Apocalypse Now! Climate change, capitalism and revolution

Authors

  • John Molyneux

Abstract

In the year since the publication in October 2018 of the IPCC  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Report warning that the world has 12 years, that is until 2030, in which to limit global warming to a 1.5 ℃ increase, the impending apocalypse of catastrophic climate breakdown has moved dramatically from future tense to present tense.

It is difficult to find the words adequately to express either the scale of the crisis that is upon us or its urgency. This is because we are entering a situation for which there is no historical precedent or analogy. It is not like the Black Death or similar to the First or Second World Wars. Nor is it the same as a nuclear holocaust. And it hasn’t happened yet, so none of us know concretely what it will be like or exactly how it is going to unfold. Nor will the climate crisis be a single event or even a series of events with some kind of time limit. Rather it will be a multitude of interacting events and processes which may extend indefinitely over decades or even centuries.

Downloads

Published

2019-11-15