Memorandum on Environmental Accelerationism
＊This text is a self-translation of the original Japanese text below.
1．Definition of environmental accelerationism
Environmental accelerationism is an environmental thought that seeks to manage, control, and regulate the global ecosystem through the power of science and technology, thereby overcoming the limits of the "one earth amount" of global ecosystem (natural environment) while basically maintaining the current social and economic systems.
Environmental accelerationism will grow as one environmental thought in environmental discourses that has seen the downfall of ecological thought and has lost sight of perspectives other than problem solving. And it will eventually become a mainstream in environmental discourses, defeating degrowth and absorbing green growth.
We are now living at a turning point in environmental thought, and in a world where environmental accelerationism has triumphed, the problem is how we can talk about the environment in the future.
2．What is Environmental Accelerationism?
（１）Overcoming the "one earth amount problem" using science and technology
The "one earth amount problem" refers to the problem of how we should deal with the fact that human society is already near or likely to have overshot the limit of its capacity of the finite "one earth amount" of the global ecosystem. And signs of this are shown by various indicators such as planetary boundaries and ecological footprints.
Human societies have been trying to deal with the "one earth amount problem" by reducing energy and resource use and increasing efficiency through technology, but there are clear limits to these attempts, just as it is impossible to expand something infinitely in a finite world. Incidentally, it was ecological thought in the past that demanded radical changes in the social and economic system there.
Environmental accelerationism does not choose the path of reducing energy and resource use or drastically changing the social and economic system to deal with the "one earth amount” problem. Rather, it seeks to transform the global ecosystem or natural environment through science and technology, while basically maintaining the current social and economic system.
Environmental accelerationism seeks to intervene in the very limits of "one earth amount" of the global ecosystem including the planetary boundaries. In this sense, one essence of environmental accelerationism is not to adapt the human (or social and economic system) to the demands of the global ecosystem, but to adapt the global ecosystem to the demands of the human (or social and economic system).
（２）The purpose of environmental accelerationism is to maximize the embodiment of the values and ideals of human society
Environmental accelerationism seeks to maintain and expand the material wealth enjoyed by people in wealthy countries today, as well as the convenience and efficiency of society commensurate with their living standards. Its primary goal, however, is to embody the socially shared values and ideals, including independence, self-determination, self-actualization, and diversity as much as possible.
Therefore, environmental accelerationism is neither an ideology that merely fixes or widens disparities, nor one that represents the self-righteous interests of the wealthy and industrial sectors.
Rather, environmental accelerationism modifies the global ecological system (natural environment) or the social and economic system if anything stands in the way of embodying values and ideals, including self-reliance, self-determination, self-fulfillment, and diversity. In this sense, environmental accelerationism is not only the ultimate anthropocentrism, but also a kind of revolutionary ideology.
Environmental accelerationism aims to expand the embodiment of values and ideals such as self-reliance, self-determination, self-actualization, and diversity to the entire human society. Inevitably, this will aim to a world in which all people can enjoy the lifestyles of wealthy nations. In this sense, the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), which share the same values and ideals, and the concept of sustainability in the general sense have a strong affinity with environmental accelerationism.
（３）Environmental accelerationism promotes inclusion of nature, not destroys it
Environmental accelerationism technologically intervenes in the global ecosystem (natural environment) in order to embody its values and ideals. However, it does so in order to manage, control, and regulate the global ecosystem (natural environment) with a strong awareness of the "one earth amount" limit of the global ecosystem, including the planetary boundary.
Therefore, environmental accelerationism differs neither from developmentalism nor from mere technological universalism, which in the past repeatedly destroyed nature and the environment in a way that ignored the logic of the global ecosystem (natural environment).
Environmental accelerationism overrides and reorganizes the global ecosystem (natural environment) into something compatible with the social and economic system. In other words, it promotes the inclusion of the global ecosystem (natural environment) into the human social and economic system.
The process of inclusion undertaken by environmental accelerationism is prototypical of the human practice of creating farmlands, gardens, and nature reserves. These are all artificial ecosystems that are useful, aesthetic, and maintained in their natural state in accordance with the values and ideals of human society.
In other words, environmental accelerationism reorganizes the global ecosystem (the natural environment) into one that is compatible with the social and economic system, thereby creating a massive artificial ecosystem - a highly integrated blend of farmland, gardens, and nature reserves. It will reconcile the fissures between the natural and social environments caused by the fossil fuel society, and thereby achieve even a kind of "symbiosis" between nature and humans.
（４）Geoengineering, space exploration, and human body modification are at the forefront of environmental accelerationism
When environmental accelerationism moves toward the external environment, the global ecosystem (natural environment), its first target will be the climate system. While current geoengineering is positioned as an adjunct to climate change action, environmental accelerationism will fundamentally change that positioning.
When geoengineering is technically successful, environmental accelerationism perceives the climate system as an object that can be conveniently manipulated, managed, and controlled, as if it were like a fully air-conditioned office. Similarly, when ecosystem management is technically successful, environmental accelerationism perceives the global ecosystem as a giant biological machine.
Space exploration is still thought of as a way to satisfy mankind's desire to explore. But environmental accelerationism also shifts the implications of space exploration. If the global ecosystem can be included in the social and economic system as a gigantic machine, it is theoretically possible to implement it outside of the Earth. In other words, space exploration is transformed by environmental accelerationism into an attempt to create artificial ecosystems in the space (that are also giant farmlands = gardens = nature reserves), and to extend the inclusion of the social and economic system to outside of the Earth.
