BUILDING SOVEREIGNTY, PREVENTING
HEGEMONY:
The Challenges for Emerging Forces in
the Globalised World
International and
Multidisciplinary Conference in the framework of a commemoration of the 60th
anniversary of the 1955 Bandung Asian-African Conference
Yogyakarta-Bandung-Jakarta,
Indonesia
October 26-31, 2015
INTRODUCTION
By ‘Ecology,’ the
seminar refers to the relations between people and their environment. This is
an essential and urgent subject because science warns that we are entering ‘The
Era of Environmental Catastrophe.’ Seminar explores the issues surrounding Ecological
Sustainability, meaning “the maintenance or restoration of the composition,
structure, and processes of ecosystems” (Dictionary of Environment and
Conservation [2007], Oxford University Press).
Seminar links escalating
ecological crises with Conference’s keywords as the former and latter are
intertwined and representing vicious cycles. It reflects on the modern Western
civilization and ‘Hegemony’ of West/North in the increasingly ‘Globalised
World’ because many experts believe that they are diminishing the ecological
integrity of Earth, our common home. Seminar also echoes Conference’s ‘Asian-African’
concern because the South is especially vulnerable to the ecological
degradation lead by the West/North.
As for types of knowledge,
Seminar shares descriptions (or factual information) relevant to
such disruptions to Earth’s life-supporting processes as atmosphere pollution
and climate change, soil degradation and depletion, ocean acidification and
warming, etc., observed at local, national, regional and/or planetary levels.
Building on descriptions, it illuminates explanations (or causal
relations) among human and natural phenomena. The descriptive and explanatory
insights hopefully enable Seminar to illuminate effective prescriptions (or
recommendations) that alleviate today’s sufferings for today and tomorrrow.
Many believe that the worst
human interference to Earth’s bio-geochemical cycle ever made is the rising
concentration of planet warming gases in the atmosphere. According to
UN, the period of 1990-2013 alone saw a 34% increase in radiative forcing – the
warming effect on the atmosphere – due to emissions of such long-lived gases as
carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide. CO2 constituted 80% of this
increase, attributable to the combustion of fossil fuels, deforestation and
other human activities. In glaring contradiction to much scientific warning,
the concentration of CO2 from 2012 to 2013 (the latest two years
available for comparison) marked the largest annual increase (2.9 parts per
million) for the period of 1984-2013.
UN believes the continuation
of current trajectories of greenhouse gas emissions leads to global temperature
increases of over 4 degrees within this century, causing catastrophic changes
in ecosystems unparalleled in human history. As the emitted CO2 and other
warming gases remain in air for hundreds of years, experts believe we have
started a new geological epoch of ‘Anthropocene,’ leaving behind the Holocene
whose moderate climate and stable ecosystems over the past 10,000 years allowed
Homo sapiens to prosper. Now, humanity is projected to struggle with
this increasingly challenging environment until the last person leaves Planet
Earth. Many experts believe how harsh the future may become and how long
humanity can survive will be largely determined by what we do now.
On the land, humans and both
domesticated and wild life forms all face dramatically altered weather patterns
as the global climate change propels extreme rain and snow storms, heat
waves and droughts, and other unprecedented phenomena. Many ecosystems that
used to be suitable for human habitation are becoming uninhabitable by
desertification, soil salinization, constant flooding of low-lying areas, etc.
Communities in dry regions in Africa and Asia will be especially vulnerable to
water and food shortages for the pervasive drought and soil degradation. In the
oceans, warming causes raised sea-levels. Coupled with intensified storms, many
coastal towns in Asia become uninhabitable due to the shoreline erosion and constant
flooding.
Today’s atmosphere, whose
CO2 level is the highest for the past 800,000 years, is also causing rapid oceanic
acidification often called ‘The Other CO2 Problem.’ The acidification rate
is already the fastest for 300 million years, and predicted to accelerate in
the coming decades. Experts are concerned about collapsing fisheries and many
other oceanic degradations as they sharply impact the developing world. Already
we have a huge number of ‘environmental refugees’ that is expected to
surge in the future. Those who are displaced by disasters alone (i.e. not by
drought or gradual environmental degradation) more than doubled since the
1970s, reaching the annual average of 27.5 million people for 2008-2013, among
whom over 80% are Asians.
While problems directly
linked to CO2 concentrations alone are frightful, they constitute only the tip
of an iceberg of the entire planetary ecological catastrophe. Seminar
hopes that, by illuminating diverse ecological issues from multiple angles, and
by embracing participants’ insightful visions, creative brains and committed
hearts, we can make a difference to the world – especially as it may easily
become more unjust and unsustainable than ever before.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
This section sketches out the
prospective Ecology Seminar at more concrete levels. Given the broad range of
factors that shape ecological phenomena, Seminar will be trans-disciplinary par
excellence, and model after Conference’s multi-disciplinary framework.
