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We face the alternative: system change or collapse

by Fabian Scheidler and Ariane Tanner Thursday, Sep. 23, 2021 at 5:03 PM
marc1seed@yahoo.com www.academia.edu

We face the alternative: system change or collapse

Fabian Scheidler

[This article published on 9/16/2021 is translated from the German on the Internet, Wir stehen vor der Alternative: Systemwandel oder Kollaps - infosperber.]

Why we need a profound transformation of our economy.

Storms - People are part of nature. Therefore, nature must take priority in everything we do.

There are not people on one side and environment or nature on the other. People are part of nature. They cannot survive without nature. It follows from this truism: Business and politics urgently need to set other priorities. In his new book "The Stuff We Are Made Of "* author Fabian Scheidler describes the insanity of the current development. He has allowed Infosperber to publish a core chapter from his book.

Industrial civilization treats nature as a dead object that can be exploited at will

Industrial civilization has plunged life on Earth into the sixth great species extinction in its history. Homo sapiens will not remain unaffected: If food chains break, maritime ecosystems collapse, the Himalayan glaciers and with them Asia's most important freshwater sources dwindle, if pollination of important crops fails due to excessively high temperatures or the disappearance of insects, global food production may collapse as early as the next few decades. This is also pointed out by a study commissioned by the British insurer Lloyd's.[i] The conflicts that could arise from this are completely unforeseeable in our weapons-rigid world with a billion small arms and 14,000 nuclear warheads.

Change is needed in all areas of life

The chances of averting a collapse scenario depend crucially on whether we succeed in overcoming the present predatory order, which has degraded nature to a dead object that can be exploited at will, and replacing it with a system that is able to take account of our existential interconnections. The change required to achieve this permeates all areas of life, from economics and politics to education, the sciences, and our cosmologies.

The modern megamachine is both a complex and a total system: it is embedded in our minds, bodies, and human relationships, as well as in economic and political institutions, in corporate legal forms, in laws and international treaties, in border fences and tank battalions.

Interventions in individual areas fall flat

The tricky thing about such all-encompassing systems is that it is not possible to simply take out individual parts and change them; in principle, everything has to change at the same time, because everything is connected to everything else. It is possible, for example, to try to change the economy within a state from an exploitative and destructive logic of profit maximization to a logic of the common good; but this also requires international agreements that prevent capital from fleeing abroad overnight and leaving the country to collapse.

One can also try to change the school system to allow people to fully develop their personalities instead of training them to do alienated work; but then, as Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme noted half a century ago, there is also a need for a non-alienated world of work in which people who feel and think for themselves can work.

Complex social systems like the modern world system have some room for change, but it is not infinite. Movements for workers' and women's rights, for universal, free and equal suffrage, for peace, ecology and humane education have made great strides in the last two centuries. Without them, women would still not be allowed to vote, workers would have to toil 60 hours a week, schoolchildren would still be beaten, states would still be able to arbitrarily dispose of their subjects, and corporations would still be able to dispose of their filth completely unfiltered into the water, air and earth.

Feelings of powerlessness in the face of the global megamachine

Yet for all the successes, limits to change are at the same time discernible. Despite everything, the fundamental principle of the megamachine has remained untouched: the compulsion for endless expansion, the conversion of a living fellow world into dead goods and the accompanying devastation of the biosphere. This principle is the hard core of this civilization, its primal function, around which all other institutions have formed. For this reason, it cannot be changed in the same way as individual grievances.

Today's widespread feelings of powerlessness in the face of an unstoppable machinery that is steering us toward the abyss are therefore more than understandable. Even the Fridays for Future movement, which started with remarkable élan and brought millions of people worldwide onto the streets for climate protection, had to make this bitter experience: The political-economic machine waltzes past them largely unmoved, even if a little green flag is waved out the window now and then.

The Corona crisis was not used for an ecological transformation

In the Corona crisis, this was once again made abundantly clear: despite appeals to use the crisis for ecological restructuring and not to repeat the mistakes of the 2008 financial crash, billions, even trillions of euros and dollars were once again channeled into the most destructive industries on earth, including the automobile and aircraft industries; in this way, the deadly path we are on was further cemented.

But does all this mean that social engagement for change ultimately serves no purpose at all? Not necessarily. But to grasp the long-term meaning of engagement, we need a different conception of systemic change. Complex systems cannot be rebuilt in a linear fashion, in the same way that a house can have its floor plan changed incrementally and new interior furnishings and heating systems installed. In living systems - and this includes our social system - the effects of interventions are nonlinear and often cannot be predicted or planned. The sometimes frustrating experience that even massive efforts at change have no effect over long periods of time therefore does not mean that conditions cannot suddenly change very rapidly at other times.

