98. Colonial Memory, Climate Change, and the role of the Greenhouse in the Colonial Project with Luis Berríos-Negrón
Original Drawing by Tori Haynes
“The Specularium [ancient Greenhouse] was a powerful moment of the Anthropocene because it was the moment when man suddenly had the power to disassociate from the seasons…and transgress the hemispheres.”
- Luis Berríos-Negrón
We are experiencing rapidly rising global temperatures making it increasingly difficult for Earth to remain habitable. Yet, the dominant power structure of the free-market economy is not really reacting. Enter the greenhouse as the future of life in a changed climate…or is it simply a perpetuation of what got us here in the first place? Listen as Luis Berríos-Negrón traces the lineage of the greenhouse through history and critiques the deployment of the greenhouse typology as a “solution” to climate change.
Timestamp Outline
1:30 Introduction to Luis Berríos-Negrón. You can find his downloadable dissertation here
2:00 The question of the greenhouse as colonial instrument of colonization and therefore the inaugural instrument of the Anthropocene; and the question of the greenhouse as “solution” to climate change.
3:30 “‘Perhaps climate change is colonial memory’ - unpack that for me...what do you mean?” VP
4:00 “...I sense that the power structure, the freemarket superstructure, is not really reacting to [climate change]...other than self-promoting ideas of capitalism…when we think of Tesla and SpaceX and this idea of going to Mars...what we’re being sold is not a rocket. We are being sold a greenhouse...this thing that is going to save us from the cataclysm...the cataclysm becomes part of the economic model...we need global warming to make these companies viable and profitable in the future...and the history of the technology of greenhouse is the essence of that colonial reflex...” LBN
7:45 Roman Emperor Tiberius and his Specularia - often considered the first greenhouse that functioned year-round
9:30 “The specularium marks the moment in time when Man realizes that this specularium becomes this virtual space to conserve and decelerate time, or accelerate by accelerating the growth of whatever is inside...it is a very strong moment in the anthropocene because its the moment where man feels the power to disassociated from the seasons.” LBN
10:00 The Wardian Case - the first industrial greenhouse.
11:00 Kew Gardens and wardian cases as colonial instruments
11:15 “These little greenhouses become the deployment of the colonial project.” LBN
12:25 The wardian case and the greenhouse… “I’m certainly trying to frame it as the demarcation of the global imperial project…” LBN
13:15 discussion of Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace
15:00 Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project
18:30 “How is the greenhouse the messianic saviour project of contemporary global warming thinking?” VP
20:20 Discussion of the Greenhouse Effect
21:40 “The Greenhouse Effect is a misnomer...what happens at the scale of the greenhouse does not happen at the planetary scale…” LBN
22:50 Buckminster Fuller and Positivism
23:50 Felicity Scott, Acid Visions
25:00 Naomi Klein, Shock Doctrine
26:55 “What should our relationship be to the planet?” VP
27:15 “Not all societies have the same attitude towards the environment...This more Western power structure that is driving this consumerist model of life is toxic…” LBN
28:50 Hurricanes Irma and Maria impact and aftermath report
29:10 “...These hurricanes made it abundantly clear that when we talk about climate injustice, the disparity of how climate change is manifesting around the planet is impacting different societies in different ways…” LBN
32:30 Marisol de la Cadena, Donna Haraway
34:30 Boaventura de Sousa Santos and Radicalizing Epistemologies
37:15 Atman and Spivak
39:31 Bladerunner 2049 endless greenhouses
42:15 George Floyd, “I can’t breath”
44:50 “What is your project now?” VP
