After Sustainability

This book takes the view that dangerous climate change is coming, setting out the argument in a series of what the author calls vicious syllogisms: if we do not keep average temperature rise below 2°, we are in for potentially catastrophic climate change; if we do not keep further anthropogenic CO2 emissions to 1,300 billion tonnes, we shall not keep average temperature rises below 2°C; we are not even minimally embarked on such a programme, so we are already in for dangerous climate change. Between 1992 and 2012, CO2 emissions increased by 36%, atmospheric CO2 concentration by 9% and the global average temperature by 0.4%. The three parts of the book discuss denial, hope (as opposed to optimism) and retrieval. Central to the argument is the proposal that progressivism is at the heart of an unsustainable mind-set, and is also embodied in the notion of sustainable development. It is a key enlightenment premise that life is about the betterment of mankind and our conditions of life, which have indeed improved immeasurably for most people over the last hundred years. However, the basic contradiction remains one of unlimited economic growth on a finite planet driven by both our economic and political systems. The consequences of our actions will entail a re-eruption of the inescapable wild back into our lives, necessitating what he calls existential resilience. So the key question becomes whether we can learn from rather than repeat and reinforce the patterns of progressivism. The jury is certainly out, and this book provides a chilling analysis of our situation.