Tag Archive for: fire

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Fight the Fire: Green New Deals and Global Climate Jobs | Jonathan Neale

 

Fight the Fire is a book that asks what would a green new deal look like that meets the needs of people and the planet? It addresses both the global South and North and is written in a conversational style using non technical language.

Neale is clear that to avoid cataclysmic climate change, fossil fuels need to go altogether – oil, gas and coal – replaced by renewable forms of energy such as wind and solar, he writes, “The key to stopping climate change will be stopping emissions”.

Using logical argument and evidence the book constructs a global analysis, revealing how all parts of the problem are everywhere and solutions interconnected. Focussing on causes rather than symptoms of climate change it identifies the social relations of globalizing capitalism as the major obstacle to sustainability and the need for connected mass movements.

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Pyromania: Fire and Geopolitics in a Climate-disrupted World | Simon Dalby

 

We are the only species that uses fire. It has determined how we have made our home on this planet and it has propelled us to the role of the dominant species in the biosphere. But at the heart of contemporary climate change is the process of combustion. Simon Dalby explores what a life without burning things might look like, and how we might get there.

Fires make the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is heating the planet, melting the ice sheets, changing weather patterns and making wildfires worse. Our civilization is burning things, especially fossil fuels, at prodigious rates. So much so that we are now heading towards a future “Hothouse Earth” with a climate that is very different from what humans have known so far.

By focusing on fire and our partial control over one key physical force in the earth system, that of combustion, Simon Dalby is able to ask important and interesting questions about us as humans, including different ways of thinking about how we live, and how we might do so differently in the future. Simply put, there is now far too much “firepower” loose in the world and we need to think much harder about how to live together in ways that don’t require burning stuff to do so.

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Future on Fire: Capitalism and the Politics of Climate Change | David Camfield

 

Climate change is already affecting millions of people. Governments talk about taking action to limit global warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, but the greenhouse gas emissions allowed by their policies have the Earth on track to far exceed that by the end of the century—a truly disastrous path. Visionary plans abound for how to slash emissions and improve society at the same time, including various Green New Deals, but how can we make these urgently needed changes?

Future on Fire argues that a just transition from fossil fuels and other drivers of climate change will not be delivered by business people or politicians who support the status quo. Electing green left leaders will not be enough to overcome opposition from capitalists and state bureaucrats. Only the power of disruptive mass social movements has the potential to pressure governments to change, so supporters of climate justice should commit to building them. Confronting the question “What if warming above 2° becomes unavoidable?” and refusing to despair, David Camfield argues that even a ravaged planet is worth fighting for—and that ultimately the only solution to the ecological crisis created by capitalism is a transition to ecosocialism.