11/6/18 Charlie Magun Sintra Martins Milagros Hadad Daryl Pazer (Absent) Our beginning questions that we would like to ask Leonardo Figueroa Helland: Have there been any efforts (specifically in New York) to reform agriculture with indigenous knowledge or practices? Is Helland optimistic? What are his takeaways from his research? Could the United States incentivize [...]
Group 7: Armando, Ousmane, Oscar Our group’s question for Dr. Figueroa-Helland aimed to understand his position on the people he defined as indigenous “white-allies” using indigenous methods of permaculture or agriculture in their personal lives. Figueroa-Helland expressed his disappointment that most modern permaculture practices do not explicitly recognize that the use of permaculture is not [...]
Group Post October 23rd, 2018 Danielle D, Danielle G, Meredith, Elsie How can we stall the inequality that capitalism creates? A solution we can consider is the option of a robot employee. Artificial intelligence labor could solve issues of overusing resources by simplifying processes as well as help the issue of inequality. The [...]
In The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World, Joel Kovel contends that capitalism will inevitably result in ecological collapse, as the realization of the exchange value demands an ever increasing speed at which commodities circulate, eventually imposing a generalized compression of time, and with it, “a homogenization and [...]
Group: Raphael Barnes, Claire Paterson, Jack Plants Basing our theories on American scholar and theorist Joel Kovel’s discussion within The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World (2007)– who posits that “capital’s responsibility for the ecological crisis can be shown empirically” (51)– we suggest that the ultimate human telos [...]
Group 3 weekly Post: Ousmane, Armando and Oscar Professor's prompt: Through Kovel’s chapter: the machinery of capitalism will inevitably lead to ecological doom. Either counter or defend this position. If you were going to counter this process of ever-expanding capitalism, what would you need? What would you be looking for? What data do you need [...]
Les U. Knight opened his introduction of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement’s mission by referring to “the best thing for the earth’s ecosphere.” While speaking so broadly perhaps casts a wide net for support, it also occludes some of the realities that impact earth’s ecosphere and may not easily be addressed through voluntary human extinction. [...]
Group Post October 9th Elsie, Meredith, Dani G, Dani D One aspect of our conversation with Les of VHEMT that I find salient is the notion that not having children is resisting capitalism. One of the big concerns for countries with declining birth rates is how to maintain a working-age population. As workers are [...]
Group 1: Armando Dollero, Ousmane Sow, and Oscar Fossum It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to discuss the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT) with its founder Les Knight. In relation to our texts this week, it was great to have the chance to interview the founder of a movement which uses fears of [...]