Video: Jason W. Moore – Our Capitalogenic World: Humanity, Nature, and the Making of a Planetary Crisis
Charting the development of capitalism as a “world-ecology,” understood as a system of power, capital, and nature, Moore shows how the planetary crisis today cannot be adequately understood as a conflict of “humans” and “nature.”
On July 21, Jason W. Moore gave a presentation at The Swiss Institute for Contemporary Art in New York entitled "Our Capitalogenic World: Humanity, Nature, and the Making of a Planetary Crisis", in conjunction with artist Sam Lewitt's exhibition Less Light Warm Worlds.
While the language of “anthropogenic” change is now common in discussions of global warming, mass extinction, and other biospheric shifts, it may be more plausible to speak of “capitalogenic” change — made not by all humans, but by capitalism. Charting the development of capitalism as a “world-ecology,” understood as a system of power, capital, and nature, Moore shows how the planetary crisis today cannot be adequately understood as a conflict of “humans” and “nature.” Rather, the making of planetary crisis is rooted in capitalism’s peculiar way of organizing nature, one committed to “putting nature to work” for free or low cost. The long era of Cheap Nature, inaugurated in 1492, is now coming to an end. Thinking and acting in radically emancipatory ways in the decades ahead will require new ways of thinking life, power, and justice.
Watch a full video of Moore's talk below.
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