The topography of green thinking and practice in relation to climate change and peak oil: from Dark Mountains to Transition Towns', presented at the Ralahine 2012 Utopianism conference, May 2012, University of Limerick

1. John Barry
Queen‟s University Belfast
j.barry@qub.ac.uk

3. “This is the logic of free-market
capitalism: the economy must New Scientist, 16 October 2008
grow continuously or face an
unpalatable collapse. With the
environmental situation
reaching crisis point, however,
it is time to stop pretending
that mindlessly chasing
economic growth is compatible
with sustainability. Figuring
out an alternative to this
doomed model is now a
priority.”
„Why politicians dare not limit
economic growth’ Tim
Jackson, pp. 42-3.

7. Jerome K. Jerome, “It is always the best policy to tell the
truth.....unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.”

8. Grassroots/ Local
responses to peak oil
and climate change
Positive, creative,
„apolitical‟, practical
Inspiring and hopeful

11. We‟ll be transitioning to a lower energy future
whether we want to or not. Far better to ride
that wave rather than getting engulfed by it.

12. What would a post carbon world look
like?
Back to the future? ….

13. Resilience – normatively neutral concept simply denoting the
capacity to respond to, anticipate perhaps, a shock (external
or internal) and recover, cope with and „bounce back‟
Capitalism is/has been (will continue to be?) resilient
A system can be resilient but not sustainable (in the sense
indicted earlier)
Need to link resilience to sustainability‟s normative ends?
Resilience as a means (a „design principle‟ in Permaculture
terms) to sustainability ends?

14. Seems less „un-defined‟ than sustainability – more
robust, measureable and operationalisable?
Offers alternative principles to „maximisation‟ and
simple „efficiency‟ – „in built redundancy‟ , „head
room‟, „slack‟ , „useful unemployment‟
Corresponds/underpins/links to socio-economic
principles of „sufficiency‟ and „enough‟ .
Distinguishes „employment‟ and the formal/GDP
economy from „work‟ and a wider conception of
the economy, including the social/informal
economy.

16. Evolution of green
critiques from 1970s
„Limits to Growth‟
1. Ecological limits
2. Well-being limits
3. Equity /social justice
4. Economic growth as
an ideology

17. Uncivilisation: The Dark Mountain Project
Collapsonomics
Individuals/thinkers/writers
James Howard Kunstler, Derrick Jensen, Richard Heinberg, David
Korowicz,
Older „eco-authoritarians‟ : William Ophuls, Robert Heilbroner, Garrett Hardin
Films, litertature and documentaries
Cormac McCarthy‟s The Road
Life after People (documentary)
Collapse (documentary)
What a way to go: life at the end of empire
The End of Suburbia and Escape from Suburbia
Our dominant carbon-based, climate changing economic system
Is heading for inevitable collapse – it is a matter of when
and how not if.

18. 1.We live in a time of social, economic and ecological unravelling. All around us
are signs that our whole way of living is already passing into history.
2. We reject the faith which holds that the converging crises of our times can
be reduced to a set of „problems‟ in need of technological or political „solutions‟.
3.We believe that the roots of these crises lie in the stories we have been
telling ourselves. We intend to challenge the stories which underpin our
civilisation: the myth of progress, the myth of human centrality, and the myth
of our separation from „nature‟. These myths are more dangerous for the fact
thatwe have forgotten they are myths.
4.We will reassert the role of story-telling as more than mere entertainment.
It is through stories that we weave reality.
5.Humans are not the point and purpose of the planet.
6.We will celebrate writing and art which is grounded in a sense of place and of
time.
7.We will not lose ourselves in the elaboration of theories or ideologies. Our
words will be elemental. We write with dirt under our fingernails.
8.The end of the world as we know it is not the end of the world full stop.
Together, we will find the hope beyond hope, the paths which lead to the
unknown world ahead of us.

19. Is it brave, realistic and/ or defeatist and anti-human to contemplate and
prepare for civilisation collapse?
Unreasoned (and ideologically or otherwise motivated) scaremongering ?
Contemplating the fragility of civilisation and our current ways of life
A post-human vision – to be welcomed to challenge the „arrogance of
humanism‟ and (potentially) „re-enchant our disenchanted world‟ or at least
recover its intrinsic and not just instrumental value?
Post-collapse thinking – what forms of knowledge, tools, concepts, ways of
working do we need?
Thinking in a time of triage and turbulence: can democracy, justice, equality
survive a collapse?
Revisiting and learning from history: what lessons and „coping mechanisms‟
can we learn from studying the collapse of previous societies, cultures and
civilisations ?

