Over the past two decades, literature on climate change has increased significantly, making it almost impossible to keep up with. These writings have addressed climate change from various perspectives, including climate science, economics, social sciences, humanities, and even science fiction, among others. While much has been written about climate change itself, less has been discussed about the potential responses to this dilemma, especially given the persistence of its causes into the future.
This is where the importance of this book emerges, as it places climate change within its capitalist context. It studies the capacity of this system to respond to the challenge of climate change, questioning whether it can produce consistent answers or whether a new global system, more just and environmentally sustainable, must emerge.
Chapter One: Climate Change Policies
The first chapter highlights that human-induced climate change is “the most urgent issue facing humanity” (p. 3). The three authors, Daniel Nyberg, Christopher Wright, and Vanessa Boden, argue that global capitalism, which relies on “the relentless pursuit of continued economic growth and fossil fuel consumption on a complex, infinite basis ad infinitum” (p. 4), is the driving force behind the climate crisis. This position was previously held by many radical academics. More importantly, the authors identify the key actors in the relationship between capitalism and climate change, which include multinational corporations, state-owned institutions, allied governments, political parties, and supporting institutions such as think tanks, consulting firms, and media outlets. These entities “derive their power and financial resources from perpetuating economic growth at any cost” (p. 4).
The authors argue that the COVID-19 pandemic offered a brief opportunity to question the “business as usual” trajectory of endless growth and fossil fuels, revealing the inherent vulnerability of a globalized and interconnected economy to disruptions from the natural world (p. 5). However, governments worldwide did not seize this opportunity. Instead, they continued funding fossil fuel projects. In fact, reliance on fossil fuels has intensified with rising tensions, particularly due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Despite the commitments made by many governments and companies in recent years to achieve carbon neutrality or net-zero emissions by 2050, the authors note that capitalism remains addicted to fossil fuels in its pursuit of economic growth.
In this context, the authors explain that the dominance of fossil fuels can be understood through the “historical process of political strategies that have led to the long-standing impasse on climate change” (p. 24). Drawing on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s reinterpretation of Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, the authors argue that hegemonic projects “link heterogeneous demands and interests in constantly shifting formations” (p. 28). The fossil fuel industry, at its core, consists of a wide range of competing companies, some of which, like BP and Shell, are involved in renewable energy projects, albeit to a limited extent, as part of their commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050 (p. 34).
Nyberg, Wright, and Boden observe that mainstream corporate and governmental responses to the climate crisis prioritize time over space. In essence, they favor “the rights of those living today at the expense of future generations” (p. 37) and value the wealth of the Global North over the welfare of the populations in the Global South (p. 37).
Chapter Two: The Politics of Climate Mitigation
The second chapter emphasizes that decarbonization “will require reducing emissions not only in energy production but also in transportation, manufacturing, industrial processes, agriculture, and food production” (p. 42). Additionally, deforestation and the destruction of other critical carbon sinks must end quickly. Instead, the authors claim that fossil fuel companies have attempted to shape public opinion, presenting themselves as responsible citizens through clever marketing campaigns that highlight the “alleged benefits” they bring to impoverished and marginalized communities (p. 46).
Globally, the fossil fuel industry and governments have promoted the transition from coal to gas extraction as a transitional strategy to reduce emissions. Companies of all kinds now recognize that climate impacts will affect their operations.
Faced with these challenges, a global climate movement has emerged since 1989. Nyberg, Wright, and Boden argue that a second wave of the global climate movement appeared after the Paris Agreement of the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference (COP 21), which aimed to limit global warming to two degrees, or ideally to 1.5 degrees. This second wave was joined by conservative actors such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), 350.org, and the Sierra Club.
