İklim değişikliğinin ekonomi politiği: Marksist ekoloji ve The Flood

Öz

Marksist ekoloji ve ekososyalizm düşüncesi, üretkenliği takıntı haline getiren ve sürekli büyümeyi hedefleyen bir ekonomik sistemin, diğer bir deyişle, dünya gezegeninin sınırlı ekosistemleri içinde sınırsız büyümeyi teşvik eden bir sistemin, en nihayetinde kaynakların tümüyle tükenmesine ve sistemlerin işlevsiz hale gelmesine neden olacağı varsayımından hareket eder. Kirlilik, küresel ısınma, ormansızlaşma, nesli tükenmekte olan hayvanlar ve doğal kaynakların tükenmesi gibi çevre sorunlarının, ekonomik faaliyetlerin üzerinde durulması gereken doğrudan sonuçları olduğu ileri sürülmektedir. Bu bağlamda The Flood'ın Marksist eko-eleştirel okuması, aşırı yağışlar, kuraklık ve nesli tükenmekte olan canlı türleri gibi iklim krizine işaret eden belirtiler ile romandaki şehir devleti yönetiminin yürüttüğü emperyalist savaşlar, sömürge faaliyetleri ya da yozlaşmış politikacıların popülist davranışları arasında yakın bir ilişki olduğunu gösterir. Tüm bunları yaparken yazarın, çevre sorunlarının toplum üzerindeki etkisini göstermek için gerçek hayatta yaşanmış kimi olaylarından yararlandığı açıkça görülebilir. Böylece The Flood, okuyucusuna, doğayı sonu gelmeyen bir hammadde deposu olarak gören ve doğal çevrenin bütünlüğünün ve refahının sürdürülebilirliğinin önünde büyük bir engel teşkil eden modern endüstriyel kapitalizm anlayışının örneklerini sunmaktadır. Bu roman aynı zamanda, geleneksel olmayan sonu sayesinde, büyük bir çevre felaketi yaşanması durumunda kapitalist sistemin temel dinamiklerinde gerçekleşebilecek bir değişiklik olasılığını sorgulamaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Marxism; ecocriticism; Maggie Gee; The Flood
• Marxism
• ecocriticism
• Maggie Gee
• The Flood

Economy politics of climate change: Marxist ecology and The Flood

Abstract

According to the presuppositions of Marxist ecology and ecosocialist philosophy, an economic system that is obsessed with productivity and seeks continuous growth, in other words, a system that encourages unlimited growth within the limited ecosystems of planet Earth, will eventually lead to the exhaustion of the resources and dysfunction of the system. Environmental problems such as pollution, global warming, deforestation, endangered animals and depletion of natural resources can be determined to be the direct results of economic activities which should be the main issue of focus. In this regard a Marxist ecocritical reading of The Flood finds close links between the traces of climate crisis, such as extreme precipitation, drought or endangered species and the economic, political and military preferences of the City administration, such as imperialist wars, colonial activities and populist behaviours of corrupted politicians. While doing this, the author has obviously benefited from some real-life events to show the impact of environmental problems on society. Therefore, The Flood offers its reader examples of modern understanding of industrial capitalism that sees nature as an endless store of raw materials and that still poses a major obstacle to the sustainability of the integrity and well-being of the natural environment. Thanks to its nonconventional ending, the novel also questions the possibility of a change in the fundamental dynamics of capitalism in the case of a major environmental disaster.

Keywords

• Marxism
• ecocriticism
• Maggie Gee
• The Flood

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