CLIMATE CHANGE AS NATURAL CATASTROPHE

The previous chapter established the central contention that climate change is a symptom of neoliberal governance. This chapter advances the further claim that the tendency to present climate change as an impending natural catastrophe is likely to blunt efforts to undermine neoliberal governance. Catastrophic portrayal of climate change has become so common that questioning its legitimacy requires a deliberate effort of mind. It is important to be explicit about the fact that my critique of climate change catastrophism has nothing in common with climate change scepticism, an attitude adopted by many on the right. I see no reason to call into question the basic findings of the IPCC and the credibility of the future climate scenarios it predicts. Rather, my immediate concern is with those on the political left who feel that rendering climate change a matter of imminent ecological collapse is the best way to galvanise efforts to mitigate or reverse it. An example of this approach is offered by Naomi Klein (2014) in her recent book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate. In the introduction Klein sets out her basic position:

Calling for a conversion of climate change into what she calls ‘a people's shock’ refers us back to Klein's (2007) earlier book, The Shock Doctrine, which exposed the way neoliberal capitalism has established itself over the last four decades by taking advantage of periodic economic and social crises.