Global warming, climate change, the ecological crisis. Tipping points, extinction events. Conservation, green fascism. Carbon footprint, carbon offsets, carbon capture, neocolonialism. How we talk about the disaster is strongly related to how we respond to it, and how we understand it. Is it a countdown to an impending future event, a danger we are beginning to see the early signs of, or a catastrophe that has been ongoing for at least 500 years? The answer to these questions, and the language we use to pose the questions, can determine whether we consider a proposed response to the problem as compelling or completely absurd, whether a delusional half-measure or an exaggerated non-sequitur. The fact that, faced with the same problem, people lack a common language and reach such polarized viewpoints, has become a structural part of the problem itself.

Peter Gelderloos, author of The Solutions Are Already Here, will discuss how centrist approaches like conservation and carbon capture, and even approaches considered progressive like the Green New Deal, are responses to the needs of the current political and economic system rather than responses to the actual crisis that is unfolding. Moreover, there is strong evidence that our current system of government and capitalism is inherently and integrally ecocidal, that under any political program it would lead to broadly similar results as regards the ability of our planet to support life. As a result, standard approaches to dealing with the disaster will ignore or suppress the kinds of movements and solutions that are our greatest hope. This event will tie this analysis with exactly these kinds of movements, groups that offer a strategic horizon for facing our intersecting and most pressing challenges.

Peter will be joined by local activists from StopCampGrayling, a new initiative campaigning against the proposal to grant 162,000 acres of public lands, water, and forests to Michigan’s National Guard, a proposal threatening to destroy precious habitats, poison water sources, and increase militarization, all while expanding the army base at Grayling to twice the size of Chicago.