The authors identify movements like Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future as challenging “everyday, ineffective climate policies” (p. 76), representing a rebuilding of what is perceived as the “middle ground” of climate policies by developing radical wing policies (p. 76). Notably, while these two groups were highly effective in mobilizing climate protests worldwide, at least before the COVID-19 pandemic, they tended to be somewhat vague in directly challenging capitalism, unlike previous “direct action” groups such as Climate Camps in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, anti-airline protesters like Plane Stupid, the Keystone XL pipeline blockade in the U.S. in 2012, and Germany’s Ende Gelände movement (p. 74).
However, Nyberg, Wright, and Boden fail to differentiate between climate movements that focus on ecological modernization—especially the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources—and smaller climate justice movements that call for “system change, not climate change,” which include environmental socialists and anarchists.
Chapter Three: The Politics of Climate Adaptation
The authors argue that corporations continue to exert “significant influence over the critical decisions society will make about the best ways to address the challenges of a hotter, less stable, and increasingly inhospitable planet” (p. 88). They state that companies are “key actors in shaping and enacting climate adaptation policies” (p. 95), a process facilitated by governments and media.
Corporate-friendly forms of adaptation include a focus on engineering and consulting industries building greater resilience in the world’s largest cities, various forms of disaster capitalism (p. 101), activities by oil and gas companies in the Arctic (p. 103), and the positive framing of Russia’s global warming as a means to open Siberian tundra to agricultural expansion (p. 103), as well as geoengineering (p. 105), and the “space race” between billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk (p. 106).
Nyberg, Wright, and Boden note that while vulnerable communities suffer from environmental collapse (p. 109)—in the form of severe storms, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and droughts—media tends to downplay climate change’s role in extreme weather events. They emphasize that “the local nature of adaptation initiatives” exposes these communities to resource shortages, potential corruption, short-term preferences, and other structural limitations (p. 116).
Chapter Four: The Politics of Climate Suffering
The fourth chapter examines how corporations defend themselves against criticism from NGOs and climate activists, sometimes coopting organizations, as seen when WWF accepted a $100 million donation from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (p. 139). The authors discuss the challenge of portraying communities negatively affected by climate change and environmental destruction as helpless victims, instead suggesting these people can be potential drivers of democratic mobilization (p. 147).
Representatives of these communities have used events like COP conferences to raise their voices. By doing so, “communities at the forefront of climate change impacts have inevitably perpetuated injustice and the unrelenting consequences on the hegemony of fossil fuels” (p. 157).
Chapter Five: The Politics of Climate Futures
Finally, the authors acknowledge that simply implementing renewable energy on a large scale does not necessarily sever the links between environmental harm and the foundations on which capitalism is built (p. 171). They argue that, contrary to the green capitalist goal of decoupling economic growth from pollution and emissions, degrowth calls for a fundamentally different kind of economy, where wealthy societies must restructure themselves to reduce their environmental impacts (p. 174).
They highlight that some advocates of degrowth, like Jason Hickel, promote a post-capitalist world order, while others, such as Serge Latouche, a pioneer of the degrowth movement, believe it can be achieved within capitalist parameters. Nyberg, Wright, and Boden, in calling for deeper democracy or what they term “Energy Democracy,” argue that “communities” need to participate more directly in managing energy and increasing their involvement in decisions regarding production and consumption (p. 179).
The Climate Change Crisis from a Gramscian Perspective
The authors persuasively argue that the global system of corporate capitalism is the primary driver of the climate crisis the world is experiencing. They utilize Gramsci’s concept of hegemony to frame how the system persists by promoting frameworks in which dominant economic and political actors, operating within existing structures and processes, can manage the crisis with only modest adjustments. The ideology of hegemony and the power structures it creates distort and downplay the causes and scale of current disasters and suffering, while marginalizing the most critical voices. At the same time, it conceals the fundamental contradictions between perpetual economic growth and the limits of the planet.