Complex social systems, like all living structures, have cycles of development. They emerge, unfold, and die sooner or later. The idea that the current system, of all things, should be eternal - as, for example, the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama once proclaimed with his slogan of the "end of history" - is absurd. Like all social systems, it will end at some point and, if humans are still granted a future on this planet, it will make way for new forms of organization. Exactly when this will happen and in what way can be predicted as little as what will take its place. What is clear, however, is that the crises and disruptions we are already experiencing will increase as long as the global megamachine continues to expand and destroy the ecosystems that support it.

From the chaos of transition: apparent stability, ruptures and crises.

The transition from one system to something new is necessarily a chaotic process that cannot be fully planned and controlled. The more unstable and chaotic a system becomes, the greater impact even small movements and turbulence can have on subsequent developments. The process of disintegration and reorganization passes through different phases: on the one hand, relatively long periods of time in which the system seems to operate unchanged; on the other hand, sudden ruptures, violent crises in which the course for the further course of history is set in a very short time, for example financial crises, ecological catastrophes, wars or pandemics. A systemic transition usually consists of a cascade of such tipping points, which can extend over decades, sometimes even centuries.

But what happens at such a tipping point depends crucially on what people did and thought in the time before, i.e., in the seemingly immobile phases, how they organized themselves, how power relations, thought patterns, debates and cultural hegemonies shifted. For in a crisis, when the clocks suddenly move very fast, it becomes apparent which parts of the population are capable of acting quickly, decisively and in a coordinated manner, who is able to fill the political and ideological vacuum that often arises in such situations, and who has an understanding of what course needs to be set in order to move in one direction or the other.

No one can know today what the future crystallization points for certain processes of upheaval will be. Neither could anyone have predicted that a teenager with Asperger's syndrome and a cardboard sign in front of the Swedish parliament would start a global climate movement, nor can anyone say today what will become of this movement, how it will change people in the long term, and what role all this will play in the future.

When the black civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to give way to a white man on a bus in the southern states of the USA in 1955, she could not have imagined that this small step would be the spark for a movement that eventually mobilized millions of people and profoundly changed the country.

To be sure, all these movements have so far fallen far short of overcoming the destructive core of the mega-machine; and yet they can make a decisive difference in determining whether the course will continue to be set for a deadly collapse in the coming crises, or whether new structures will be created that will make a dignified and peaceful life possible in the long term.

____________________________

*This article is a subchapter of the book "The Stuff We Are Made Of - Why We Must Rethink Nature and Society," by Fabian Scheidler, Piper-Verlag, 2021, 23.90 CHF, 20.00 Euro.

From the publisher's announcement: "Ecological crisis and climate chaos threaten the future of humanity. One of the causes is a technocratic worldview that degrades nature to a controllable resource in the hands of man. In a fascinating journey through the history of science, Fabian Scheidler shows that this view of nature is a fatal error. With a surprising new look at life, science, and ourselves, this book opens perspectives for profound social change."

FOOTNOTE

[i] Lloyd's Emerging Risk Report 2015: Food System Shock. The insurance impacts of acute disruption to global food supply.

Author and dramaturge Fabian Scheidler, born in 1968, is co-founder of the independent television magazine Kontext TV. In 2009, he received the Otto Brenner Media Prize for Critical Journalism for his journalistic-artistic work at Attac. In 2015, he published his book "The End of the Megamachine. Geschichte einer scheiternden Zivilisation" by Promedia Verlag (Vienna).

It will be followed by a second part: "Overcoming the epidemic of loneliness".

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countertext: We have a problem

by Ariane Tanner

[This article published on 9/16/2021 is translated from the German on the Internet, kontertext: Wir haben ein Problem - infosperber.]

Climate change is often referred to as "humanity's greatest challenge." Time for a change of words.

Imagine the crew of Apollo 13, back in 1970 on their way to the moon, when a detonation had just rocked their spacecraft. The radio message to the ground station was not "Houston, we are facing a challenge here", but the astronauts reported "a problem".

This problem was spatially quite manageable, it concerned only their spaceship (and possibly the prestige of a nation in the Cold War). If, on the other hand, we are talking about the destructive consequences of global warming, this concerns the whole planet. Nevertheless, in German-language socio-political discourse, the term "challenge" is incessantly associated with climate change.

Even when the Tages-Anzeiger writes that "more and more people are losing their livelihoods" and that it is "about the existence of entire states": "Climate change is the greatest challenge of the 21st century." The fact that there are also fears for the existence in completely different areas, which are neither affected by drought, floods nor destroyed landscapes, was described by the NZZ for the banking sector, for which "climate change is a complex challenge", even "one of the greatest challenges of our time" (besides drinking water, biodiversity, etc.).

The language of "challenge" is about as effective as a failed magic trick. All that remains is embarrassment. The term sounds like a series on SRF with the title "Summer Challenge". It's about the surfer Cyril and "the wave of his life" or Nicole, who wants to sail down the Aare with a "stand-up paddle board"... what you do when you undertake an individual test of courage!

