Westernocene: A Capitalocene critique of climate change.
Keywords:
Westernocene,Capitalocene, Anthropocene, Climate colonialism, Green colonialism, Climate finance, Indigenous sovereignty, Global South, International financial institutions, Climate justice, transformative climate justice, Lithium Triangle (Bolivia, Argentina, Chile)Abstract
Climate change, globally recognized as a defining crisis of the contemporary era, is mostlyviewed under the understanding of what the West calls the ' Anthropocene', which regards natureas a 'cheap value' or 'natural resource' for human progress. This view acknowledges humanexceptionalism and the general accountability of humans towards the catastrophic condition ofnature. But this paper counters this ‘misleading generalization’, bringing the notion of'Capitalocene' and 'Westernocene' into frame. Broadly, these two concepts question the capitaliststructure and also the industrialist definition of development as recognized by the West. Thispaper aims to critique the Anthropocene narrative through a 'Westernocene' in blend with'Capitalocene' perspective, showing how capitalism, rather than humanity in general, constitutesthe primary driver of climate change. It argues that any account of planetary crisis mustforeground the roles of capitalist accumulation, global inequality, and histories of colonialexploitation. This paper also brings The Capitalocene as a Critique of Hegemonic Approaches tothe Climate Crisis.The methodology of this study adopts a critical theoretical methodology, synthesizing insightsfrom political ecology, environmental humanities, and analysis of the theories of climate justice.This article also makes an account of all major empirical data and global reports (UNFCCC,SIPRI, HDI, GDP, etc.), and it interrogates narratives of the West to glorify the ‘universalburden’ of humankind in the label of ‘Sustainable development’’.By advancing these notions of 'Westernocene' and 'Capitalocene', we build a conceptualframework that constitutes an ‘Anti-Anthropocene’ argument for climate justice by reframingclimate change as a political-economic project. It confronts that climate change requires morethan just technological adaptation; it also demands systemic transformation, which brings an‘uneven burden’ of West and East that addresses capitalism itself, intersecting it with ecologicalcritique, with decolonial thought, and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.
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