The authors accurately choose Antonio Gramsci’s theoretical framework, as capitalism’s ability to respond to the climate crisis fits well within Gramsci’s analysis. The concept of hegemony reflects the stability of social and economic formations as well as the potential for their occurrence. While resilience in societal and environmental contexts is generally viewed positively, the dominance of fossil fuels indicates a dysfunctional and harmful form of resilience in our current system. This resilience stems from the alliance of economic, political, and media powers that form a network of actors legitimizing themselves by asserting moral and intellectual leadership, projecting their private interests as global aspirations.
The book draws on the post-structuralist interpretation of Gramsci by Laclau and Mouffe, which emphasizes the discursive and cultural dimensions of hegemony. However, it neglects the dialectical interaction with material and economic elements. This omission diminishes the perspective and rigor of the book, as fossil fuel hegemony relies not only on discursive differences but also on dominant technologies, infrastructure, and business models in sectors such as transportation and energy production. Although the book discusses the power and interests of major capitalist corporations, the richness of Gramsci’s concept of hegemony is lost in Laclau and Mouffe’s one-dimensional presentation. Including the material and economic components of the capitalist system would provide deeper insights into the tensions, contradictions, and dynamics surrounding the climate crisis and the possibility for progressive forces to wage a “war of position” that exploits these fissures, using political, commercial, and ideological strategies to build an alternative.
Today, some major investors are recognizing that climate change threatens their portfolios and even the global economy, pushing political elites to take necessary actions. Activists are leveraging the power of capital through proxy voting, threatening to dismiss managers, and pushing for transparency regarding climate-related risks. The clean energy sector is growing so rapidly that it has also become a political force. However, the book tends to dismiss this as mere “greenwashing,” arguing that it, in fact, reinforces fossil fuel hegemony.
Culture and civil society are two critical arenas for establishing and challenging hegemony in the Gramscian framework. The book explores representations of climate in novels, films, and television, but criticizes them as a “climate spectacle” that reinforces negative policies of suffering and pity. This represents a form of “disaster capitalism” that paradoxically sustains fossil fuel dominance. The book claims that apocalyptic depictions offer “an imaginative escape that fails to challenge the catastrophic inevitability of our current political and economic system or even acknowledge it” (p. 143).
The final chapters describe the emergence of new forms of activism and potential futures, grounded in Gramsci’s analysis of political crises. Political ecologists have also argued that our experiences with nature can facilitate more fundamental change, drawing on Gramsci’s view that human consciousness and “common sense” are shaped through interactions with everyday material and natural worlds. As we endure increasing climate pressures, whether directly or through media, this book offers intellectual guidance to help us understand the broader system in which climate risks manifest. Clearly seeing the crisis, “without illusions but without losing hope,” as Gramsci puts it, can drive the counter-hegemonic organization necessary to set humanity on a more hopeful future path.
Environment or Unlimited Capital Accumulation?
The main question behind this book is: Are the environment and unlimited capitalist accumulation inherently incompatible? In this regard, it’s worth mentioning what UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 27) held in the luxurious Sharm El-Sheikh resort in November 2022, which Swedish activist Greta Thunberg called the “blah-blah-blah festival.” He stated, “We are on a highway to climate hell, and our foot is still on the accelerator.” With the continuing rise in carbon dioxide emissions in the near future, what we call adaptation may merely resemble lounging in deck chairs aboard the sinking Titanic. Whether we adapt or not, what the future holds for us all is climate suffering, as discussed in Chapter Four, titled “The Politics of Climate Suffering.” Meanwhile, a handful of capitalists, who have bought land (including bunkers on New Zealand’s South Island—earthquake islands), dream of life in space or on Mars, believing they can avoid this suffering.
We must return to the self-evident truth with which the book begins: “The climate crisis is the product of a specific political economy—global capitalism. […] Capitalism depends on the relentless pursuit of continuous economic growth and fossil fuels.” However, the neoliberal myth of infinite growth remains part of capitalist ideological indoctrination, despite the fact that today, everyone knows this has become impossible. Thus, it makes no sense to continue promoting the myth of endless growth on a finite planet.
