Thinking Through Climate Change: A Philosophy of Energy in the Anthropocene

Cham: Springer Verlag (2020)
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Abstract

In this creative exploration of climate change and the big questions confronting our high-energy civilization, Adam Briggle connects the history of philosophy with current events to shed light on the Anthropocene. Briggle offers a framework to help us understand the many perspectives and policies on climate change. He does so through the idea that energy is a paradox: changing sameness. From this perennial philosophical mystery, he argues that a high-energy civilization is bound to create more and more paradoxes. These paradoxes run like fissures through our orthodox picture of energy as the capacity to do work and control fate. Climate change is the accumulation of these fissures and the question is whether we can sustain technoscientific control and economic growth. It may be that our world is about change radically, imploring us to start thinking heterodox thoughts.

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2021

Call number

GE42.B75 2021

ISBN(s)

9783030535865   9783030535872   303053586X

DOI

10.1007/978-3-030-53587-2
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Chapters

Introduction

This chapter introduces the idea of energy as a paradox. Climate change too is paradoxical: simultaneously all-encompassing and absent. The chapter summarizes the book and introduces the perspectives of the energy orthodoxy and the heterodoxy. The former preaches the energy of unlimited ‘volts.’ The... see more

I Kant Believe You

This chapter examines the paradoxes of enervating energy and Enlightenment shadows. It does so first by bringing Socrates and Immanuel Kant into conversation with climate activist Great Thunberg about the relationship between knowledge and ethics. It then examines active climate denialism with a loo... see more

Trespassing

This chapter examines the paradoxes of active passivity , collective individualization, and the immorality of justice. “Trespassing” starts with the story of a protest at a fracking site. Next, the chapter explores the destruction of the old commons and its re-assembly as something more monstrous. I... see more

The Unnatural Growth of the Natural

In the Anthropocene, we can do more than we can understand. This raises the question of whether we can think through climate change at all. “The Unnatural Growth of the Natural” surveys the paradoxes bedeviling the Anthropocene. High-energy civilization has unleashed natural metabolic energies beyon... see more

From Virtues to Volts

Energy transitions, say, from wood to coal to wind, are a central narrative about climate change. The mother of all energy transitions, though, is the one that took us from a world of virtues to a world of volts. This chapter frames this transition as a revaluation of values, one that upended notion... see more

Walrus Guts and Snake Brains

This chapter uses magic realism to describe the paradox of “thick world, thin places.” Modern energy opens many portals to an upside-down realm superimposed atop our day-to-day reality. The chapter then examines the energy orthodoxy, picturing it as a non-negotiable way of life that is premised on n... see more

Love, Death, and Carbon

This chapter concludes the section on heterodox thoughts. It begins with a meditation on the paradox of loving and killing, which is the dynamic of intergenerational justice and climate change. “Love, Death, and Carbon” then summarizes the orthodoxy in terms of the iron law of climate policy, which ... see more

E, Neutrality, and Democracy

The philosopher of technology Albert Borgmann is another important heterodox voice. “E, Neutrality, and Democracy” uses his notion of the “device paradigm” to explore the dark sides of convenience and the means-ends dichotomy that are central to the energy orthodoxy. It begins by criticizing the ide... see more

Look at the Beaver Looking

This chapter begins Part III, which opens heterodox lines of questioning about climate change and the high-energy way of life. It does so from the perspective of someone whose faith in the energy orthodoxy is waffling. The chapter begins with a vignette about a Texas gas station with a beaver mascot... see more

Invention Is the Mother of Necessity

The Catholic philosopher Ivan Illich is the foremost heterodox voice in energy studies. This chapter explores his idea that modern energy services only liberate us up to a certain point. After that threshold, we become shackled with more needs as energy slaves become our masters. The chapter relates... see more

Magic, Machines, and Markets

The energy orthodoxy is built on modern science, which is the rejection of magic. Yet magical thinking continues to haunt the orthodox project of controlling fate, especially when it comes to solutions for climate change. “Magic, Machines, and Markets” examines two of the central pillars of the ener... see more

The Honey Badger in the Coal Mine

In the United States and some other nations, the energy orthodoxy is being hijacked at the highest levels of political power by a look-alike ideology. This chapter uses the canary as the totem animal of the orthodoxy and the honey badger as the totem animal of this imposter ideology. The honey badge... see more

Conclusion: Climate Change and the Future of Humanity

“Climate Change and the Future of Humanity” concludes the book by putting modern energy at the heart of a story about human liberation. Like E, we too can experience a shape-shifting, transgressive “morphological freedom.” Energy can blast us off from humanism to transhumanism. The chapter imagines ... see more

Factor M

This chapter examines the historical development of the energy orthodoxy. It first substitutes ‘paradigm’ for ‘orthodoxy,’ because modern energy is part of a new scientific understanding of reality. Next, the chapter explores the work of Leslie White, a mid-twentieth century anthropologist of energy... see more

Prometheus 2.0

This chapter concludes the case for the energy orthodoxy by turning back to a parable. The myth of Prometheus is the ultimate energy story: the hubris of stealing fire from the gods. The original tale, however, is in need of an update, because it retains the worldview and morality of ‘virtues’ or th... see more

Convenience

This chapter retells the history of the modern energy paradigm or orthodoxy with a focus on its overarching purpose. “Convenience” is the moral imperative of the high-energy world. The mission of the energy orthodoxy is to convene around us a constellation of commodities and experiences that are mad... see more

Putting Descartes Before the Horse

This chapter examines the origins of the modern energy paradigm or orthodoxy. “Putting Descartes before the Horse” means looking at the ideas and values that precede and are built into modern machines. The chapter uses Descartes and the clock of medieval monasteries to capture the crucial shift to a... see more

Decoupling

The founders of the modern energy paradigm operated under the assumption of nature as practically infinite . Beginning with Thomas Malthus, critics have argued that this is a recipe for collapse: economic growth will hit the wall of planetary limits. This, however, is mistaken. Intellectual labor dr... see more

First World Problems

This chapter begins Part II, which explains and defends the energy orthodoxy in a new voice, namely, that of a recent ‘convert’ to the orthodox faith. The chapter reframes the so-called paradoxes of a high-energy life as “First World Problems.” Climate change is also a first world problem. This chap... see more

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Adam Briggle
University of North Texas

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Skovoroda’s philosophy and calling of contemporary people.Yevhen Muliarchuk - 2023 - Filosofska Dumka (Philosophical Thought) 2:132-143.

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