Prospective Program
Introduction: Ecological
Reality & Seminar’s Mission
Thematic Area 1:
Cultural-Ecological
Thematic Area 2:
Economic-Ecological
Thematic Area 3:
Political-Ecological
Thematic Area 4:
Spiritual/Religious-Ecological
Conclusion: Seminar’s
Message to the World
Type of Knowledge Explored
A Panel presentation
is expected to cover all three knowledge spheres – Description (e.g. shortage
of clean water in urban slums), Explanation (social and natural factors causing
the shortage), and Prescription (the ways to alleviate the shortage). A Paper
presentation, on the other hand, will be given a less time and therefore
expected to focus more on a specific knowledge sphere.
Four Trans-Disciplinary
Thematic Areas: Why?
All thematic areas in
Ecology Seminar are trans-disciplinary, explicitly linking Ecology with other
socio-intellectual scopes that are covered by other seminars. Some readers may
be wondering why Seminar’s thematic areas are cross-sectional. Thus the below
briefly notes the historical backgrounds and future requirements that
constitute the grounds for these thematic areas.
Thematic Area 1:
Cultural-Ecological
One scholar notes humans
unconsciously hold “cultural assumptions” and remarks: “the disordering of
ecological systems and Earth’s biogeochemical cycles reflects a prior disorder
in thinking about humanity’s role in ecological systems.” Similarly, another
scholar states: “We misconceive our role if we consider that our historical
mission is to ‘civilize’ or to ‘domesticate’ the planet… We are not here to
control. We are here to become integral with the larger Earth community.” Do
you agree with these views? If so, what are their implications to the currently
dominant ‘Culture of Gloalization”? How can African and Asian traditions may be
utilized to counter the ‘disorder in thinking’ or ‘misconception of own
role’?
Thematic Area 2:
Economic-Ecological
Reportedly, a market-based
economy – “predicated upon principles of profit-maximization and rational
decision-making” – emerged only about 300 years ago, and the idea of
“economy…as a separate entity” emerged even more recently. Therefore, Seminar
adopts a broad definition of ‘Economy’ as “the structure or totality of
relations of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of goods and
services” (Dictionary of Human Geography [2000], Blackwell). This
conception covers not only Market economies “organized and regulated by the
movement of prices,” but those founded on such alternative principles as
‘Reciprocation’ and ‘Redistribution.’ How can we promote economies that are
less destructive to Earth? Can humanity transcend the ‘endless growth
imaginary’ and ‘development- as-usual model’ associated with Market economies?
Thematic Area 3:
Political-Ecological
Climate change and
ecological degradation generally undermine the traditional principle of
‘Sovereignty’ – the power of political communities to govern over own
territories without interferences from outside. Since the 17th century,
Sovereignty has been the ‘first law’ of international relations, initially
within Europe and then worldwide. Therefore, even though humankind shares the
atmosphere (and others) universally, international state system is
territorially founded and its Sovereignty is spatially confined. Thus, the most
polluting countries may be suffering least and vice versa. What is the role of
Sovereignty to effectively promote ‘Ecological Justice’ today? As territorially
founded statehood looks increasingly obsolete, what kind of alternative
political framework should we reinvent?
Thematic Area 4:
Spiritual/Religious-Ecological
Because ecological crises
are anthropogenic, they logically imply humankind’s urgent need of
reformulation. According to ‘Spiritual Ecology’: “In order to
resolve…environmental issues…humanity must examine and reassess our underlying
attitudes and beliefs about the earth, and our spiritual responsibilities
toward the planet” (“Spiritual ecology,” Wikipedia [2015]). The
metaphysical dualism of modern West has been widely criticized for eco-crises
by advancing such binary oppositions as “mind and matter, good and evil, and
God and world” [“Dualism,” Britannica Concise Encyclopedia]. In
contrast, many Asian and African traditions uphold holistic visions
transcending such divisions as culture-nature, sacred-profane and alive-dead.
Can Afro-Asian visions save humanity from this suicidal ecological crisis? By
re-locating ‘the moral’ within ‘the natural’?
Seminar coordinator
Mr. Yukio Kamino, Japan
(Dr., African Studies/Ecology, OISCA, Tokyo)
Working group members
Mr. Alban Bourcier, France
Mr. Asfarinal, Indonesia
Ms Lau Kin-chi, China
Mr. Rohit Negi, India
Mr. Sutrisno Murtioso,
Indonesia