{"id":10500,"date":"2015-07-29T06:41:29","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T11:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=10500"},"modified":"2015-07-29T06:41:29","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T11:41:29","slug":"beyond-extinction-transition-to-post-capitalism-is-inevitable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=10500","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Extinction: Transition to post-capitalism is inevitable"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Beyond Extinction:\u00a0Transition to post-capitalism is inevitable<\/a><\/h3>\n

In Margaret Atwood\u2019s powerful essay on the reality of climate change\u200a\u2014\u200aand its implications for the future of oil-dependent industrial civilization\u200a\u2014\u200ashe tells two vastly distinct stories of our future.<\/p>\n

The first is a tale of dystopia\u200a\u2014\u200aa future so bleak, it would make Hollywood moguls looking for the next science fiction blockbuster of action-packed (post)apocalypse salivate with anticipation. Here, Atwood tells a story of human failure: of short-sighted choices based on fatal addiction to business-as-usual, and an egoistic hubris rooted in centuries of globalisation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max: Fury Road (credit: Warner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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In this scenario, we largely ignore the overwhelming evidence of climate change, and the result is that industrial civilization enters a period of protracted collapse, fuelled by accelerating war, famine, and natural disasters.<\/p>\n

The second is a vision of utopia\u200a\u2014\u200aa collectivist dream-world in which everybody works together, harnessing the best of human ingenuity across society, economics, politics and technology, to peacefully restructure the fundamentals of human existence. Here, Atwood tells a story of human success: of far-sighted decisions based on confronting the follies of business-as-usual, and by embracing our unity as a species.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Image of a future techno-utopia by Staszek Marek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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In this scenario, we act on the overwhelming evidence of climate change, and the result is that industrial civilization enters a period of carefully calibrated transition to a techno-utopian post-capitalist, post-materialist infrastructure, avoiding the worst of today\u2019s scientific warnings.<\/p>\n

Crossroads<\/h4>\n

Of course, both these scenarios are extremes, but there is a purpose to such extremes. Atwood uses the power of story to help us awaken to the starkness\u200a\u2014\u200aand gravity\u200a\u2014\u200aof the choice we now face: a choice, effectively, between hell and heaven on earth.<\/p>\n

And Atwood is spot on when she notes that this is not just about climate change.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Beyond Extinction:\u00a0Transition to post-capitalism is inevitable In Margaret Atwood\u2019s powerful essay on the reality of climate change\u200a\u2014\u200aand its implications for the future of oil-dependent industrial civilization\u200a\u2014\u200ashe tells two vastly distinct stories of our future. The first is a tale of dystopia\u200a\u2014\u200aa future so bleak, it would make Hollywood moguls looking for the next science fiction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[28,150,7628,287,4811,2092,6414,809],"class_list":["post-10500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-survival-2","tag-apocalypse","tag-collapse","tag-dystopica","tag-extinction","tag-margaret-atwood","tag-nafeez-ahmed","tag-post-capitalism","tag-transition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10501,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10500\/revisions\/10501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}