Has It Come to This?

The Promises and Perils of Geoengineering on the Brink

Edited by J.P. Sapinski, Holly Jean Buck, and Andreas Malm

SERIES: Nature, Society, and Culture

Rutgers University Press

Geoengineering is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth's climate system in an attempt to mitigate the adverse effects of global warming. Now that climate emergency is upon us, claims that geoengineering is inevitable are rapidly proliferating. How did we get into this situation where the most extreme path now seems a plausible development? Is it an accurate representation of where we are at? Who is this “we” who is talking? What options make it onto the table? Which are left out? Whom does geoengineering serve? Why is the ensemble of projects that goes by that name so salient, even though the community of researchers and advocates is remarkably small? These are some of the questions that the thinkers contributing to this volume are exploring from perspectives ranging from sociology and geography to ethics and Indigenous studies. The editors set out this diverse collection of voices not as a monolithic, unified take on geoengineering, but as a place where creative thinkers, students, and interested environmental and social justice advocates can explore nuanced ideas in more than 240 characters.

Has It Come to This provides insight into the rise of geoengineering onto the world stage, painting a picture of societal power in a global system. In this book, the editors decisively highlight the role of power and politics in defining technologically, economically, and politically feasible paths forward. Rachael Shwom, Associate professor, Rutgers University

Sapinski, Buck, Malm, and their trans-Atlantic team of realists, Marxists, and discourse theorists amplify how twenty-first-century citizens live under terms set by corporations, states, big science, and media in a post-truth era. Taking up the mystifications of solar geo-engineering, their essays look not so much at global ecological impacts, but ask, What are the chances for democratic climate governance? Ariel Salleh, editor of Eco-Sufficiency & Global Justice (2009)

2020 New Reads'
https://hazards.colorado.edu/library/new-reads Natural Hazards Center

What are the promises and perils of geoengineering?' by Charlotte Hsu The University of Buffalo

Has it Come to This? is an essential primer for understanding the context of recent geoengineering developments and should find wide appeal for both dedicated researchers and the interested public....[T]he collection provides a helpful guide for critical scholars looking to engage with what seems likely to be one of the most major debates in coming times. Capitalism Nature Socialism

J. P. SAPINSKI is an assistant professor of environmental studies and public policy at Université de Moncton in Canada. His work draws from the critical political economy and power structure research traditions to map out the constellations of corporate interests involved in the politics of climate change and energy, including geoengineering politics. He is co-author of Organizing the 1%: How Corporate Power Works.

HOLLY JEAN BUCK is an assistant professor of environment and sustainability at the University at Buffalo, in Buffalo, NY. She is the author of After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Repair, and Restoration. She has written on several aspects of climate engineering, including policy for scaling up carbon removal.

ANDREAS MALM teaches human ecology at Lund University in Sweden. He is the author of Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming, and The Progress of This Storm: Nature and Society in a Warming World.

Part I Introduction
1 Critical Perspectives on Geoengineering: A Dialogue
HOLLY JEAN BUCK, J. P. SAPINSKI, AND ANDREAS MALM

Part II Contesting Geoengineering: Power, Justice, and Civil Society

2 Winning Hearts and Minds? Explaining the Rise of the Geoengineering Idea
INA MÖLLER
3 Carbon Unicorns and Fossil Futures: Whose Emission Reduction Pathways Is the IPCC Performing?
WIM CARTON
4 Defending a Failed Status Quo: The Case against Geoengineering from a Civil Society Perspective
LINDA SCHNEIDER AND LILI FUHR
5 Geoengineering and Indigenous Climate Justice: A Conversation with Kyle Powys Whyte
KYLE POWYS WHYTE, INTERVIEWED BY HOLLY JEAN BUCK
6 Recognizing the Injustice in Geoengineering: Negotiating a Path to Restorative Climate Justice through a Political Account of Justice as Recognition 82
DUNCAN MCLAREN
7 An Intersectional Analysis of Geoengineering: Overlapping Oppressions and the Demand for Ecological Citizenship
TINA SIKKA

Part III State Power, Economic Planning, and Geoengineering
8 Mobilizing in a Climate Shock: Geoengineering or Accelerated Energy Transition?
LAURENCE L. DELINA
9 A Left Defense of Carbon Dioxide Removal: The State Must Be Forced to Deploy Civilization-Saving Technology
CHRISTIAN PARENTI
10 Planning the Planet: Geoengineering Our Way Out of and Back into a Planned Economy
ANDREAS MALM
11 Provisioning Climate: An Infrastructural Approach to Geoengineering
ANNE PASEK

Part IV Geoengineering: A Class Project in the Face of Systemic Crisis?

12 Geoengineering and Imperialism
RICHARD YORK
13 Gramsci in the Stratosphere: Solar Geoengineering and Capitalist Hegemony
KEVIN SURPRISE
14 Promises of Climate Engineering after Neoliberalism
NILS MARKUSSON, DAVID TYFIELD, JENNIE C. STEPHENS, AND MADS DAHL GJEFSEN
15 Prospects of Climate Engineering in a Post-truth Era
HOLLY JEAN BUCK

Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
Index

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