Out of the Woods - a new blog on climate change

This blog has been set up to investigate one of the most pressing issues of our time: anthropogenic climate change (a.k.a. global warming). Climate change poses serious questions about the viability of both the capitalist mode of production and the global states system, and forces us to confront questions of technology and humanity’s relation to (the rest of) nature. These are huge questions. This blog can’t promise answers, but will be a place for critical investigation.

Behind this blog is a loose collective. We don’t have any agreed positions or perspectives, beyond thinking that climate change is a vital area of investigation. We all share a broadly libertarian communist perspective, though our backgrounds include left communism, anarcho-syndicalism, the Green Party, anarchist communism, green economics, and social ecology. Some of us are scientifically trained, but none of us are experts in climate or environmental policy. We are learning as we go.

We intend to cover: critical introductions to proposed technological and economic fixes (carbon & capture and storage, geo-engineering, emissions trading schemes); engagement with and introduction to theories of capitalism and climate change (from proposals to reform capitalism to revolutionary critiques); analysis of the energy sector and prospects for a shift to renewables; commentary on media coverage or topical issues, and; investigation of environmental movements, in particular their successes and failures, class composition and organisational forms, and relationship with libertarian communist organisations, movements and/or theory.

As we work through these questions ourselves, we’ll use the blog as somewhere to get our thoughts down in writing and to stimulate discussion. Some of the questions we have set ourselves are:

• Can the problem of climate change be 'solved' within capitalism? What do we expect will be the consequences if we just let things take their course?
• What do we think of relevant climate change institutions - IPCC, UN, intergovernmental conferences, industry, climate change deniers, NGOs etc?
• Is climate change a class issue? How do the two relate? What do we make of existing activism?
• Are libertarian communist organisations well equipped to respond to climate change issues, or do we need to come up with new forms?
• What are the possible solutions, and which ones can we advocate? What is the role of technology?