The Climate Coup. Mark Alizart

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The Climate Coup

      Mark Alizart

      Translated by Robin Mackay

      polity

      Originally published in French © Presses universitaires de France / Humensis, Le coup d’Etat climatique, 2020

      This English edition © Polity Press, 2021

      Polity Press

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      All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

      ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4615-2

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      Title: The climate coup / Mark Alizart ; translated by Robin Key.

      Other titles: Coup d’État climatique. English

      Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity Press, 2021. | Originally published in French (c) Presses universitaires de France / Humensis, Le coup d’Etat climatique, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: “How the rich and powerful stand to gain from the climate crisis”-- Provided by publisher.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2020057907 (print) | LCCN 2020057908 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509546138 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509546145 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509546152 (epub)

      Subjects: LCSH: Global warming. | Environmental policy. | Human ecology.

      Classification: LCC QC981.8.G56 A34413 2021 (print) | LCC QC981.8.G56 (ebook) | DDC 304.2/5--dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057907 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057908

      The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

      Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

      For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

Acknowledgements

      This book includes material from three lectures given at the Kirchner Cultural Center of Buenos Aires on 29 June 2019 and the Brooklyn Library on 2 February 2020, which were updated after the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020 and Joe Biden’s win in November 2020.

      All my thanks go to the French Cultural Services in Buenos Aires and New York, who invited me to the two venues. I also thank Laurent-Henri Vignaud for having agreed to review my text, Brune Compagnon-Janin, who encouraged me to publish it, Laurent de Sutter and Monique Labrune, who published it at the Presses Universitaires de France, Robin Mackay for translating it into English, and John Thompson for publishing it at Polity.

      In its final phase, catastrophe is the intrinsic, normal mode of existence for capital.

      Rosa Luxemburg (1913)

1 A New Front

      Ecology has come a long way.

      Forty years ago, only specialists and political militants were worried about global warming, loss of biodiversity, and pollution by pesticides or plastics. Only twenty years ago, people were still dismissive of organic food. Today everyone has a view on climate issues. For the first time in a US presidential election, the topic of climate change was addressed during the debates. Joe Biden has committed to a great plan to fight it and even appointed a ‘climate czar’. Indeed, it is now laid bare for everyone to see with each new hurricane and wildfire that hits us that climate is changing, for the worse.

Nevertheless, environmentalists have only won a battle, not the war. Despite the commitments made at successive Conference of the Parties (COP) summits, the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere is higher than ever. Despite displays of good intentions here and there, the use of pesticides continues to increase, as do deforestation, urbanization and ocean acidification. The Greens are still political minorities in political majorities. Worse still, climate denialists are still overwhelmingly powerful. The US election results were tighter than expected. The Senate is tied. Seventy million Americans are still fed fake news and propaganda on a daily basis by the Republican party and Fox News. Along with the first wave of Trumpism that hit America in 2016, politicians with heavily climate-sceptic agendas have been voted in in Brazil, in the Philippines, in Australia