Earth in Crisis: Staying With the Trouble

Convened by Fred Murphy and Steve Knight

As the earth system enters a new climate regime marked by global warming, mass extinctions, ocean acidification, droughts, floods, food shortages, migrations, and other manifestations of crisis, the mainstream media and public figures swerve between denial and panic. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we have only twelve years, but what happens in year thirteen and beyond? This reading group will consider how climate activists and critical thinkers can maintain equilibrium and avoid despair by “staying with the trouble” —Donna Haraway’s phrase for living through planetary chaos and struggling alongside our fellow human and nonhuman beings. We will read and discuss Haraway’s recent essay collection with that title and related works such as Bruno Latour, Down to Earth; Anna Tsing et al., Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet; and John Clark, Between Earth and Empire.

Online participation by Zoom teleconferencing can be arranged for mobility-challenged participants or those outside the New York City area. Registration and payment is available at marxedproject.org.

FRED MURPHY and STEVE KNIGHT have co-led the Ecosocialism Study Group since 2016. Both are active in DSA’s climate justice work. Fred studied and taught historical sociology at The New School for Social Research. Steve reviews books for Marx & Philosophy and is active in faith-centered environmental group