A technologically advanced society is choosing to destroy itself. It鈥檚 both fascinating and horrifying to watch

November 9, 2022
Issue 
Sydney climate protest in August in response to Labor's low climate emissions target. Photo: Zebedee Parkes

As world leaders assemble for the United Nations climate change conference () in Egypt, it鈥檚 hard to be optimistic the talks will generate any radical departure from the聽聽in global carbon emissions over the past two centuries.

After all, before last year鈥檚 Glasgow talks, experts warned the summit was the聽聽to limit global warming to 1.5鈩 this century. And yet, a聽聽last week found even if all nations meet their climate goals this decade, the planet would still heat by a catastrophic 2.5鈩.

There were hopes the global pandemic might have shifted the world鈥檚 economies from their fossil fuel dependence as lockdowns reduced energy consumption, and progressive politicians proposed聽.

But after borders reopened, our fossil fuel addiction returned with a vengeance. In fact, the International Energy Agency聽聽net income for oil and gas producers will double in 2022 to an alarming US$4 trillion.

As social scientists, this is both horrifying and fascinating to observe.聽聽that a technologically advanced society could choose to destroy itself by failing to act to avert a climate catastrophe?

We鈥檝e had decades to act

Like watching a slow-motion train crash, the world鈥檚 leading climate scientists have for decades聽聽of ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Political and corporate leaders knew of the threat more than a decade before it was key public knowledge. Back聽, United States President Jimmy Carter was briefed on the possibility of catastrophic climate change. That same year, internal memos at one of the聽聽made it clear that continued burning of fossil fuels would dramatically heat the planet.

So why, in the 45 years since, has there been so little action in response? Why do we condemn today鈥檚 children and future generations to live on a dangerous and hostile planet?

We鈥檝e sought to answer this question in our research into business and climate change over the years, including our聽.

The answer, we argue, rests on a prevailing assumption organised by corporate and political elites: that endless economic growth fuelled by fossil energy is so fundamental and commonsensical it cannot be questioned.

We term this all-consuming ideology the 鈥渇ossil fuel hegemony鈥. It asserts that corporate capitalism based on fossil energy is a natural state of being, one that鈥檚 beyond challenge.

How fossil fuel hegemony works

The concept of 鈥渉egemony鈥 was developed by the Italian intellectual Antonio Gramsci. In the 1920s, Gramsci sought to explain how dominant classes maintained their power beyond the use of force and coercion.

He argued hegemony involved a continuous process of winning the consent of key actors in society such as industrialists, the media, and religious and educational institutions, to form a ruling bloc. Civil society would thus accept the prevailing order, dampening any threat of revolution.

Gramsci鈥檚 ideas help us understand the lack of action in response to the climate crisis. In particular, it helps explain the business sector鈥檚 inordinate influence on climate policy across the world.

For instance, a range of recent studies have explored the 鈥渇ossil fuel hegemony鈥 in countries such as聽,听聽and the聽. These studies argue such hegemony comprises a coalition of corporate and political actors with interests aligned around carbon-dependent economic growth. This leads to limited progress on legislation to reduce carbon emissions.

The hegemony has also extended to corporate-political activity聽聽about climate science,听聽emissions reduction and renewable energy, and the聽聽by interests aligned with fossil fuels.

This helps explain why environmentalists advocating to聽聽are attacked by conservative politicians and right-wing media.

They are presented not only as a threat to 鈥渙ur way of life鈥, but as deluded and dangerous radicals, or聽.

There is another way

Of course, there are alternatives to the fossil fuel hegemony. It involves immediate and聽聽of the global economy, as COP27 in Egypt aspires to achieve.

But it also requires alternative economic models of 鈥溾.听聽a planned and equitable contraction of rich economies, until it operates steadily and within the capacity of the聽.

This includes carbon trading systems with a rapidly lowering cap, fossil fuel extraction limits, worker autonomy and shorter working hours, and job guarantees with living wages.

These types of policies rest on tax reforms to limit resource use and reduce carbon emissions, while promoting work sharing and limiting production and consumption.

This also requires far more democratic politics than the current hegemony allows 鈥 one that challenges the illusion that economic growth can continue even as Earth鈥檚聽聽begin to fail.

But the true test of the fossil fuel hegemony will be how long this image can persist as the weather becomes more extreme and climate activism grows.

Because as more people acknowledge the reality of the climate crisis, those seeking to maintain the fossil fuel hegemony will need to work harder to maintain their grip on climate politics.

[This article was first published at .]

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