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Summary
A different future of work, one that sets in response to the climate conditions already unfolding.
The terra-collar work is a conceptual proposition. It draws from recent climate change projections and reframes the questions about the future of labor. It argues that the established collared division of labor should be reworked to ensure Earth remains a viable environment for many species, including humans as a primary risk group. It demonstrates why climate mitigation and adaptation should become the largest terraforming project in human history and provides examples of how certain industrial sectors can be reorganized to follow the goal of staying below 2°C by 2050.
The terra-collar work departs from the Fourth Industrial Revolution discussions about working hours reduction and nonwork advocacy, UBI proposals and transition of the entire labor force to coding and data
science.
Instead, it argues
that future work will be tethered to the very material processes of climate
change mitigation and adaptation, necessary to scale up to the amount of carbon
emissions and keep global warming to a viable limit.
This new type of
work strides away from white- and blue-collar distinctions of the past, and
emerges as a new category of its own: Terra-Collar.
If we are to achieve the goal of limiting warming to 2 degrees by 2050, it will require an effort equivalent to the largest terraforming project in human history.
Scaling up to the amount of produced carbon emissions and limiting global warming will require an effort equivalent to the largest terraforming project in human history.
The end of time narratives that describe this climate crisis have demonstrated their inability to instigate effective actions and alleviate the problems that become more tangible with every year.
A new story is needed for the geologic epoch we inhabit, that which motivates action with the tools at our disposal.