1. POLS 384 Lec 15 1 Person/planet politics: The political ecology of sacrifice

2. POLS 384 Lec 15 2 “For everyone to admit to our inherent drive towards heroism would probably release such pent-up force as to be devastating to societies as they now are." ~Ernst Becker, The Denial of Death

3. POLS 384 Lec 15 3 Sacrifice, n. (a) The destruction or surrender of something valued or desired for the sake of something having, or regarded as having, a higher pressing claim (b) to make sacred; the act of becoming sacred

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5. 5 Poor Nations to Bear Brunt as World Warms

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9. 9 Ecological Sacrifice: Making Sacrifice Visible To the extent that the culture of consumption creates the illusion of getting without giving, sacrifice goes underground. The global economy as massive conversion of gift wealth to market wealth Distancing geographic temporal

10. POLS 384 Lec 15 10 Ecological debt The socio-temporal dimension of sacrifice Global flow of wealth from periphery to core Carbon Debt Shadow ecologies and ecological footprints >> What is being sacrificed and by whom? North/South divide … and to what “gods?”

11. POLS 384 Lec 15 11 Sacrifice & the political ecology of food Sugar History Slavery, deforestation, symbol of prosperity, colonialism, industrialization, working class Today: subsidies, chemicals, wetlands Geography From core to periphery Health & addiction Beef History: Spanish colonies, New World frontier, British elites, buffalo slaughter, destruction of grasslands, deforestation Today: subsidies, chemicals, antibiotics, factory farming, bad working conditions, fast food, increased consumption in DCs, symbol of prosperity Mitigating factors: health concerns, mad cow disease, animal rights movement

12. POLS 384 Lec 15 12 Sacrifice of the unborn and the nonhuman Intergenerational ethics Toxic & nuclear waste Ozone depletion Climate change Biodiversity Trans-human sacrifice Animal rights Mass extinction crisis Most sacrifice is involuntary and unconscious Making the unconscious sacrifice conscious CHOICE! Are we happier?

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14. POLS 384 Lec 15 14 Green consumerism: Sustainability without sacrifice?

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17. POLS 384 Lec 15 17 Are we stuck between a rock and a hard place?

18. POLS 384 Lec 15 18 Interrogating “Sacrifice” Stuck in the Mud Constraining effect of the shroud of negativity associated with “sacrifice” Make Current Sacrifice Clear Ecological debt, sacrifice of unborn & nonhuman Illuminating the Underground “Sacrifice” occurs regularly, but has gone underground. Practical Ju-Jitsu Today’s “sacrifice” can be tomorrow’s gain. Deeper exploration of ontology and questions of meaning

19. POLS 384 Lec 15 19 Modernity and sacrifice Sacrifice ubiquitous across human cultures Modernity denigrates sacrifice Resistance to environmentalism premised upon gloomy view of sacrifice Sacrifice as loss Inevitable under an ontology of individualism Sacrifice does not disappear; it goes underground.

20. POLS 384 Lec 15 20 Sacrifice under a cosmology of wholeness Sacrifice: to make sacred by offering “A celebration of consumption and being consumed” Relationships To transcendental forces Sublimating the awesome Forges community Gift economy as the basis for culture Gifts must flow Market economy occludes gifts, especially nature’s

21. POLS 384 Lec 15 21 An Affirmative Politics of Sacrifice Global eco-crisis as crisis of meaning Ontology of holism and radical interdependence Holistic ontology; participatory cosmology; revival of cyclical processes Sacrifice as a premise of interdependence Not the death of the individual, but his/her entry into ecological adulthood in a participatory universe Modernity has given us the social construct of the individual who can choose this. Acknowledging our integral role in Earth’s gift economy We are Earth becoming conscious of itself

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