Furthermore, when environmental accelerationism moves toward the internal environment, the body, it is transformed into an object that can be conveniently manipulated, managed, and controlled. Human body modification technologies ranging from artificial organs and gene therapy to enhancement, aging treatments, and brain-machine interfaces, and debodyization (or de-bodying) ranging from remote-controlled robotic avatars to the use of VR avatars in the metaverse could then be reinterpreted as an aspect of environmental accelerationism, that is, the act of overriding and reorganizing the body itself into something compatible with a desired values and ideals, or social and economic system.
Thus, environmental accelerationism promotes the inclusion of the global ecosystem as an external environment, and by extension, of outer space, and in turn, of the body as an internal environment. This in turn will increasingly promote the embodiment of values and ideals such as self-reliance, self-determination, self-actualization, and diversity.
（５）The relationship between environmental accelerationism and accelerationism itself
There are variations on the ideology that is bracketed as accelerationism today. Among them, one of its central principles is the attitude of trying to solve the problems posed by capitalist society not by transforming capitalist society, but by accelerating capitalist society.
In other words, environmental accelerationism is defined as environmental accelerationism in the sense that the "one earth amount problem" brought about by the social and economic system is overcome by further acceleration of the existing social and economic system.
Because of this context, environmental accelerationism has a stronger affinity with the leftist accelerationism, such as M. Fisher, or N. Srnicek and A. Williams known for their "Manifesto for an Accelerationist Politics,” than with the rightist accelerationism such as N. Land known as anti-liberal democracy or neo-reactionism.
The goal of environmental accelerationism is to maximize the embodiment of the values and ideals of independence, self-determination, self-actualization, and diversity. Environmental accelerationism is therefore in direct opposition to the eugenicist claims to which rightist accelerationism, in particular, tends to fall prey. However, if the end point is singularity, then environmental accelerationism and rightist accelerationism may have a point of contact.
How can we explain the above points? This will be the academic question, especially on the ideological side.
3．Environmental accelerationism will defeat degrowth and triumph
Environmental accelerationism is opposed to the concept of "eco-utopia," which aims to adapt the social and economic system to the demands of the global ecosystem, and to degrowth, which aims for a transition to a new social and economic system that can survive without growth.
However, degrowth will be defeated without popular support for two reasons.
First, in order to realize the vision of a degrowth society, welfare, which has been realized through monetary goods and services, must be replaced once again with non-monetary mutual assistance (care) based on local community. However, for people today, who have been granted their own private time and space, and who have been granted self-determination in anything, local mutual assistance (care) is a burden ("impossibility of communing"), and they cannot hope for such a society even if they wanted it.
Next, the world that people want is one in which more people can enjoy a material standard similar to that of wealthy countries, and in which more people can embody the values and ideals such as self-reliance, self-determination, self-actualization, and diversity. What is needed for this is not local mutual assistance (care), but the development of a sophisticated social and economic system that further enhances personalized time and space, and economic growth to support the system. This indicates that the reforms people want are not those that degrowth would aim for, but rather are closer to those that environmental accelerationism would aim for.
The most popular environmental discourse is green growth, which claims that adaptation to the "one earth amount problem" can be balanced with economic growth. However, green growth, like the aforementioned SDGs and the concept of sustainability, is actually highly compatible with environmental accelerationism.
Because if, as the "one earth amount problem" indicates, our society is already close to or likely already exceeds the capacity of "one earth amount," then the only way to realize this goal is to manipulate, artificially control, and expand the limits and capacity of "one earth amount" itself through science and technology.
In other words, degrowth will not be supported by the people, and green growth will be absorbed into environmental accelerationism irresistibly. And as a result, environmental accelerationism will triumph.
Thus, environmental thoughts and discourses of the 21st century must be prepared for the coming world in which environmental accelerationism will triumph, whether we like it or not.
4．The essence of environmental accelerationism is the humanism
The fundamental principle driving environmental accelerationism can be thought of as the humanism, in the somewhat particular sense of the term here. The fundamental principle driving environmental accelerationism can be thought of as the humanism, in the somewhat particular sense of the term.
In a general sense, humanism can be described as an ideology formed in the Western world since the Renaissance that emphasizes the potential and dignity of each person. However, it is emphasized that the humanism here includes therein a strong belief in the human being as follows.
That is, the humanism contains the very strong belief that human beings can free themselves from various restraints through the power of reason, and that their mission is to use such power to embody on earth the ideal society they have envisioned.
Historically, this belief was born out of the transformation of the traditional Judeo-Christian view of human nature under the influence of Greek philosophy. However, the veins of this belief continue through the 18th century Liberalism and the Enlightenment, when the influence of religious doctrines declined, and even in the values and ideals emphasized by the SDGs and environmental accelerationism of today.
The humanism attempts to remake reality in accordance with ideals that exist outside of reality - in this sense, it also can be called an "ideal that denies reality". Environmental accelerationism is the result of such humanist principles moving toward the global ecosystem, outer space, and the body as an internal environment.
In short, environmental accelerationism is the humanism itself. Thus, if we are to criticize environmental accelerationism, we must also criticize the humanism itself.
Conversely, if we unconditionally espouse the above beliefs embodied in the humanism and the values and ideals of self-reliance, self-determination, self-actualization, and diversity, we must affirm that we are inevitably moving toward environmental accelerationism.
This dilemma is one unresolved issue surrounding environmental accelerationism.