PRESENTATION |
Friday, 09.09.2016 17:30-18:20 Room A |
Animal liberation and climate justice: Interconnections and alliances |
Friederike Schmitz |
There are many ways in which the struggle for animal liberation and the struggle against climate change are interconnected. It is not just the fact that animal production is the cause of a significant proportion of total greenhouse gas emissions and that climate change harms ecosystems and wild animals – the same agents and principles drive the brutal exploitation of animals and the destruction of the natural world and the climate: multinational corporations, capitalist economic conditions and consumerist culture, to name but a few. This talk will argue that these connections should not only influence our personal lifestyles (where veganism needs to be coupled with a broader environmental and social awareness), but also our activism: we shouldn`t be supporting corporations and cultural paradigms that are – in this wider perspective – part of the problem, but should rather seek alliances with other critical social movements, in particular the global movement for climate justice. The talk will also present some examples for intersectional alliances in practice, among them the recently founded German network Animal Climate Action. |