Today, the word is most often used by right-wing climate change deniers for whom it is a synonym for “alarmism.” The word “catastrophism” originated in nineteenth-century geology, in the debate between those who believed all geological change had been gradual and those who believed there had been episodes of rapid change. While they are undoubtedly sincere, their critique of so-called environmental catastrophism does not stand up to scrutiny. That accusation, a standard feature of right-wing attacks on the environmental movement, has recently been advanced by some left-wing critics as well. Increasingly, activists who warn that the world faces unprecedented environmental danger are accused of catastrophism-of raising alarms that do more harm than good. It is difficult to imagine how anyone could disagree with that elementary moral imperative.Īnd yet some do. If a runaway train is bearing down on children, simple human solidarity dictates that anyone who sees it should shout a warning, that anyone who can should try to stop it. 2 Untold numbers of children will die, killed by climate change. This is only the beginning: the United Nations’ 2013 Human Development Report says that without coordinated global action to avert environmental disasters, especially global warming, the number of people living in extreme poverty could increase by up to 3 billion by 2050. Scientists at the UK Met Centre have shown that human-induced climate change made this catastrophe much worse than it would otherwise have been. Millions more survived only because they received food aid. He would like to thank Simon Butler, Martin Empson, John Bellamy Foster, John Riddell, Javier Sethness, and Chris Williams for comments and suggestions.īetween October 2010 and April 2012, over 250,000 people, including 133,000 children under five, died of hunger caused by drought in Somalia. He is co-author of Too Many People? Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis (Haymarket, 2011), and editor of The Global Fight for Climate Justice (Fernwood, 2010). Ian Angus is editor of the online journal Climate & Capitalism.
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