“Tad DeLay is one of the most important and disquieting
theorists of consciousness and politics writing today. His work is
indispensable.” —China Miéville, author of October
Capitalism is an ecocidal engine
constantly regenerating climate change denial
The age of denial is over, we are told.
Yet emissions continue to rise while gimmicks, graft, and green-
washing distract the public from the climate violence suffered by the
vulnerable. This timely, interdisciplinary contribution to the
environmental humanities draws on the latest climatology, the first
shoots of an energy transition, critical theory, Earth’s
paleoclimate history, and trends in border violence to answer the
most pressing question of our age: Why do we continue to squander the
short time we have left?
The symptoms suggest society’s
inability to adjust is profound. Near Portland, militias incapable of
accepting that the world is warming respond to a wildfire by hunting
for imaginary left-wing arsonists. Europe erects nets in the Aegean
Sea to capture migrants fleeing drought and war. An airline claims to
be carbon neutral thanks to bogus cheap offsets. Drone strikes hit
people living along the aridity line. Yes, Exxon knew as early as the
1970s, but the fundamental physics of carbon dioxide warming the
Earth was already understood before the American Civil War.
Will capitalists ever voluntarily walk
away from hundreds of trillions of dollars in fossil fuels unless
they are forced to do so? And, if not, who will apply the necessary
pressure?