Climate politics has moved to centre stage. Worldwide, political actors from multiple hues are turning green. A new generation of young activists insists that we take all the necessary steps to save the planet, movements for degrowth are gaining strength, and indigenous communities have been winning wider support for struggles only lately recognised as ecological. But corporate and financial interests have skin in the game as well, as they try to make sure the new common sense remains market-centred and capital-friendly. So even though everyone more or less agrees on the science, they disagree – more than less – on the politics.

According to political philosopher Prof. Nancy Fraser (The New School, NYC), any serious attempt to overcome our current ecological crisis, should start with the dismantlement of capitalism. She will show how the tendency to ecological crisis is inscribed in capitalism’s DNA, and how its destruction of nature is intricately connected to class, gender and racial-imperial domination. What alternatives do we have? What does an anti-capitalist environmentalism entail?

This event is part of the Utrecht Day of Philosophy, which will take place on June 13. The one-day festival is organised in collaboration with the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies and the Descartes Centre.