climate resilience

Against climate realism: reclaiming climate futures

By: Ashima Shukla, Staff Writer In a recent article for the American think tank Council on Foreign Relations, senior fellow for energy and climate Varun Sivaram proposed a new doctrine for climate policy: climate realism. This seemingly pragmatic approach argues it’s impossible to avert climate change completely. Instead, it claims the US should favour more profitable and geopolitically strategic ways of managing climate consequences.  In truth, climate realism is anything but realistic. This elitist discourse cloaks inaction, securitization, and racialized control.  For example, Sivaram weaves a story of how carbon emissions from “emerging and non-advanced economies” are threatening the survival…

Continue reading