Looking Backward from the Year 2099: Ecozoic Reflections on the Future
This is the last essay in the July series, and I think it may be the most interesting. Recently published in the Earth Jurisprudence and Environmental Justice Journal, this essay looks back upon the world from the vantage point of the year 2099. The futuristic reflections detailed in this essay review how attitudes toward consumption and economic growth underwent a radical shift over the course of the 21st century and how this affected, through legal reform, the social, economic, and political order of late capitalism. Particular attention is given to the legal evolution of property rights and the cultural movements that made this evolution possible.
This is an ambitious and hopeful project. It aims to go ‘beyond critique’ by describing an alternative legal and political order to late capitalism and by outlining the process of transition. Despite being conceived of in between the poles of pessimism and optimism, this story is nevertheless based upon a faith in the human spirit to meet the challenges of creating an Ecozoic era.
The full essay can be downloaded here: Looking Backward from the Year 2099: Ecozoic Reflections on the Future
