Symons - Ecomodernism: technology, politics and the climate crisis

Jonathan Symons

polity

Copyright Jonathan Symons 2019

The right of Jonathan Symons to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2019 by Polity Press

Polity Press

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Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3119-6 (hardback)

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3120-2 (paperback)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Symons, Jonathan, 1976- author.

Title: Ecomodernism : technology, politics and the climate crisis / Jonathan Symons.

Description: Cambridge, UK : Polity Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018054235 (print) | LCCN 2019002440 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509531226 (Epub) | ISBN 9781509531196 | ISBN 9781509531202 (pb)

Subjects: LCSH: Climate change mitigation. | Environmental protectionTechnological innovations. | Environmental degradationPrevention | Green technology. | NatureEffect of human begins on.

Classification: LCC TD171.75 (ebook) | LCC TD171.75 .S96 2019 (print) | DDC 363.738/74dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018054235

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When it was first conceptualized, this book was to have been coauthored with Rasmus Karlsson. Although I ended up writing the book alone, I am grateful to Rasmus for hosting me for some memorable weeks at Ume University where we formulated the book's central themes, for reading and commenting on the manuscript, and for his ongoing friendship. I also thank Macquarie University's Outside Studies Program for supporting my visit to Ume.

I am indebted to the commissioning editor Louise Knight and her team at Polity for their constant encouragement and insight; to two anonymous readers and five reviewers of the book proposal; to Susan Beer and Sandey Fitzgerald for assistance with editing; to Dennis Altman, Emma Brush, Sophie Cunningham, Kate Gleeson, Maryam Khalid, Ted Nordhaus and Jessica Whyte for commenting on sections of the text; to a great many friends and colleagues for discussions that have found their way into the book, including Lee Archer, Govand Azeez, Noah Bassil, Leigh Boucher, Barry Brook, Carol D'Cruz, Peter Eckersley, Kingsley Edney, Anna-Karin Eriksson, Roger Huang, Sung-Young Kim, Stephanie Lawson, Lavina Lee, Adam Lockyer, Stephen Luntz, Terry Macdonald, Kate Macdonald, Bryan Maher, Andrea Maksimovic, Andrew McGregor, Clare Monagle, John Morgan, Steven Noble, Jonathan Corpus Ong, Spiros Panigirakis, Carol Peterson, Dominic Redfern, Robert Reynolds, Anna Schurmann, Chris Schurmann, Ben Skidmore, Hsu-Ming Teo, Shaun Wilson and Hendri Yulius; and to my family and especially Matthew Masiruw for their love and support.

that discuss solar geoengineering have previously been published as, Geoengineering justice: who gets to decide whether to hack the climate? in the Breakthrough Journal. I thank Ted Nordhaus, director of the Breakthrough Institute, for allowing republication. I also thank the Breakthrough Institute for allowing me to attend the 20162018 Breakthrough Institute Dialogues. I am indebted to many Dialogue participants, but especially Ted Nordhaus, Oliver Morton and Rachel Pritzker, for insights that have influenced this book.

Most of the book was written either at Macquarie University or at the Kings Cross Library in Sydney. The university is named after Lachlan Macquarie who was the Governor of New South Wales between 1810 and 1821. Macquarie is now remembered both for his work as a progressive reformer and for his genocidal acts at one point ordering that slain Aboriginal warriors be hanged up on trees in conspicuous situations, to strike the survivors with the greater terror. The Kings Cross library sits in an historically queer and red light district. Its establishment and its deliberate embrace of homeless patrons is a tribute to the social democratic impulse. Nevertheless, as I sit at the library's windows gazing eastwards I am aware that this land, and all I can see, were stolen from the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation whose rightful ownership I acknowledge.