Future of Denial: The Ideologies of Climate Change

The age of climate denialism is far from over. The 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. 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 with carbon offsets. Politicians say we should fight global warming by greening the military. A coal company invents carbon offsets to justify a new facility. 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. Like a return of the repressed, what we do not want to know keeps returning to harm the marginalized and shift blame.