Exactly here lies the semantic weakness of these "challenges" and "challenges": I can accept them or reject them. I go kitesurfing - or I don't go. That's why every politician - especially when he knows his own best years are behind him - can confidently let pass by what is "the greatest challenge of the 21st century for mankind". Even Greenpeace has already adopted this language: "Climate change is the greatest challenge currently facing humanity."

Is it conceivable that this toned-down choice of language is also promoted by the fear of being put in the "radical" or "extreme" corner? In Switzerland, this danger exists especially when it comes to environmental concerns. Just think back to the poster campaign against the drinking water initiative and against the pesticide initiative during the national referenda of June 13, 2021. While scientifically based warnings by EAWAG on the pollution of water bodies were available during the same period (Federal Councilor Guy Parmelin tried to prevent publication), opponents of the initiatives plastered the countryside and farms with banners against the "extreme agricultural initiatives." Also in the case of the demonstrations in front of banks by climate activists, their action is turned against them by the NZZ ("do themselves no favors there") and it is called "Zwängerei", when in reality quite different things would be called for, such as - here it comes - "competition of ideas, innovation and price signals". (NZZ of 8/3/2021)

"Challenge" and "challenge/competition" perfectly fit neoliberal management-speak, but not climate change. All terms are a colossal trivialization. They are also a very poor translation from English: The United Nations, in fact, calls climate change "the greatest threat humanity has ever faced." It is also the "biggest threat" to the global economy. Or, as 200 medical journals recently informed, it is not Covid 19, but climate change - "the greatest threat to public health on the globe." Accordingly, the European Union had already declared a "climate emergency" in 2019.

An emergency must be addressed, a threat must be averted. Those who find this too 'alarmist' could at least say, realistically, "We have a problem." And problems are there to be solved. Conveniently, in this case, we already know the solution: net zero. No more CO2 emissions. Even the International Energy Agency (IEA), which in the past had not been known for its guilty conscience, knows this: no more CO2 emissions from 2050, no more combustion engines from 2035. But when it comes to naming this great revolution in the energy sector and in mobility, even the IEA has no other rhetorical solution: "This transformation to net zero emissions by 2050 (i.e. the transition to the post-fossil age) is the greatest challenge facing mankind."

Have politicians here in Switzerland recognized the problem and now feel responsible for finding the best answers to global warming? And if it can't do it itself, does it get the know-how to do it and create framework conditions for all those people who want to achieve sustainability in the present and know how to do it?

Reto Knutti, professor of climate physics at ETH Zurich, stated in an interview with Focus on August 28, 2021: "What's missing is the political will." This is matched by SRF's Sept. 5, 2021, news item, "Federal Council dissolves scientific climate advisory council OcCC." Meanwhile, in Germany, a video by YouTuber Rezo, "Destruction Part 2: Climate Catastrophe," went viral, wherein he reports not only on the general inaction (or then activity in favor of coal mines), but also on the shameless ignorance of German politicians in positions of responsibility.

What distinguishes Rezo's videos in each case is profound research (articles, data, interviews) and detailed sourcing. He often does what one might expect from quality newspapers, especially in preparation for a chancellor election in Germany. Here in Switzerland, too, the reporting by established media leaves much to be desired. For example, regarding the above-mentioned article - cancellation of the climate council - one does not learn who had this idea and how it will now proceed.

Apparently there are ideas for a "new form" of such a federal council, but who is responsible for finding this new form and by when?

It is also unambitious when Watson still did a "big climate survey" in 2019 and the fourth statement on the "Sorgometer" was: "There is no man-made climate change." Is that how you want to be remembered by a public? Politicians and media people have the choice whether they want to inscribe themselves now positively into this no longer quite so young 21st century or nevertheless rather uninspiredly to the always same state.

Speaking of how to be remembered: The much quoted bon mot from Apollo 13 - "Houston, we have a problem" - was so not said. The astronaut's message to the ground station immediately after the explosion was, "Houston, we've had a problem." We had a problem! For a suspenseful film version of the dramatic space flight, the past tense was of course useless; so the sentence was put into the present tense and entered the cultural memory in this way. By the way, it fits better to the actual events on board, because the explosion was only the beginning of a cascade of problems, which had to do with the ruptured tank, a damaged outer shell, oxygen shortage and the disturbed CO2 circulation in the space capsule. But it turned out well.

Analogies to space travel in relation to climate change are always lame. No one wants a select group of technocrats at the helm of "Spaceship Earth." But problems are there to be solved everywhere - whether in space or on planet Earth. And courageous people are always needed to turn a cascade of problems into a good development.

Ariane Tanner holds a PhD in history, specializing in the history of science and the environment.

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