Deep Green Resistance
| Deep Green Resistance (DGR) |
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|---|---|
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| founding | 2011 |
| founder | Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, Aric McBay |
| purpose | End of industrial civilization |
| Website | deepgreenresistance.org |
Deep Green Resistance (DGR) is a radical environmental movement that views conventional environmental activism as largely ineffective. The group believes that industrial civilization is threatening the entire life of the planet and that a wide range of tactics are needed to achieve environmental and social justice. She argues for a radical change in social structures and functions, up to and including the complete abolition of industrial civilization.
Core beliefs
In the book Deep Green Resistance , the authors propose that civilization, especially industrial civilization, is fundamentally unsustainable and must be actively (and as quickly as possible) paralyzed in order to ensure a future worth living for all species on earth. Civilization is defined by the development of agriculture and the growth of cities. Deep Green Resistance argues that agriculture degrades the land and that cities necessarily exceed the land's carrying capacity . Civilization depends to a large extent on industry, which is largely driven by non-renewable and environmentally harmful fossil fuels .
The principles of DGRs have their origin in the concept of deep ecology and state that all species are in themselves equivalent and that humans are not above other forms of life. Deep Green Resistance attributes the current ecological crisis to the anthropocentrism prevalent in western culture . Deep ecology forms the basis for a cross-cultural nature - based spirituality , which is often associated with radical environmental movements.
The movement distinguishes itself from the so-called “light green” environmental movement , which is characterized by its focus on personal, technological or government or corporate solutions, in that it regards these approaches as inadequate. DGR believes that lifestyle changes such as using reusable coffee mugs or bags or taking shorter showers are not enough given the scale of the world's environmental problems. They also believe that the recent popularization of environmental protection is commercial in nature and that it has itself been industrialized . The amount of industrial waste produced per capita is found to be several orders of magnitude higher than that of personal waste; thus it is industrialism that has to end, and that lifestyle changes follow by themselves.
Green technology
Deep Green Resistance takes a fundamentally technology-critical point of view. Renewable energies as a substitute for fossil fuels are rejected by DGR on the grounds that they too have devastating effects on ecology.
Furthermore, the dependence on industrial technologies can easily become a cult of progress and people can continue to adopt traditional, sustainable lifestyles.
Food and Agriculture
DGR strongly opposes most forms of agriculture. In particular, arable farming with annual monocultures such as grain is held responsible for the destruction of the topsoil and the devastation of entire ecosystems. Instead, the organization believes that permaculture and other traditional subsistence methods such as hunting , animal husbandry , fishing and foraging must be the foundation of any future sustainable culture; otherwise claims to be "green" are untrue. Derrick Jensen, and Lierre Keith in particular, also believe that veganism is not a truly ethical or sustainable alternative to securing the world's food; Vegans are accused of a lack of ecological understanding.
feminism
Deep Green Resistance sees itself as a radical feminist organization.
Resistance tactics
According to Deep Green Resistance, the dominant culture, a term that encompasses all cultures within globalized civilization , will not undergo voluntary change to a sustainable lifestyle. The possibility of making a slow and smooth transition to sustainability is discarded. Deep Green Resistance members believe that industrial civilization will inevitably collapse. This assumption is based on the collapse of formerly important civilizations such as the Maya or the Roman Empire, as well as statistics on the unsustainability of the current system. DGR supports an active resistance movement with the aim of accelerating the collapse of industrial civilization.
Support for militant resistance
The strategy described by Jensen, McBay and Keith focuses mainly on attacks against infrastructure such as dams and less on violence against people.
While DGR makes it clear that this is a strict aboveground movement, Keith and McBay have openly promoted additional underground actions, and DGR provides the theoretical framework for such actions. The organization's book refers to numerous historical examples of movements that relied on the independence of underground and underground networks in order to achieve common goals.
public relation
Deep Green Resistance disseminates its views on the news site DGR News Service and the podcasts The Green Flame and Resistance Radio . The organization also offers training for resistance groups.
criticism
The criticism of Deep Green Resistance is similar to the criticism of anarcho-primitivism and deep ecology. DGR's ideas have been criticized in online publications as polarizing solutions for environmental reforms, as "elitist", "too radical" or "out of step". For example, founder Derrick Jensen stated in his earlier work Endgame that "the mass of civilized people will never be on our side". This has led to criticism of the organization's strategy, which is pessimistic about the participation of the population and therefore aims to force change without the consensus of the majority. Some critics have therefore argued that "radical tactics tend to run counter to the goal of public awareness.
Opponents of Deep Green Resistance continue to claim that DGR, which predicts massive numbers of human deaths during the impending collapse of civilization, does not provide a viable or desirable alternative lifestyle as they seek to hasten that collapse. Keith and Jensen both acknowledged this uncomfortable reality; however, they have repeatedly asserted that the collapse is inevitable (and will only lead to more suffering the longer it is delayed) and that they are merely warning of these impending deaths and possible widespread violence and trying to prepare the world for it. Jensen explained that activists who do not want to take part in the physical work to accelerate this collapse should at least prepare and set up local committees to eliminate or, if necessary, channel the (additional) violence that could possibly occur.
Anarchists who believe that all hierarchically structured relationships, regardless of purpose, are oppressive, disagree with DGR's advocacy of using hierarchical organization underground. McBay and Keith both promoted the idea of hierarchically structured underground networks. Keith has advocated a disciplined "command structure" for frontline activists. McBay has argued in Deep Green Resistance that hierarchies are an efficient means of organizing underground resistance.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ McBay, Aric: Deep green resistance strategy to save the planet . Seven Stories Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-58322-929-3 .
- ↑ Video: The False Solutions of Green Energy. Retrieved January 29, 2020 .
- ↑ Green Technology & Renewable Energy. Retrieved January 29, 2020 .
- ↑ Vegans | The official Derrick Jensen site. Retrieved January 29, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ Keith, Lierre: The vegetarian myth: food, justice, and sustainability . A Flashpoint Press First ed. Crescent City, CA, ISBN 978-1-60486-180-8 .
- ↑ Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about radical feminism. Retrieved February 27, 2020 .
- ^ Deep Green Resistance News Service: News for Environmental Activists. Retrieved January 28, 2020 (American English).
- ^ The Green Flame. Retrieved January 28, 2020 (English).
- ^ Resistance Radio Archives - Progressive Radio Network. Retrieved January 28, 2020 .
- ^ Deep Green Resistance News Service: We Provide Training For Resistance Groups. In: Deep Green Resistance News Service. January 13, 2020, accessed January 28, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ Derrick Jensen: The Derrick Jensen Reader: Writings on Environmental Revolution . Seven Stories Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1-60980-405-3 ( google.de [accessed January 28, 2020]).
- ^ Resistance: Do the Ends Justify the Means? Retrieved January 28, 2020 .
- ^ Deep Green Resistance: Occupy Until It All Falls Apart | therightplanet.com. August 4, 2016, accessed January 28, 2020 .
- ↑ Jensen, Derrick, 1960-: Endgame . Seven Stories Press 1st ed. Seven Stories Press, New York 2006, ISBN 1-58322-730-X .
- ↑ Deep Green Resistance - a critique | Earth First! Newswire. August 3, 2014, accessed January 28, 2020 .
- ^ John Zerzan: Anarchy Radio 03-08-2011. Retrieved January 28, 2020 .
- ↑ Deep Green Resistance - Strategy to Save the Planet Part 4 of 7. Retrieved January 28, 2020 (German).
- ^ Deep Green Resistance: A Book Review. May 18, 2013. Retrieved January 28, 2020 (American English).