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8 - Climate Change, Violence and Ecocide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2025

By
Rob White
Edited by
Peter Stoett  and
Delon Omrow
Peter Stoett
Affiliation:
Ontario Tech University
Delon Omrow
Affiliation:
Ontario Tech University
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Summary

The causes of climate change are largely due to the carbon emission activities of nation states and transnational corporations. This chapter considers these activities as crimes of the powerful, a form of ecocide, insofar as they contribute to global warming. In addition to exploring the contours of ecocide as a crime, the chapter deals with issues pertaining to contrarianism and the exploitation of natural resources, both of which protect and sustain sectional private interests rather than the majority public interest. The chapter argues that needed social transformations must go beyond “speaking truth to power” to actually confront the powerful. How this might be accomplished is examined through consideration of green capitalism, the movement toward just transitions, the idea of a Green New Deal, and the importance of transformational nationalisation. Combatting the violence of ecocide fundamentally requires root and branch change in the global political economy.

Keywords

carbon emissionscarbon crimetransnational crimeglobal warmingGreen New Dealtransformational nationalization
Type
Chapter
Information
Ecoviolence Studies
Human Exploitation and Environmental Crime
 , pp. 139 - 157
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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