Nature is a Battlefield: Towards a Political Ecology / Edition 1

by Razmig Keucheyan

Overview

In the midst of the current ecological crisis, there is often lofty talk of the need for humanity to ‘overcome its divisions’ and work together to tackle the big challenges of our time. But as this new book by Razmig Keucheyan shows, the real picture is very different. Just take the case of the siting of toxic waste landfills in the United States: if you want to know where waste is most likely to be dumped, ask yourself where Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and other racial minorities live and where the poorest neighbourhoods are. This kind of ‘environmental racism’ is by no means restricted to the United States: it is very much a global phenomenon.

Keucheyan show how the capitalist response to the crisis has been marked by a massive expansion in ‘environmental finance’. From ‘carbon markets’ to ‘pollution permits’, ‘climate derivatives’ and ‘catastrophe bonds’, we are seeing a proliferation of nature-related financial products. Instead of tackling the root of the problem, the neoliberal strategy seeks to profit from environmental risks.

Moreover, with the rise in natural disasters, resource scarcity, food crises, the destabilization of the poles and oceans and the prospect of tens of millions of ‘climate refugees’, Western powers are increasingly adopting a military response to ecological problems. The Cold War is over: welcome to the ‘green wars’. From New Orleans to the Siachen glacier via the Arctic floes, Keucheyan explores the landmark sites of this new ‘climate geostrategy’.

Through a sharp critique of the way capitalism responds to environmental disaster, this innovative book provides a fresh perspective on some of the most critical issues confronting our societies today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781509503773
Publisher:	Polity Press
Publication date:	10/10/2016
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Razmig Keucheyan teaches sociology at the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Environmental Racism 8

A philosophical event 10

The colour of ecology 12

Hurricane Katrina as a 'metaphor' for environmental racism 15

The spatiality of racism 17

Lead poisoning and class struggle 20

Postcolonialism and environmental crisis: the conflict in Darfur 23

Ecological inequalities: A Marxist approach 27

The archaeology of environmental racism 34

Race and reforestation 38

Purifying nature … 40

… and naturalizing race 42

Exporting the environment 45

The coming political ecology 48

Conclusion 53

2 Financializing Nature: Insuring Climatic Risks 55

Financial markets 'plugged into' nature 58

Principles of insurance 60

New risks? 65

The ontology of catastrophe 70

Risk and postmodernity 72

Adventures in insurability 74

Cat (catastrophe) bonds 77

Nature as 'real abstraction' 81

Carbon markets and unequal development 85

Constructing profitable markets 88

A 'multi-cat' bond in Mexico 91

Ecological crisis and the fiscal crisis of the state 95

A derivative nature 98

Nature as accumulation strategy 101

Conclusion 103

3 Green Wars, or the Militarization of Ecology 104

A doctrine emerges 106

A benevolent dictatorship 109

Chaos specialists 111

Terrorism and climate change 113

The new military ecology 114

Conservation and counter-insurgency 117

Econationalism 120

Agent Orange 122

From the Cold War to green wars 124

The end of conventional wars? 126

Double movement 128

Climate refugees 131

Nuclear deterrence and ecological crisis 134

War and biofuels 136

The oceans destabilized 138

The scramble for the Arctic 140

The North Pole and globalization 142

Commodifying the thaw 145

The speed of the circulation of capital 147

Conclusion 149

Conclusion: Game Over? 150

Notes 154