The Political Economy of Global Warming: The Terminal Crisis

Description

Humanity is facing an unprecedented global catastrophe as a result of global warming. This book examines the reasons why international agencies, together with national governments, are seemingly unable to provide real and binding solutions to the problems. The reasons presented relate to the existing dominant global economic structure of capitalism as well as the fact that global warming is too often seen as an isolated problem rather than one of a suite of exceptional, converging and accelerating crises arising from the global capitalist political economy. This book adopts a political economy framework to address these issues. It accepts the science of global warming but challenges the predominant politics and economics of global warming. To illustrate the key issues involved, the book draws on South Africa – building on Samir Amin’s thesis that the country represents a microcosm of the global political economy. By taking a political economy approach, the book provides a clear explanation of the deep and pervasive problem of the denial which fails to acknowledge global warming as a systemic rather than a market problem. The book should be of interest to students and scholars researching climate change, environmental politics, environmental and ecological economics, development studies and political economics. Cover......Page 1 The Political Economy of Global Warming......Page 2 Title Page......Page 6 Copyright Page......Page 7 Dedication......Page 8 Table of Contents......Page 10 List of figures and table......Page 12 Foreword......Page 13 Preface......Page 15 Acknowledgements......Page 17 Part I The state of the world......Page 20 1 Introduction......Page 22 2 State of the planet, Kyoto and technical fixes......Page 33 3 Emission trading schemes, financialisation and green capitalism......Page 61 4 The global political economy and global warming......Page 74 Part II African studies - a reflection of the global political economy......Page 114 5 Africa......Page 116 6 South Africa......Page 132 7 South African electricity: a capitalist hub......Page 158 Part III To have a future......Page 172 8 Alternative futures......Page 174 9 The principles underpinning future societies......Page 188 10 Getting to the future......Page 201 11 Conclusion......Page 213 Notes......Page 217 Bibliography......Page 223 Index......Page 240