Environmental Decline, Elite Escapes, and Space Colonies

• In Event: Green Criminology III: Crimes of and Against the Future

Abstract

Proposals for a “space criminology” as a new area for criminological study have sought to apply insights from existing criminological perspectives to various forms of “space crime.” Green criminology has been identified as especially well-positioned to explore the environmental harms associated with space junk, space mining, and space weaponization. Although defining harm in outer space is a matter of increasing concern, adopting a narrow focus may obscure the connections between the so-called “space race 2.0” and the activities of the richest 1% on Earth. This paper takes a green cultural criminology approach to argue that “space criminology” should not be considered an entirely “new” field of exploration, and it builds on our past work on elite escapes, bunkerization and ocean cruising, as well as popular fiction and other academic works that have identified space as the next site for resource extraction and elite consumption. We begin with an overview of “space criminology” and situate it in relationship to green cultural criminology. Next, we discuss climate breakdown, the “polluter elite,” and bunkerization, before contemplating outer space-as-frontier. We conclude by emphasizing the need to focus on terrestrial anthropogenic environmental issues as we extend our criminological gaze to the heavens.

Authors

• Anita Lam, York University

• Nigel South, University of Essex

• Avi Brisman, Eastern Kentucky University