Svartsokka

ÖSKRA var með fyrirlestur á DÖKKGRÆNUM DÖGUM sem kom í framhaldinu af Grænum Dögum sem haldnir voru í Háskóla Íslands. Grænir dagar voru um ekkert annað en neyslubreytingar og hvernig þær breytingar breyta núverandi ástandi til hins góða.Vandamálið er hinsvegar neyslan sjálf og munaðurinn, gljáandi eplin og þrútnar paprikurnar sem við krefjumst aðgangs að 24 klukkutíma sólarhrings. Við vitum öll hvað gerist þegar dagsetning dauðans gengur í garð. Öllu er hent meðan 45.000 einstaklingar, þar af 39.000 börn, deyja daglega af vannæringu.

SvartSokka birtir hér fyrirlesturinn í heild sinni

Green Consumerism – Öskra’s Dark Green Days 2009

I am not an expert in environmental issues and to be honest, I am completely against the idea of experts and non-experts, because it creates one more layer of authority in our society. Experts and scientists have the authority to always have the final saying in discussions and debates, even though their definitions and “facts” are usually partly based on the denial of emotions and relationships, both between a human and another human, as well as between humans and animals, human and plants, human and the natural environment.

As hard it might to believe I am simply a human being – a part of the natural environment – but like all of us I have been separated from the natural environment by this culture of concrete, high technology, “expertism”, ignorance and violence.

I am not here to talk as an expert or as a scientist, but as a human being caring for my fellow human and non-human beings, and the natural environment as whole – ready and willing to fight for it, against this culture of destruction – capitalism.

The motivation for Öskra’s Dark Green Days was a week of events organized by Gaia – students of environmental and resources studies here in the University – advertised as Green Days. There were several things about the Green Days that Öskra saw as a problem. First of all the Green Days did not offer any radical (if any) critique on capitalism even though capitalism is one of the main roots of the ecological crisis the whole world is facing. Secondly, the organizers seem to see us – human beings – only as consumers; the main focus of the Green Days was the so-called “Green Consumerism”. This definition – i.e. human beings = consumers – is first of all capitalism’s definition. We thought it unbelievably ignorant to look at the ecological crisis in this perspective and I personally wondered who really is paying the people of Gaia for being silent.

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So, what ecological crisis am I talking about and how are they connected with capitalism?

With ecological crisis I am talking about many different things, which all have in common to be the result of our unsustainable culture, but as well the ground basis for it. This includes destruction of rainforests and their ecosystems, destruction and displacement of species and indigenous tribes (possibly the only people in the world who could call their lifestyle CO2 free), over fishing, mining of mountains, air and water pollution, drying, the constantly debated global warming and all it’s side effects, etc. etc.

Capitalism is based on the idea of constant growth of ones capital and this economical growth is practiced by production and consumption. Still theoretically, production and consumption do not necessary have to create economical growth for one individual so there upon the growth is built on the use and exploitation of humans, non-humans and other parts of the nature, slavery and violence, ecocides and genocides.

To take an example, we can go through the production line of aluminium step by step, starting from the mining of bauxite and it’s parallel destruction of the environment and the displacement of human communities; the refining of alumina, shipping of the alumina to a smelter site, the final production of aluminium, the shipping to a factory where an aluminium based product is produced, the transportation of that product to a shop, then the consumers home, than to the consumers trash, and finally back to the natural environment, but this time as a polluting waste.

In continuation of Gaia’s Green Days, I want to pick out the consumer.

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“Green consumerism” is capitalism’s way to put all responsibility on the individual, or more so: the consumer. Not so long time ago most corporations denied the ecological crisis, e.g. global warming. But at a certain point – when the environmental issues had become more of a public issue – CEO’s seem to have realized that if they would not take a stand in the discussion about the environment, they would loose business. So as a response to that discussion, corporations came up with their own “solutions” to these problems, which all have one thing in common: the continuation of their production and the continuation of the unchanged role of the consumer. Suddenly purchasing from a certain company that only few months earlier had denied the ecological crisis had become the solution to the exactly same crisis.

And that is what ”green consumerism” is about: making sure that people’s consumption patterns do not change radically, but can be reformed with few “green” and “fair” steps; to make sure that the amount of corporations’ income does not lower; to make sure that the capital continues to grow.

And green consumerism has an extra bonus: the consumers’ “feel good”. We are told that by purchasing product A instead of product B, we do ours to prevent the further destruction of the planet; that it is a step good enough for us to take and not go any further than that. Stickers on products tell us that by buying it we help “saving the earth” or “creating a better future for coffee farmers”.

Let’s stop for a minute and look into some of the things that are included in green consumerism, e.g. organic production of food, fair trade with food producers and workers, and recycling. Does not sound too bad, does it?

I don’t think we have to have a debate about the benefits of organic food production. Food without pesticides, food that is not genetically modified is so much more healthier for the land base it is grown on and the human or non-human animal that eats it. Fair trade with food producers is something that most honest persons would believe is already taking place and recycling waste seems to be one of the most logical behaviors. By looking at these things as single events, behaviors and actions, it might seem hard to speak against them. But when they are presented – like green consumerism and capitalism does – as the solutions to the ecological crisis, we are as fair away from the truth as we can ever get.

