Is Science Enough?

January 31, 2022
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.

February 1, 2022
A hard-nosed evaluation of the myriad problems we face regarding climate change. Chomsky emphasizes that greenhouse gas emissions represent a fraction of the problem, which includes ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, nitrogen release by agriculture and industry, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and chemical pollution. Her solutions take a dim view of current strategy, beginning with technology. Most private- and public-sector leaders strongly believe that high-tech advances will allow us to extract more and emit less, but this approach relies on the exploitation of the many in the interests of the few. Throughout, Chomsky makes a convincing case that capitalism bears a heavy responsibility for the current situation, and she offers a superb education on efforts to reduce emissions. Readers will learn about international conferences (Kyoto, Paris), their compromises, and, absent the political will to ban or heavily regulate fossil fuels, the plethora of largely toothless efforts to reduce emissions through financial incentives. The author delivers lucid explanations of carbon taxes, the cap-and-trade system, carbon capture and storage, and carbon offsets while pointing out that most nations subsidize the fossil fuel industry. Consequently, emissions continue to rise. In the section on individual action, Chomsky shows little enthusiasm for recycling and attempts at energy efficiency. "Personal purification is not in and of itself a very effective form of political activism," she writes, noting that genuine change involves avoiding consumption: going car-free, avoiding plane flights, eliminating meat, etc. Mass movements often work, but collective action is hard to come by, and the author admits that results so far have been spotty. She argues that social justice is at the heart of the climate crisis: 45% of emissions come from 10% of the population, "the high-consuming global elite." Marginalized communities emit less but suffer most of the consequences. Chomsky concludes with questions that the debate evades: Can there be economic growth without environmental destruction? Is capitalism dependent on economic growth? Are we making progress? An outstanding primer on climate change but not for the faint of heart.

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