The age of climate denialism is far from over. Future of Denial asks us to consider why we squander the short time we have left.
Will capitalists voluntarily walk away from hundreds of trillions of dollars in fossil fuels without force? And, if not, who will force them? The age of denial is over, or so we are told, yet emissions continue to rise while gimmicks, graft, and greenwash distract from new climate violence against the vulnerable. This timely, interdisciplinary contribution to the environmental humanities draws on the latest climatology, hints in the energy transition, critical theory, Earth's palaeoclimate history, and trends in border violence.
Militias near Portland hunt imaginary left-wing arsonists during a wildfire because they cannot imagine the world is warming. Europe erects nets in the Aegean Sea to capture migrants pushed out by drought and war. An airline claims to be carbon neutral using cheap offsets. Drone strikes hit people living along the aridity line. Yes, Exxon knew as early as the 1970s, but the basics of global warming were already understood before the American Civil War. Our capitalist economy is an ecocidal machine lashing out against the marginalized and shifting blame.
Tad DeLay, PhD is a philosopher, religion scholar, and interdisciplinary critical theorist. His books include Against: What Does the White Evangelical Want?, The Cynic & the Fool, and God Is Unconscious. He is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy in Baltimore.
Praise for Against -- :
Tad DeLay's remarkable Against represents a pathbreaking psychoanalysis of the evangelical movement. Each page has an arresting new insight into the structure of the evangelical appeal and the damage that it's doing. In lucid prose, DeLay lays out the case for why we need psychoanalysis to understand the recalcitrance of evangelicals when confronted with obvious facts. Rather than condescending to them or parroting the liberal line about the need for more education, DeLay's book articulates the immense enjoyment that derives from the evangelical denial of common sense-including, most importantly, the burning up of the planet. It is an urgent plea for recognition of a problem that threatens everyone's survival and is simply a must-read for anyone concerned about where things are headed. -- Todd McGowan
Praise of The Cynic and the Fool -- :
While The Cynic and the Fool offers the reader insights that feel timeless, its true power lies in its ability to offer a unique and penetrating analysis of our present age. This is a book that employs the best of psychoanalytic theory to reflect on larger, societal issues. It is a carefully crafted work that will prove invaluable to anyone wanting to wrestle with, and understand, the tumultuous times we live in. -- Peter Rollins
Praise for God Is Unconscious -- :
God Is Unconscious is a brilliant and accessible overview of Lacan's thought, demonstrating how it directly applies to religion and politics. Delay develops an original understanding of perversion, and how it applies to contemporary conservative Christianity. Anyone interested in understanding how religion works in social, political, and psychological terms should read this book. -- Clayton Crockett