Is Extractivism a Prime Cause of the Polycrisis? A Discussion of the Political Economy of Anthropogenic Existential Risks

Is Extractivism a Prime Cause of 
the Polycrisis? A Discussion of the Political Economy of Anthropogenic Existential Risks

A WEBINAR CO-HOSTED BY

EXTRA – Existential Threats and Risks To All, and
EXALT – The Global Extractivisms and Alternatives Initiative, University of Helsinki

A range of existential risks, increasingly converging, is threatening the world. The complexity of this emerging polycrisis demands that numerous risks be considered simultaneously. This may seem like an impossible task for policymakers on all levels, but the challenge is greatly reduced if we can instead identify and address the underlying causes. In this webinar, we consider one of these underlying causes, Extractivism.

The dominant global culture of the Anthropocene age is characterised by a brazen attitude toward nature and other people alike: A belief that we must take all we can before someone else does, rather than taking only the minimum we need to survive. Globalised consumer culture has been with us since the 1960s, approximately, though it did not arrive everywhere at once and still eludes the world’s poorest. This prevailing attitude, favouring extraction, consumption, and profit maximisation, became increasingly radical over time. With the rise of neoliberalism in the early 1980s, an extremely extractivist attitude was openly celebrated, turning vice into virtue by proclaiming that ‘greed is good’. Natural and human resources have been extracted relentlessly ever since, especially from the Global South and from working people everywhere, and mainly for the benefit of the Global North and the privileged few. Consumers are nevertheless implicated by, and share some responsibility for, this extractivist system. Most recently, techno-capitalism is taking extractivism into new domains such as data mining.

This dominant cultural attitude was not always acceptable, does not apply everywhere even today, and is therefore not to be regarded as a natural and unchangeable condition. It is our choice how we handle natural resources, and while we may not be able to avoid extraction altogether, there are better ways to use and reuse them. The crucial question this debate addresses is: What alternative approaches should be adopted as a guiding principle for natural resource management policy to help avert a full-blown polycrisis in the near future?

Speakers: