Oceans Rise Empires Fall
Why Geopolitics Hastens Climate Catastrophe
Published on 26. September 2024
Book
Hardback
280 pages
978-0-19-769326-1 (ISBN)
Description
A powerful explanation of why geopolitical competition drives climate breakdown and inhibits action to prevent it.
It is the decisive decade for climate change action, yet great power competition is surging. Geo-economic rivalries and territorial conflicts over Ukraine and Taiwan appear more important than collective action against catastrophic climate change. Why do great powers favor competition and rivalry over transnational policies to address the greatest threat humanity has ever faced?
In Oceans Rise Empires Fall,Gerard Toal identifies geopolitics as the culprit. Examining its meaning, history, and leading thinkers, he exposes the geo-ecological foundations of geopolitics and the struggles for living space that it expresses. The book isolates three Earth-controlling practices that characterize geopolitics. The territorial control imperatives of great powers preclude collaborative behavior to address common challenges. Competing world historical missions drive rivalries and wars, like Russia's fossil-fuel-funded aggression against Ukraine. Military-industrial competition over leading edge technologies and critical minerals takes priority over collaborative decarbonization policies. In the contest between geopolitics and sustainable climate policies, the former takes precedence-especially when competition shifts to outright conflict. In this book, Toal interrogates that relationship and its stakes for the ongoing acceleration of climate change."
It is the decisive decade for climate change action, yet great power competition is surging. Geo-economic rivalries and territorial conflicts over Ukraine and Taiwan appear more important than collective action against catastrophic climate change. Why do great powers favor competition and rivalry over transnational policies to address the greatest threat humanity has ever faced?
In Oceans Rise Empires Fall,Gerard Toal identifies geopolitics as the culprit. Examining its meaning, history, and leading thinkers, he exposes the geo-ecological foundations of geopolitics and the struggles for living space that it expresses. The book isolates three Earth-controlling practices that characterize geopolitics. The territorial control imperatives of great powers preclude collaborative behavior to address common challenges. Competing world historical missions drive rivalries and wars, like Russia's fossil-fuel-funded aggression against Ukraine. Military-industrial competition over leading edge technologies and critical minerals takes priority over collaborative decarbonization policies. In the contest between geopolitics and sustainable climate policies, the former takes precedence-especially when competition shifts to outright conflict. In this book, Toal interrogates that relationship and its stakes for the ongoing acceleration of climate change."
Reviews / Votes
Toal's new book is a most welcome entry to the interdisciplinary and unconventional approaches to international security. * Burak Kadercan, Holiday Reading List 2024, War on the Rocks * This is a genuinely important book. Written in an accessible way for a broad audience while drawing on significant engagement with key literature, Toal manages to powerfully elucidate the realities of (international) politics as usual for the conditions of human existence. * Environment and Security * Helping to add context to situations like Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Oceans Rise Empires Fall should be considered essential reading in political geography but is accessible enough to appeal to a general audience. What is perhaps most impressive about this book is the way that Toal is able to fit explanations of complex geopolitical theories and a discussion of how a critical geopolitical lens can be used to make sense of them within the context of environmental politics, all in just over 200 pages. * Journal of Geography * This is an excellent study of our helplessness in dealing with the planetary crisis, providing an answer to the question of why we are not coping and showing how the mental cliches in which we function contribute to this. * Nauka o Klimacie *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
20 B/W Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 332 mm
Width: 289 mm
Thickness: 2 mm
Weight
526 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-769326-1 (9780197693261)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
05/2024
OUP eBook
€24.99
Available for download
E-Book
05/2024
OUP eBook
€24.99
Available for download
Person
Gerard Toal is Professor of Geography at Virginia Tech and the author of numerous books, including Near Abroad (Oxford), Bosnia Remade (Oxford, co-authored) and Critical Geopolitics (Minnesota). He is a frequent contributor to The Irish Times and other outlets, such as The Washington Post.
Content
Introduction: Rising Threats 1. Geopolitics All Around 2. Grounding Geopolitics 3. Making Geopolitics Critical 4. Territorial Anxieties 5. Missions and Emissions 6. Higher Further Faster 7. Geopolitical Condition Red Conclusion: Uncharted Territory