What’s worse is that by 2021, it had become clear that current business practices would go unchallenged. By August 2021, out of the $1.95 trillion spent by OECD countries on recovery from the environmental crisis, only $336 billion was assessed as having a positive environmental impact. This is what the authors call corporate “greenwashing,” the reason behind ideologies such as business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Meanwhile, the seven major corporations, the so-called “Seven Sisters” (BP, Shell, Gulf Oil, Standard Oil of California, Standard Oil of New Jersey, Standard Oil of New York, and Texas), remain the wealthiest and most powerful in the world and, unfortunately, the most destructive to the environment, hiding behind the ideology of free markets and competition.
This has led to what the authors call “corporate capitalism’s dominance” and the “global dominance of fossil fuels.” This dominance has created a collective will, in Gramscian terms, to invade countries that possess oil or, in other cases, to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in many oil-producing countries.
In response to this, corporations established the global climate change denial industry, which includes well-paid business school professors, corporate consultants, conservative think tanks, and, of course, dominant media outlets. It’s no surprise, then, that billionaire businessman Richard Branson claimed our only option to stop climate change is for industries to profit from it. In other words, this capitalist perspective suggests that the very system driving us toward the sixth mass extinction and the end of life on Earth is also the one that will save us from the coming apocalypse.
It’s no wonder, then, that OPEC labeled environmental activist Greta Thunberg and her ilk as “perhaps the greatest threat to our industry’s future.” Ironically, OPEC itself is one of the greatest threats to environmental sustainability, as it and its corporations have placed us on the highway to environmental degradation, as the UN Secretary-General put it, without taking any concrete measures to slow down.
Consistently with this unsustainable capitalist view, the UK’s counter-terrorism police classified the Extinction Rebellion movement as an “extremist ideology.” This movement, along with “Fridays for Future” and the “350.org” organization, is one of three environmental groups the authors suggest supporting. This classification may signal the growing conflict between corporate profits and those fighting global warming, especially as capitalist surveillance methods begin to falter. The need for a well-armed police force becomes as necessary as the need for ideologies that keep people unaware of the real stakes, both present and future. Greenpeace, for instance, has been accused of carrying out terrorist activities that violate U.S. national law.
The core role of the state and its public policies, according to the authors, lies in supporting the capitalist system, which makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, and protecting the ultra-wealthy through large corporations. By labeling environmental advocates as extremists and terrorists, corporations aim to divert attention from the harm caused by their own activities. Another public relations strategy is to create the illusion that global warming can be managed through climate adaptation. In contrast, many have claimed that it’s already too late. The authors refute this ideology by highlighting the “Black Summer” in Australia during 2019-2020, which killed three billion animals—an early sign of the “Pyrocene” era, or the “age of fire,” looming on the horizon.
At the same time that the Earth faces increasing wildfires, coastal areas are at risk from rising ocean levels, threatening major cities like Miami, New York, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Jakarta. Yet this remains largely unknown to the general public or is often downplayed. Meanwhile, the capitalist system thrives by turning climate change to its advantage. One of the book’s most significant points is the great irony that after witnessing the melting of the Arctic due to rising global temperatures, Shell was the first company to line up for drilling in the newly thawed waters for more oil, which would further increase global temperatures.
All these adaptation efforts, including Shell’s expansion in drilling and raising offshore platforms, are part of policies designed to solidify dominant power relations. This is done in part with the help of mainstream media, which promotes “climate ignorance.” It’s still possible to hide capitalism’s destruction of the natural world from public opinion or frame it as just another natural disaster, though this is becoming harder to do as global warming intensifies and climate disasters become more frequent and undeniable.
Even worse, some companies offer retreats, costing between 520 and 820 euros, for personal adaptation to climate change. The most shocking part is that climate suffering is being marketed as an opportunity for charity. All this can be compounded by what the authors call the hypocrisy of artists or celebrities who advocate for climate action while traveling the world or living luxurious lifestyles.
