What kind of action does climate emergency* hail?
Unable to respond to everything all at once, how to prioritise? What’s the difference between a small action and a big one in a time of “great derangement”? How to we understand the action not only in relation to environment (extinction, warming, drought etc) but human social struggles too? Originally conceptualised as “doings”, this discussion moved to be about doings and scale: what are we doing and at what scale are we doing it and how do we understand it.
Thinking with the feminist economics of JK Gibson-Graham and the meditations of failure of Natalie Osborne, this session we invite you to share your doings – the shuttling between your creative or scholarly lives and activism – in relation to the question: is it enough? If so, why? If not, why not?
*we still aren’t sure about the “climate emergency” per se. See our week on the emergency for more info.
When: 10am-11.30am (AEDST, GMT +11) Wednesday 13th November
Where: ZOOM https://une-au.zoom.us/j/580608731
Lead Composters: Sue Reid and Jennifer Hamilton
Readings:
- Gibson-Graham, JK “Imagining and Enacting a Feminist Economic Politics“
- Osborne, Natalie “For a still possible cities: a politics of failure for the politically depressed“
Bring an: anecdote about your related doings – big and/or small – research and impact related, or otherwise.
Complementary links:
Boochani, ‘A Letter from Manus Island’ https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2017/12/09/letter-manus-island/15127380005617
Winzer, ‘We need a Blak New Deal to fight the climate crisis’ https://overland.org.au/2019/09/we-need-a-blak-new-deal-to-fight-the-climate-crisis/
IPCC Press Conference – Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (Start at 38:36) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYFMCU8L0zU
Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/download-report/
Refuge – Arts House https://www.artshouse.com.au/ourprograms/refuge/
On Michael Mobbs, prepping, escape and its opposite (community): https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/29/sustainability-expert-michael-mobbs-im-leaving-the-city-to-prep-for-the-apocalypse& Responses to Michael Mobbs: Tim Hollo https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/04/as-the-climate-collapses-we-can-either-stand-together-or-perish-alone, Amy Gray https://threader.app/thread/1178124829246906368
Hamilton, On Bucketing Water… https://overland.org.au/2019/09/on-bucketing-water-and-a-response-to-jonathan-franzen/
Haraway, Donna interview; Terranova, Fabrizio, film director, Storytelling for Earthly Survival Icarus Films 2017 (Available for hire on Vimeo)
Image: ‘Meteor Crater’, Tim Rawle https://www.flickr.com/photos/timrawle/4549146331/ Creative Commons License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
composting 