20. “Few of us are eager to contemplate, let alone truly face, these looming
changes. Just the threat of losing chunks of the comfortable way of life
we‟re accustomed to (or aspiring to) is a frightening-enough prospect. But
there‟s no avoiding the current facts and trends of the human and
planetary situation. And as the edges of our familiar reality begin to ravel,
more and more people are reacting psychologically” (Edwards and
Buzzell, 2008).
“the journey towards sustainable living [is] a therapeutic journey” (Rust, 2008:
19).
Both positive (Transition) and realistic/negative (Dark Mountain) forms of
green thinking and practice share this attention to psychological (and
cultural) dimensions of the „great transition‟
Also strong conceptual links to resilience thinking
From „breakdown‟ can come „breakthrough‟??

21. “We are clearly now, living in a time of transition.
Our stories are crumbling before our eyes., but we
don‟t have new ones which we are yet prepared to
believe in....We can see humanity‟s utter
degradation of the rest of nature, but we don‟t
know how to stop doing it – or rather, we know
exactly how to stop doing it but we are not
prepared to even contemplate making the changes
necessary, because they would break our stories
open and leave them exposed to the wind”
(Dougald Hine and Paul Kingsnorth, 2011,
„Control and other illusions‟, Dark Mountain, Issue
2, p. 2)

22. “the inability to conceive of its own devastation is the blind
spot of any culture. By and large a culture will not teach
its young: “These are the ways in which you can
succeed, and these are the ways in which you will fail;
these are the dangers you might face, and here are
opportunities; these acts are shameful, and these are
worthy of honour – and, oh yes, one more thing, this
entire structure of evaluating the world might cease to
make sense”. (Jonathan Lear, 2006, Radical Hope:
Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation , p. 83;
emphasis added)
“Radical hope anticipates a good for which those who have
the hope as yet lack the appropriate concepts with which
to understand it” (Lear, 2006: 103).

23. “Empires and eras end. Ways of life end. But people mostly go on.
And much of what is required to keep going on, to prevent the
worse outcomes is simply to come to terms with the notion that
a radical change in your way of life is not the same thing as the
end of the world. We have always been wealthy and
comfortable and lucky here in the west and the loss of some or
all of those things seems like a disaster of unimaginable
proportions. But it doesn’t have to be – that’s a way of thinking
we can choose to discard, recognizing that those who live less
comfortable lives often value them equally. The truth is that we
need to find a way to find pleasure and hope and joy in a much
simpler, less consumptive lifestyle. That means sacrificing
some things we care about. It also means getting back some
things that truly matter”. (Sharon Astyk, 2008, Depletion &
Abundance: Life on the New Home Front, p.49; emphasis
added).
The end of the world as we know it, is not the end of the world....

24. Living and thinking with the possibility of
collapse
The rise /re-emergence of „hard green‟ thinking
and „concrete utopianism‟
„Radical Hope‟, uncertainty and improvisation
Dissident thinking and the enduring necessity
of utopianism

26. 1. Don‟t read beauty magazines. They‟ll only make you feel ugly.
2. One of the most radical political acts you can do in today‟s consumer society is to refuse to
consume.
3. You are more powerful than they can possibly imagine
4. Slow, down, relax – there is wisdom in Winnie the Pooh‟s words, “Sometimes I sits and thinks.
And sometimes I just sits.”
5. Commit serial acts of senseless beauty as often as you can.
6. Don‟t wait for permission. Do it and if needs be apologise afterwards, but don‟t wait on
permission.
7. Remember, „hypocrisy is the tribute the vice pays to virtue‟.
8. Political activism is the rent you pay for living on the planet.
9. Be honest. Unlike dishonesty it means you have less to remember.
10. Experts and expertise, no matter how well-meaning, should be „on tap, not on top‟.
11. Something should be desired because it is good, not good merely because it is desired.
12. When you point your finger at someone else, there are three more pointing back at you.
13. The map is not the territory.
14. Don‟t sit on the fence, you‟ll only get splinters on your arse.
15. When running for elected office, dress to the right…and vote to the left.
16. We know we‟re making progress towards sustainability when our schools and hospitals are
well-resourced and it is the Army that needs bake-sales to raise money for weapons
17. Never trust politicians…especially Irish ones!

27. “Villages are the basic government and economic unit of human society...
Villages are the minimal level of complexity required for an enduring culture
and all the diverse political complexities of human society arose from
villages. When we fall, we fall into villages, and when we rise, we rise
from villages. But successful village life places powerful behavioral
demands on people and visits harsh punishments on transgressors”
(Somma, 2009: 33; emphasis added)
Brute survival versus democracy, justice, gender equality etc.
"The cry for bread will always be uttered with one voice. In so far as we
all need bread, we are indeed all the same, and may as well unite into
one body. .. The political trouble which misery holds in store is that
manyness can in fact assume the guise of oneness“, Hannah Arendt
(1963), On Revolution, (Penguin), p.94.
In the struggle for survival „our daily bread‟, pluralism, the precondition for
democracy, is impossible, so non-democratic and often violent, coercive
means are used