In Conclusion
The book ends with the following words: “The world remains locked in an economic system that endangers the future of societies, ecosystems, and the vast diversity of life on this planet. While there are clear paths to reduce the damage and destruction that the worsening climate crisis will bring, it remains to be seen whether the current dominant political and economic structures are capable of reorganizing themselves sufficiently to avoid catastrophe” (p. 194). However, the prevailing dominance of large corporations keeps the capitalist system promoting a “magical” way of thinking, through which the climate crisis will somehow resolve itself. Those who sell us this kind of magical thinking are the very ones who put us on the fast track to worsening climate change, “with their feet still on the gas pedal.”
In essence, the book Organizing Climate Change Responses succeeds in telling the story of global warming within the broader capitalist framework and how global capitalist dominance obfuscates what is happening and what is to come. However, it remains too brief considering its original goal of organizing responses to future climate change. The book, on the whole, does not offer much in terms of organizing future responses to global warming, except for a few short pages where the authors suggest people join three environmental organizations: “Fridays for Future,” “Extinction Rebellion,” and “350.org.” Despite this shortcoming, the book remains a compelling call to fight the dominant system that threatens to destroy the planet in the future.
The book, consistent with the Gramscian perspective, identifies three recent paths that have emerged to reshape and confront the climate crisis: “Transformism,” “Caesarism,” and “Scission.” Transformism requires integrating the population into a dominant system and, at least in Western societies, creating an equivalence between a more sustainable growth economy and individual consumption (p. 186). In this process, corporations and governments try to convince people that “clean coal” and natural gas are tools for reducing emissions while maintaining fossil fuel dominance. Caesarism refers to the emergence of a great leader who presents himself as offering solutions to an uncertain situation. Similar to how Mussolini’s fascism presented itself, Caesarism’s supporters see figures like Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Jair Bolsonaro as magical solutions to the failures of democracy. The authors argue that while corporate leaders have generally been cautious in publicly endorsing these populist leaders, the truth is that many traditional industries have significantly benefited from the reduction of environmental protections and the rejection of any form of emissions reduction (p. 188).
Finally, while Transformism and Caesarism are both processes of domination, Scission is an anti-hegemonic process, exemplified by the climate movement, which forms solidarity with the victims of the climate crisis, not only in the Global South but also in the Global North. In this context, Nyberg, Wright, and Boden point out that entities like the left-wing government in the Indian state of Kerala, the leftist Green movement in Iceland, and other regional entities seek to link climate policies with democratic struggles. They aim to establish global connections to negotiate cooperatively and create climate democracy (p. 191). Among the three scenarios, the authors acknowledge that it is difficult to predict which will prevail in the long term, although they favor the third scenario (Scission).
It has thus become clear that capitalism is the main driver of climate change, as well as the broader social and environmental crisis. In the near term, humanity faces bleak climate scenarios, given that various climate mitigation measures—from COP declarations to carbon pricing and technological reforms—have failed to significantly reduce emissions. While environmental modernization and green capitalism currently dominate the mitigation agenda, more scientists and activists are envisioning radical future climate scenarios. The creation of a sustainable planet for humanity, non-human life, plant life, and planetary ecosystems requires a long-term departure from the current global capitalist system and a move toward a more equitable and environmentally responsible world order. The emergence of this mitigation strategy depends on a vision of an alternative to the current global capitalist system. In this regard, proposals such as global democracy and radical eco-socialism (p. 24) are long-term steps toward creating a better world for humanity and a more sustainable future for the inhabitants of planet Earth. Implementing these radical transitional reforms requires adapting to the diverse political, economic, social, and cultural traditions, as well as the environmental conditions, of both developed and developing societies.”
Daniel Nyberg, Christopher Wright & Vanessa Bowden
Organising Responses to Climate Change:
The Politics of Mitigation, Adaptation and Suffering
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2023, 243 p.
