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Political Science

Neoliberalism’s climate

Profile image of Larry LohmannLarry Lohmann

2016

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315730660.CH41
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20 pages

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Abstract

Just as what is regarded as labor, land, health and mobility have changed under neoliberalism, so too has what is regarded as climate. Under previous phases in capitalism, climate was construed as part of a nature external to, yet interfacing with, society – as a condition for accumulation; as a resource; as an object of conservation; as a computer-modellable system. The neoliberal state builds on these conceptions in reconstructing climate also as rentable and marketable units. A thorough grasp of the exploitative and neocolonialist politics that this innovation perpetuates and deepens requires dialogue with indigenous peoples, peasants, workers and their collective history. Neoliberalism's Climate Larry Lohmann The Corner House “The climate system is natural capital ... capital created by nature, not us ... an asset that is ... valuable because it generates a flow of services over time.” Geoffrey Heal (2015) Is it useful to label the current political era “neoliberal”? Those o...

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