations will fix their own issues anymore, because it has been proven that it will not happen.
Spread anarchy, live communism, listen to Earth Crisis. Thanks for reading.
Sources & further reading:
The Bridge at the End of the World: Capitalism, The Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability by James Gustave Speth
The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many by Noam Chomsky
Nature™ Inc.:Changes and Continuities in Neoliberal Conservation and Market‐based Environmental Policy by Murat Arsel and Bram Büscher
A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey
Saturday, March 23, 2019
demo
we recorded a demo last weekend. it is up on bandcamp for the time being. (click the music tab)
these songs will be on an upcoming EP.
we might make tapes for these demos....? who knows.
these songs will be on an upcoming EP.
we might make tapes for these demos....? who knows.
greetings!
this is a blog space dedicated to the band a paramount, a love supreme, as well as a platform for media/things on climate change and related issues.
liam runs and updates this blog.
liam runs and updates this blog.
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