Is Science Enough?
Forty Critical Questions About Climate Justice
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
Why social, racial, and economic justice are just as crucial as science in determining how humans can reverse climate catastrophe
We are facing a climate catastrophe. A plethora of studies describe the damage we’ve already done, the droughts, the wildfires, the super-storms, the melting glaciers, the heat waves, and the displaced people fleeing lands that are becoming uninhabitable. Many people understand that we are facing a climate emergency, but may be fuzzy on technical, policy, and social justice aspects. In Is Science Enough?, Aviva Chomsky breaks down the concepts, terminology, and debates for activists, students, and anyone concerned about climate change. She argues that science is not enough to change course: we need put social, racial, and economic justice front and center and overhaul the global growth economy.
Chomsky’s accessible primer focuses on 5 key issues:
1.) Technical questions: What exactly are “clean,” “renewable,” and “zero-emission” energy sources? How much do different sectors (power generation, transportation, agriculture, industry, etc.) contribute to climate change? Can forests serve as a carbon sink?
2.) Policy questions: What is the Green New Deal? How does a cap-and-trade system work? How does the United States subsidize the fossil fuel industry?
3.) What can I do as an individual?: Do we need to consume less? What kinds of individual actions can make the most difference? Should we all be vegetarians?
4.) Social, racial, and economic justice: What’s the relationship of inequality to climate change? What do race and racism have to do with climate change? How are pandemics related to climate change?
5.) Broadening the lens: What is economic growth? How important is it, and how does it affect the environment? What is degrowth?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chomsky (Undocumented), a history professor at Salem State University, considers climate justice in this comprehensive environmental studies primer. Writing that "those least responsible for climate change, like Indigenous peoples and the global poor, are also those who are most vulnerable to its effects," Chomsky poses 40 questions on issues regarding climate change and social, racial, and economic inequality. She covers the basics, such as "what are greenhouse gases," "what are clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources," "what is carbon capture," "what are the main sources of GHG emissions," and "what is the Paris Agreement." She then goes deeper into such questions as "what do race and racism have to do with climate change?" (throughout history and in the present, colonization leads to exploitation and climate change, she answers) and "what do workers and the labor movement have to say about climate change?" (organized labor has "a fraught relationship with organized environmentalism," and a snapshot history of the U.S. labor movement helps explain why). Chomsky does a great job of keeping things simple while providing ample context, and her focus on justice adds urgency. This is a worthwhile contribution to the growing body of work on the ethics of climate change.
