Nature is a Battlefield: Towards a Political Ecology

by Razmig Keucheyan

In the midst of the current ecological crisis, there is often lofty talk of the need for humanity to ‘overcome its divisions’ and work together to tackle the big challenges of our time. But as this new book by Razmig Keucheyan shows, the real picture is very different. Just take the case of the siting of toxic waste landfills in the United if you want to know where waste is most likely to be dumped, ask yourself where Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and other racial minorities live and where the poorest neighbourhoods are. This kind of ‘environmental racism’ is by no means restricted to the United it is very much a global phenomenon. Keucheyan show how the capitalist response to the crisis has been marked by a massive expansion in ‘environmental finance’. From ‘carbon markets’ to ‘pollution permits’, ‘climate derivatives’ and ‘catastrophe bonds’, we are seeing a proliferation of nature-related financial products. Instead of tackling the root of the problem, the neoliberal strategy seeks to profit from environmental risks. Moreover, with the rise in natural disasters, resource scarcity, food crises, the destabilization of the poles and oceans and the prospect of tens of millions of ‘climate refugees’, Western powers are increasingly adopting a military response to ecological problems. The Cold War is welcome to the ‘green wars’. From New Orleans to the Siachen glacier via the Arctic floes, Keucheyan explores the landmark sites of this new ‘climate geostrategy’. Through a sharp critique of the way capitalism responds to environmental disaster, this innovative book provides a fresh perspective on some of the most critical issues confronting our societies today.

Genres: Nonfiction, Ecology, Essays, Politics

220 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2014

About the author

Sociologist and activist of the Swiss radical left, professor at the Émile Durkheim center of the University of Bordeaux.

Reviews

[Lukáš · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is structured in three parts. The first part 'environmental racism' describes how the modern (including normative) conceptions of nature emerged in close correlation with the emergence of capitalism and imperialism. The second part, 'Financializing Nature: Insuring Climatic Risks' describes the correlates of environmental degradation with the expansion of insurance and finance industries, and the last part, 'Green Wars: The Militarization of Ecology?' outlines the changes of war and strategic thinking in correlation with the demands for maintaining capitalism and simultaneously sustaining global and local environmental change. While the first two chapters make an essential read, I still think a little bit more ought to be said alongside the third chapter. This is somewhat confirmed by the author, who declares in the conclusion that war has not, with exception of Hardt and Negri been taken very seriously by much of the contemporary theory springing from the Western Marxist tradition - which I agree with for the most part. And yet, I still think there is a deal of inconsistency in author's appropriation of military and strategic thought where the nietzschean branches of critical theory might have a bit more to say. However, that does not prevent the book from being enjoyable and relevant.

[Elisala · Rating 5 out of 5]

Très intéressant essai sur la protection de l'environnement et ses implications, ses interactions avec la société, via 3 aspects: les inégalités liées et face à la protection de l'environnement, les militaires et la protection de l'environnement, les assurances (!) et la protection de l'environnement.
J'ai appris plein de choses, c'est bien écrit, bien structuré, bien argumenté, ça donne envie de l'avoir sous la main pour se remémorer certains raisonnements très bien foutus mais pas forcément intuitifs et surtout révélateurs de faits peu connus.

Privatisation des bénéfices, socialisation des pertes, c'est ainsi que fonctionne le capitalisme

[Jay Cowsill · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first chapter is a somewhat perfunctory exposition of environmental racism--the type of thing you expect to find in a work of political ecology. But the second and third chapters, which cover the financialization of nature and the militarization of ecology, cover topics that are less frequently discussed in such works. The conclusion runs out of steam, but makes the excellent point that capitalism has adapted to climate change and has found ways to profit from it. Despite the ongoing neoliberal push for deregulation, Keucheyan observes that, in the long run. capitalism depends upon state interventions to keep it from completely exhausting the natural resources upon which the accumulation of capital depends. In short, state regulation saves capitalism from itself. All Keucheyan can suggest in the final paragraphs to those with environmental concerns is that environmental issues be continually politicized. I wish that he could have offered some more.

[Alejandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante libro que analiza la cuestión del ambiente/naturaleza en el mundo actual como el futuro desde tres aristas: la racial, la financiera y la militar.

[J.S. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Going into this book I assumed it was about the environment and climate change with ideas on how the author believes it should be dealt with. Now that I'm finished, I'm not quite sure what the point of the book really was.

In the introduction, he presents a situation where poor (ie. powerless) people had to resort to demonstrations and resistance to avoid having a toxic waste landfill in their neighborhood. He even hints that in the future, such radicalization will need to become the normal tactic (pg 4). This thought works well with his theme in chapter 1, which is about environmental racism. The poor (and by "the poor" he means non-white people) bear the worst of pollution and don't have access to national parks. He says "[British] organizations close to the environmental justice movement... provide [minorities] with an opportunity to familiarize themselves [with the countryside] to break through the upper classes' monopoly connection with nature." (pg 20)

Chapter 2 talks about the "financialization" of nature. This refers to the various financial products designed to mitigate the affects of weather on the capitalist system. Although such products have been around for a long time, they are seeing more diversification with climate change, such as cap-and-trade carbon credits. And chapter 3 is about war and it's affects on the environment... or something like that. Honestly, by this point I'd about reached my tolerance limit.

The book is highly academic, but also seems to be all over the place. He discusses his topics at great length but examples seem to be cherry-picked to prop up his argument and didn't always seem convincing. I'm not sure what the central idea of this book was supposed to be, but if there was one, I missed it. In the beginning I thought he was anti-capitalist (he certainly seems to have a fondness for Marxism), but he concluded by saying "capitalism is not only capable of adapting to the environmental crisis, but-on top of that-of profiting from it." (pg 151) I still believe he is racist towards whites, however.

[Misandra Fondacci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extrêmement intéressant, ce livre est cependant malheureusement un peu trop technique pour moi et je pense être passée à côté de beaucoup de choses. Je recommande malgré tout car ça reste une lecture enrichissante !