In the Shadow of Death

Heather Alberro

doi:10.31273/eirj.v8i2.510

Abstract

This article posits that the myriad socio-ecological crises that mark the Anthropocene have generated a novel form of green utopianism or ‘ecotopianism’ in the form of contemporary radical environmental activists (REAs). Drawing on posthuman and green utopian theoretical tributaries, the article seeks to critically assess how the intrusion of crisis into the present influences REAs’ modality of ecotopianism, in particular their relations to central utopian concepts of ‘hope’ and ‘futurity’. REAs are embroiled in a fervent refusal of the ‘present’ of climate and ecological decline, frequently emphasizing the need to create micro-exemplars within the ‘here and now’ and evincing scepticism towards closure around particular notions of ‘the better’. REAs’ singular mode of ‘hopeless activism’ is not devoid of hope but rather disavows hope in its abstract and future-oriented modality, instead emphasizing a ‘critical modality’ of hope. The latter, stemming from REAs’ post-anthropocentric worldviews and deep kinship bonds with the nonhuman world, is fuelled by grief over the extant widespread loss of cherished Earth kin and moulded by a desire to create a ‘not-yet’ devoid of the widespread absence of Earth others. The article concludes with reflections on the nature of hope, loss of life and the utopian imaginary amid times pervaded by crisis, and on the potential for co-constructing more liveable worlds with Earth others.

Highlights

This article posits that the myriad socio-ecological crises that mark the Anthropocene have generated a novel form of green utopianism or ‘ecotopianism’ in the form of contemporary radical environmental activists (REAs)
The extant widespread loss of Earth others is no mere existential crisis threatening the continuity of human life but, fundamentally, an ethical one implicating the steady erosion of intricate multispecies relations forged over vast spatial and temporal horizons
REAs may be posited as utopian in the sense that they engage in multidimensional critiques and fervent resistance against the status quo of global capitalism and its ecological dislocations (Sargisson, 2002; Moylan, 1986), and in complex – though less explicitly articulated – ways desire to supplant it with better alternatives

Summary

Contemporary Manifestations of Ecotopia

A core premise of the green utopian or ‘ecotopian’ tradition, whether in literary or social movement form, is the notion that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way growth-oriented industrial-capitalist societies presently relate to the non-human world, and that far more ecologically harmonious attitudes, relations, and modes of subsistence are of the essence (Garforth, 2018). No longer situated aloft and disconnected from the rest of existence and other entities, are firmly re-situated within the vast assemblages that constitute reality, moving and striving alongside other actors (Latour, 2004) In line with these ontological premises, deep kinship ties between REAs, other species and the wider earth system, many REAs cite the profound urgency of the times and grief over widescale loss as key motivating factors underlying their activism. Why this occurs, what the widespread loss of cherished Earth kin via contemporary biological annihilation entails for REAs, and, crucially, how this influences their relations to key utopian concepts of hope and futurity have hitherto been underexplored. REA hope and ecotopianism more broadly, occasionally mired in an energetic hopelessness, emphasizes the need to simultaneously resist and create micro-exemplars in the ‘here and now’

The Meaning of Loss in the Era of Biological Annihilation

Findings

Building More Liveable Worlds in the Here and Now