Peaceful Coexistence 2017 #pce17

1. BIOS
Anthropocene,
capitalocene, nafthocene...
– how to think about that
which is ending and that
which is beginning
Tere Vadén, bios.fi
8.6.’17

2. BIOS

3. BIOS
http://www.mcmprime.com/books/energy-and-experience-an-essay-in-nafthology

4. BIOS
Anthropocene
• Yes, but …
• not all anthropos take part
• wrong generalisation

5. BIOS
Capitalocene
• inequality in economic decisions
• already pre-fossil capitalism
extractivist/exploitative
• “cheap nature”

6. 16.6.16BIOS
Capitalocene → Plutocene

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Capitalocene 2
•Anders Malm (Fossil Capitalism): coal was
not cheaper, but it was more capitalistic
•but: Soviet Union

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So antropocene hides
capitalocene (and anglocene),
but capitalocene in turn hides
...

9. BIOS

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Nafthocene
• phenomenologically:
-- con-distancing: bringing things close in the
mode of keeping them distant
-- deskilling, acceleration, atomisation
-- subjectivisation

11. BIOS
Naftism
• idea/notion/concept that x is independent of
nature, when (having) the idea itself is
possible only due to (a specific property of
nature, i.e.) large amounts of high quality
hydrocarbons used as fossil fuels

12. BIOS
Examples of naftism
- Marx & Engels: “All that is solid melts into air…”
- Heidegger: “Technology enframes everything as a
standing reserve for use …”
- Economics: “The invisible hand // supply/demand
-mechanism finds a substitution for anything on
the market …”

13. BIOS
Nafthocene
• ontologically and epistemologically in a
different category than capitalocene (and
anthropocene)
→ also “lesson” ontologically &
epistemologically in a different category
(e.g., nature/culture distinction not symmetric)

14. BIOS
“This bizarre situation, in which we have become potent enough to
change the course of the Earth yet seem unable to regulate
ourselves, contradicts every modern belief about the kind of
creature the human being is.”

15. BIOS
Creatures Collective:
Pangolin
- a practice that relies on the concept of
ecological sustainability interferes
negatively with a practice that exemplifies
the phenomenon of ecological
sustainability

16. BIOS
There is not a single example of a XXX that
both:
- “has” the concept of ecological
sustainability
- is ecologically sustainable

17. BIOS
… but there are ...
- examples of livelihoods that have been
non-destructive for hundreds of years…
- co-constitution & bioplurality
-- multiple generations for many generations
in a bioregion →

18. BIOS
Knowledge of
“births”/”bearing”
- syntytieto (Finnish oral tradition, Kalevala)
- “knowledge of the bearers of the
meaningfulness of a particular way of life”
- to rationalistic, Enlightenment eyes:
taboos & uselessness, not propositional

19. BIOS
Knowledge of
“births”/”bearing”
Can be conscious & deliberate:

20. 16.6.16BIOS
"If the Sami would see that there could
be more of them, they would marry
younger and grow their families. But
because they see, that most Sami
people can not cope and get no
livelihoods elsewhere, they must not
increase their numbers, meaning they
can not marry or have children. And it
has its sting, when you have the need
and love and can not do what the body
desires and the heart wants; all of that
they have to drown."

21. BIOS
Knowledge of births one
step ahead ...
- if material conditions lost, but knowledge
of births persists, new non-destructive
livelihood possible
- if knowledge of births lost, (even if
material conditions ok), non-destructive
livelihood not possible

22. BIOS
Our problems
1) knowledge of births
-- takes time (multiple generations)
-- takes non-human participation (healthy
bioregions)
2) concepts like “eocological sustainability”
or “anthropocene” disrupt the phenomenon of
understanding births/bearings