Half thinking of starting an #AcademicVenting hashtag here, about the dire, dire state of UK (global?) higher education. Sharing nuggets of senior management decisions, neoliberal language, and overall slow collapse.
Won’t work of course because most of us can’t risk honesty, but honestly: the everyday reality of what is happening deserves recording in all its depressing and damning detail. #Universities#AcademicChatter#neoliberalism
Yesterday we were informed we will have 130 FT redundancies. More with part time staff included. We are 644 so potentially a quarter of us. From 11 departments, including #anthropology.
We don’t know yet who. I don’t know how these decisions are made (it’s related to which programmes or modules will be closed). I feel completely sick the whole time. Far beyond venting, just existential fear.
@inquiline thank you so much. I am almost a bit surprised by how much it has been affecting me- it feels like everything is spinning all the time. I wonder whether that’s because it is so much part of everything else we are observing and worrying about; the #Polycrisis etc; or because of ongoing, stupid over-identiifcation with Goldsmiths and Anthropology; or whether that is just what it’s like. But working hard now on saving Anthropology at Goldsmiths (and our jobs)!
There's an interesting discussion on what some call the #polycrisis -- the set of interrelated, growing problems the world faces from #climate change to #fakenews etc -- over at The Well, in the "State of the World 2024" discussion with @bruces and @jonl
@ai6yr Just think of all the methane & waste that protocol will generate! (Yes, I am totally composting any and all dead chickens I encounter into soil, not landfilling them). #PolyCrisis#Compostodon
We Are Witnessing the First Stages of Civilization’s #Collapse
Will our own elites perform any better than the rulers of Chaco Canyon, the Mayan heartland, and Viking Greenland?
by Michael T. Klare, August 22, 2023
"The question today is: Will our own elites perform any better than the rulers of Chaco Canyon, the Mayan heartland, and Viking Greenland?
"As Diamond argues, each of those civilizations arose in a period of relatively benign climate conditions, when temperatures were moderate and food and water supplies adequate. In each case, however, the climate shifted wrenchingly, bringing persistent drought or, in Greenland’s case, much colder temperatures. Although no contemporary written records remain to tell us how the ruling elites responded, the archaeological evidence suggests that they persisted in their traditional ways until disintegration became unavoidable."
"Diamond identified three key indicators or precursors of imminent dissolution: a persistent pattern of environmental change for the worse like long-lasting droughts; signs that existing modes of agriculture or industrial production were aggravating the crisis; and an elite failure to abandon harmful practices and adopt new means of production. At some point, a critical threshold is crossed and collapse invariably follows."
..and they gave him a fucking award for it, and economists act like he's god's gift to science because he doesn't straight up deny climate change or its impact.
Anyone know where and when the term #polycrisis originated? I heard it for the first time just a few days ago, and now I’ve seen it used multiple times today. The new thing? Simply frequency bias on my part? In any case, feels strange to come across a new term for a phenomenon about which I’m fairly well read.
#ClimateDiary small bug but: I am getting so fed up with finding the right words to use when writing about climate/ecology #ClimateCrisis#PolyCrisis stuff. Doing a proposal just now and:
Honestly, one of the worst things of the #Polycrisis is not even the horrors currently happening: rampant disease, flooding, droughts, enormous wildfires, destroyed crops, etc etc...
It's feeling like you're losing your mind for thinking we should maybe do something about all of those, while everyone around you just shrugs.
And the Very Serious People In Power are really just saying we need to Capitalism harder.
And maybe consider voting, once every few years.
#ClimateDiary This is probably the most direct impact #ClimateChange is having on my life: making getting to work and back really hard - it’s happening more and more. Minor compared to so many other much worse impacts for others elsewhere, i know, but it’s a bit stressful and my whole set-up feels increasingly untenable. Though my university has such huge financial problems these worries my soon resolve themselves! #Polycrisis#StormCiaran
Same week as the hottest temperatures ever recorded on earth. Flying is a direct cause of the current accelerating collapse of our ecosystems and ability to produce food around the world. We can choose to recognize this and act now. We can choose to divest.
Climate response is up to us. Local response, local mitigation, local adaptation in our own communities.
Some claim it is nothing new. We believe the polycrisis is new. We believe a confluence of environmental, social, technological, financial-economic, natural and other forces are interacting with ever increasing unpredictability, rapidity and power.
Our friends Asher Miller and Richard Heinberg at the Post Carbon Institute and Resilience.org use this powerful phrase for the task ahead for all of us: Navigating the great unraveling. #Resilience.org
Decent read. It has the same format as most 'intro to #degrowth' articles:
"The current idea is green growth. Sounds good, right?"
"Oh wait that's empirically impossible"
"Here's the new idea: degrowth. It's the only way we avoid environmental collapse"
"But achieving that is such a huge task that it appears impossible, because a growth based economy, vested interests and cultural inertia make it politically untenable"
There is one big, gaping hole in the article, however. It completely avoids talk of interlinked natural systems, which is a key reason why green growth is bogus.
Yes, we can decouple some environmental impacts from economic activity, like emissions, but many we can't. That's why the problem facing us gets called the #polycrisis - it's not just climate that's the problem but the pressure we're placing on all Earth's systems.
"Flattening the environmental #polycrisis into a supposedly singular crisis of greenhouse emissions obscures the many ways in which Western civilization degrades the environment — ways that often don’t lend themselves so readily to #EngineeringSolutions or economic profit to be made from the transition to “green” technologies and which demand a more fundamental reckoning with our civilization’s lopsided relationship with nature."
I get things are weird and eschatological in the #polycrisis, but emotional regulation is a form of #GenerationalWealth.
By LOSING YOUR SHIT at the slightest provocation and expressing those emotions across digital networks, you are playing the role of the persona whom the antagonists are seeking to trigger.
Welcome to the Great Unraveling
An Orientation to the Polycrisis
Join us at 11:00 AM US Pacific Time on Thursday, May 14, 2024 for Welcome to the Great Unraveling: An Orientation to the Polycrisis, a free online event that will help you get clarity on the big picture.
From featured speakers Dr. Lyla June Johnston and Kumi Naidoo, you’ll learn:
How humanity’s pursuit of endless growth got us into this mess
Why climate change, biodiversity loss, and other issues are symptoms of a larger systemic problem
A framework for understanding the converging crises of the 21st century
Ways you can get involved in being part of the solution
These are uncertain times. But with understanding comes power.
Join us for this enlightening session that will equip you to face the future with knowledge, purpose, and hope.
Everyone who registers will receive a link to the recording after the event.