The Unequal Anthropocene: Power and Resource Exploitation - Seminar recap
On October 18th 2024 the OHPA hosted a joint seminar with the CEU International Relations department entitled The Unequal Anthropocene: Power and Resource Exploitation, featuring the OHPA’s post-doctoral researchers Dr. Ayansina Ayanlade and Dr. Johanna Gautier Morin.
Dr. Ayanlade presented his research entitled Nigeria's Petrostate: Oil Dependency vs. Sustainable Development, which focused on Nigeria, Africa’s largest Oil exporting country and the social and ecological issues contained therein. Dr. Ayanlade began by discussing that in spite of Africa being responsible for 10% of global crude exports, 75% of this crude is exported whereas the majority of refined oil products are imported. This dynamic represents a unique issue which contributes to currency deflation and hampers African exporting economies which simply cannot compete with rich global north states which have the ability to refine their crude exports, demonstrably creating another barrier to development. Dr. Ayanlade discussed that control over these exports has created numerous conflicts and resulted in both genocides and ecocide, furthered corruption and contributed to broad political instability. Dr. Ayanlade cited the 1999 Odi massacre in the Niger Delta as an example, highlighting that to this day it is unknown how much human life was lost in this horrific event.
Dr. Ayanlade elucidated how Oil dependency leads to genocide, in addition to biodiversity loss at a colossal scale due to ecocide and environmental destruction. Dr. Ayanlade explained that there is yet another dynamic created by this regarding gender, as women have far less economic autonomy and opportunity, making them particularly vulnerable to ecological destruction, specifically regarding agrarian production. This is displayed via the numerous Oil spills which have occurred all over the Nigerian River Delta, causing innumerable harm to both the people who live there as well as the local ecology. Dr. Ayanlade finished by discussing his continuing research in this gender dynamic, and how the Oil industry has affected women in both workforce participation and political representation.
Dr. Aynlade was followed by Dr. Gautier Morin, an economic historian who presented her research entitled Markets, Knowledge and the Politics of the Anthropocene: A Research Program on the Measurement of the Economic and the Environmental. Dr. Gautier Morin discussed how the development of markets through the 20th century have impacted both ecology and individual societies. She opened her presentation discussing the Carrier Bag theory of Fiction created by Ursula Le Guin in 1986, a uniquely feminist and unorthodox anthropological theory that posited the first cultural device used by humans was likely a “carrier bag” to transport food, rather than hunting tools as previously hypothesized. Dr. Gautier Morin argued that this traditional anthropological context has dominated our perception of the world, patricianly through the frame of economic development.
Dr. Gautier Morin discussed the history of economic statistics, citing the historical and contemporary issues with collecting accurate data. She explained that initial demographic data was collected by Churches at a subnational level, and how economic indicators were inherited from warfare, particularly the First World War. This was followed by the League of Nations and then later by the United Nations, however conducting such observations was remarkably challenging and was often outsourced to organizations such as the Red Cross. However this solution was not without its own complexities as during the Second World War, Albanian statistics were notoriously difficult to discern as there was much mistrust concerning both espionage, making it very difficult to assess the economy properly.
Dr. Gautier Morin further elucidated the historical issue of gender within statistics as women were not represented in data collection.The Link between gender and minority discrimination and climate change was further highlighted by the first indigenous delegation to address the UN in the 1970s, warning about the human impact of a changing climate. This was further exacerbated by a lack of economic data in the region due to less affluent regions having less data available. In closing Dr. Gautier Morin highlighted the ambiguity and “silence” that statistics and figures produce, I.E. the story behind statistics which raw numbers are simply unable to fully tell without proper context. She raised questions about the efficacy of such figures in accurately measuring the impact on how economics interacts with both social and ecological aspects of contemporary issues.
The full talk as well as the subsequent discussion is available to view on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/xzcpTM4XyJQ