Subsurface Survivalism(s) : From Multiplanetary Futurity to (Post)Apocalyptic Contingency

Jones, Craig (2024) Subsurface Survivalism(s) : From Multiplanetary Futurity to (Post)Apocalyptic Contingency. In: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, 2024-08-27 - 2024-08-30.

Abstract

The ability to survive through emergent and speculative dangers – from climate breakdown and multiplanetary habitation to nuclear war and climate breakdown – are always posited as contingent upon the enclosure and commodification of the subsurface. Discourses of humanity’s continued survival are perpetually framed as being subtended by the subsurface in one regard or another: whether this is by settling Mars through inhabiting lava tubes, mitigating climate change through sequestering CO2 into underground spaces, or even surviving asteroid bombardment via inhabiting bunkers that also store seeds, medicine, and water as humans wait to reclaim the surface. Indeed, the speculative markets developing around these areas have seen sustained and continuing growth as the survival of capitalism itself is presented as contingent upon the subsurface: these areas being touted as trillion-dollar markets. This framing of the subsurface as a saviour of capitalism is grounded within the history of capitalism itself, numerous financial ‘booms’ of the past stemming from locating deposits of various minerals, fossil fuels, and precious stones: whenever capitalism has been in crisis, efforts to locate subsurface wealth have intensified, a trend that continues through the examples above. Alongside these headlines within public and business circles, recent years have seen a growing interest in (re)conceptualisations of the subsurface and deep time as geography, sociology, and the GeoHumanities have begun to grapple with the challenges posed by and through the Anthropocene. With this context in mind, this paper will explore the variegated futures of the subsurface and how it is (re)created as a site by and through which the survival of species, the climate, and capitalism are permitted and the discourses that underpin there (re)imaginings.