These methods are not used in a revolutionary way, but instead squeezed into capitalism’s ideology and turned into reforms. We are told that the whole system is not the problem, but only single parts of the whole chain, that can be fixed and therefore the system can be fixed and made better.

But the problem is the whole chain. Capitalism is the problem!

The whole global capitalist system is based on transport and current transport is based on oil. This means that when oil resources finish in the world the system needs a new fuel or method of transport to be able to continue its run. This new method has to serve the same amount of transportations as oil does – even more, since the system is constantly expanding, including the amount of transport. New methods are already being researched and put in to practice, e.g. bio-fuels, electricity, methane and hydro.

These are first and only reforms that will be put into practice to prevent real social and ecological changes to take place. The question asked should not be: “With what will we replace oil?” but instead: “How can we create a sustainable world, not depended on this amount of transport?”

Firstly, the methods mentioned earlier are not as “eco-friendly” as they are presented. Bio-fuels, e.g. ethanol, are produced of crops, which means that incredibly many and huge land fields are needed to sustain the capitalist system. And where will this production take place? Not in the western world, if one looks at the history of our culture. Fields that other wise would an should be used for food production will be (and are being) used for the western consumers to be able to keep up their living standards, drive like before, purchase like before, consume like before – and even more!

Secondly, the production of e.g. new electronic, methane or ethanol-run cars and transports needs as much use of raw materials and water – aluminium, steel, plastic etc. – as the old petrol cars. This point about the raw materials and water used for production seems to be left out of the discussion about green consumerism, on purpose. How is the capitalist system going to continue its production of stuff – of trash – no matter how “green” it is – without harming the natural world?  The same story goes with the organic food. No matter how eco-friendly the food is grown, it goes the same long way of transport as the aluminum; it goes through the same production line of being transported from one continent to another, repeatedly packed and un-packed in plastic, getting to the shelves of a supermarket as a 200 gr. pack of luxury food, ending in the consumer’s trash bin.

Bio-fuels mean ecocide, aluminum means cultural genocide, capitalism – “green” or differently colored – means non-sustainability, injustice, destruction,

Green consumerism does not include equal distribution of food, resources and money. It does not include horizontal way of organizing, the dismantling of hierarchy. It does not include critique against a system that allows one or few persons to make money out of other people’s work and lives. It does not include equality, justice and sustainability. It simply makes us believe that we as consumers are taking the only actions that needs to be taken… or even that there really are not so much of environmental problems at all!

The owner of an organic food company can be as much of an asshole as the owner of a non-organic food company. His workers can be as oppressed as other workers, getting the same low or even lower wages as others. He can care as little for the environment as other businessmen, because “Organic” has been come a trademark for the company only, a stamp saying: “Buy Me!” The capitalistic food production does not take place to make sure that every one can eat, but to make one person or few person rich. This aim can be practiced with a little more “ethical” outlook than in other cases, but in the end it is the same old dirt.

“Fair Trade” is also a trademark – a stamp – for a product. As well as the organic stamp, Fair Trade is not revolutionary and is not aiming for radical social change. It is a way to make the consumer feel like he did his job and therefore to keep silent. And recycling serves the same job. Of course should we recycle, but the key problem is not how we can get all the trash we produce out of our own sight, but the fact that we produce all this trash! And not only we – the consumers – but instead this whole culture, this system: global capitalism.

Green consumerism does not challenge the public’s way of living, created by and for the authorities: work, buy, consume and die! It keeps the public in the same daily routine – inside each individual’s tiny box of life, with its mind somewhere far away from the problems our culture has created and is creating. It keeps the western world public distanced from oppressed people around the globe and away from the roots of the destruction of the natural environment. This helps the authorities and corporations (which should of course be included in the word “authorities”) and gives them all the space and time they need to do their business-as-usual. Green consumerism keeps us in the role of consumers, away from the real fight for the continuation of life on this planet.

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With green consumerisms, corporations and governments have moved all responsibility from their own shoulders on to the individual as a consumer. What change does it make to take shorter showers and change our light bulbs if aluminium production is still taking place, with its use of thousands and thousands tons of water for every to of aluminum, the displacement of people, destruction of bauxite mountains? What change does it make to buy organic yogurt if soft-drink producers are still being allowed to dry up and pollute water resources? What change does it make to get drunk with “green” drinks if governments are still asking for and getting further permissions for Greenhouse Gases emission? What change does it make buy biodegradable plastic bags when national armies and war institutions are blowing up whole communities, raping, murdering, slaving and exploiting? What change does it make to buy fair trade coffee at Starbucks when Starbucks still exists?

Organic food is for sure a part of a justice and fair world. Fair Trade – not as trademark, but as an act – or even No Trade, but instead Mutual Aid, is a goal worth fighting for. Recycling and re-using should be common sense. But these are ways of living, not tactics in the struggle for the natural environment. And they are being used against us as tactics in the war against life.

We should not only struggle for the wellbeing of our selves, of other human animals or specific non-human animals, not only for the protection of a particular land base known to us. One might consider it a romantic cliché, but I do not: What we need is a revolution! We need a revolution that has the aim to dismantle all power structures, including corporations and other money based hierarchies, to prevent them from doing more damage that they have already done. This will not be done with organic shopping, but rather with the first step of deconstructing the idea of “shopping” as a part of our daily routine – with dismantling our identity as consumers only and re-identify as humans, as a part of the natural environment we originally come from.