Power Shift

Imre Szeman is director of the Institute for Environment, Conservation, and Sustainability and professor of human geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He is the author of books such as On Petrocultures: Globalization, Culture, and Energy and Futures of the Sun. Jennifer Wenzel is professor in the department of English and comparative literature and the department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies at Columbia University. Her books include The Disposition of Nature: Environmental Crisis and World Literature and Bulletproof: Afterlives of Anti-colonial Prophecy in South Africa and Beyond.

• List of Figures ForewordDavid E. NyeHow to Use This BookIntroductionImre Szeman and Jennifer Wenzel 2040What genre will the future be?Philomena Polefrone AbandonedWho is tending to the present?Liz Harmer ActionWhat becomes possible when climate action fails?Stephen Collis AfricaEnergy for whom and at what cost?Erin Dean and Kristin D. Phillips Air ConditioningHas air conditioning become a technology of citizenship?Anushree Gupta and Aalok Khandekar AirplaneWhy might we still need to fly?Parke Wilde AlbertaHow many nuclear bombs does it take to develop an oil field?Jeremy J. Schmidt AnimalsHow do animals organize?Jaimey Hamilton Faris ArtHow are art and energy related?Carolyn Fornoff AutonomyWhy do we want energy autonomy?Darin Barney BankruptIs bankruptcy the crisis we need?Caleb Wellum BatteryCan batteries foster a radically just energy transition?Isaac Thornley BehaviorWhy do appeals to values usually fail to change behavior?Stéphane La Branche BlackWhat are the Black politics of energy?Walter Gordon BlockadeWhy are blockades an essential form of climate action?Joshua Clover, Deedee Chao, and Emily Rich Carbon ManagementIs carbon management a moral imperative or a moral hazard?Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow Civil DisobedienceWhat rules must be broken to build a better world?Alicia Massie ClassWhy is climate change a class issue?Valerie Uher CleanWhat does clean energy really mean?Gökçe Günel CommonsWhat forms of governance could solve the tragedy of the commons?Alfonso Giuliani CommunicationWhat are effective strategies for climate communication?Andrew Revkin CommunityIs it still possible to trust other people?Darren Fleet CoronavirusWhat does the coronavirus reveal about the politics of climate crisis?Helen Petrovsky CorporationWill an energy transition help fossil fuel companies?Cameron Hu CubaWhat can Cuba teach us about climate action?Andrew Pendakis CyclingIs cycling a solution?Stacey Balkan DecolonizationWhat can OPEC teach us about the link between energy and decolonization?Sanaz Sohrabi DegrowthIs degrowth inevitable?Dominic Boyer DemocracyTo save the planet, do we need more democracy, or less?Robert Danisch DesignWhat does design make possible?Keller Easterling DevelopmentCan development be green?Siddharth Sareen DigitalHow does the digital reshape the material realm?Shane Denson DocumentaryWhy is uncertainty useful?Thomas Pringle EconomyIs economic expertise important?Kylie Benton-Connell EducationHow should energy educators respond to youth climate activism?Carrie Karsgaard ElectricityHow does electricity organize society?Daniela Russ EvidenceHow is climate evidence used?James Wilt ExpertWhat counts as effective climate expertise?Shane Gunster ExtinctionIs there a relation between energy and extinction?Ashley Dawson FamilyWhat is the environmental future of the family?Eva-Lynn Jagoe FarmWhose muscles power our food system?Emily Pawley FinanceCan we create an economy based on care?Max Haiven Fire/BushfireWhat can we learn from fire?Meg Samuelson GaslightingHow has gaslighting circumscribed our environmental imagination?Grace Franklin GenderWhy is gender important to energy transition?Petra Tschakert GeoengineeringIs geoengineering inevitable?Drew Pendergrass GlobalizationHow does energy matter to globalization?Tanner Mirrlees Green New DealWill the Green New Deal save us from extinction?Todd Dufresne GretaWhy is intersectional agility Greta Thunberg's rhetorical superpower?Sheena Wilson HabitWhat kinds of friction can disrupt the status quo?Rhys Williams IndiaCan there be a just transition in India?Swaralipi Nandi IndigenousHow are Indigenous and extraction related?Deena Rymhs Indigenous ActivismWhat is the power of radical care?Amber Hickey Industrial RevolutionWhat does a focus on jobs mean for energy transition?Cara Daggett IPCCWhat can the IPCC tell us about the relationship between knowledge and action?Marcela da Silveira Feital and Jessica O'Reilly JapanWhy do fears of energy scarcity obstruct energy transition?Hiroki Shin JusticeWhat kind of justice is energy justice?Pauline Destrée and Sarah O'Brien Keep It in the GroundHow can we build momentum to keep fossil fuels in the ground?Angela Carter LawHow can we change the law to prevent the climate crisis?Michael B. Gerrard LifestyleAre lifestyle changes a waste of time?Mark Simpson LocalHow do local climate politics work best?Brian Cozen and Danielle Endres MiningWhy are the ways that we imagine mining important?Gianfranco Selgas MusicHow are listening and energy related?Sherry Lee and Emily MacCallum NationalismWhat is the impact of transition on nationalism?Zeynep Oguz Natural GasCan natural gas be made visible, or viable?John Szabo NeoextractivismWhat comes after neoextractivism?Donald V. Kingsbury Net ZeroDo we really want to live in a net-zero world?Mijin Cha NonlinearCan nonlinear imaginative practices help us survive nonlinear catastrophes?Katy Didden NormalWhat will be normal after fossil fuels?Stephanie LeMenager North DakotaHow does oil extraction reshape space and time?Kyle Conway OnlineWhen we are online, what lines are we on?Anne Pasek OrganizeCan the master's tools dismantle the master's house?Zainab Ashraf, Rachel Krueger, Guy Brodsky, Lesley Johnston, and Joy Hutchinson Paris AgreementDoes the Paris Agreement still matter?Amy Janzwood PermafrostWhat do you do when the ground starts to melt beneath your feet?Brigt Dale PipelineWhy is opposition to pipelines important?Kai Bosworth PlanetWhat happens to politics on an increasingly unlivable planet?Leah Aronowsky PopulismWhat can energy politics learn from populism?Rodrigo Nunes ProtestWhy is protection more important than protest in Indigenous struggles?Kimberly Skye Richards RenewableWhat do renewables renew?Marianna Dudley ResourceCan waste serve as a resource for energy transition?Kesha Fevrier and Anna Zalik RetrofitWhat does it mean to breathe life into buildings?Fallon Samuels Aidoo and Daniel A. Barber SabotageCan sabotage ever be more than a romantic gesture?Ted Hamilton ScaleWhat if scale were about equity rather than magnitude?Cymene Howe ScalesWhat can the human voice tell us about the scale of climate change?Lisa Moore Scenario PlanningIs the future a waste of time?Josefin Wangel ScienceDo scientists believe that science matters?Adam Sobel Settler ColonialismHow can modern energy systems be indigenized?S. Awâsis ShippingWhat would actual free shipping look like?Christiaan De Beukelaer Solar FarmCan solar farms foster energy justice, instead of obstructing it?Dustin Mulvaney SolidarityHow can solidarity catalyze energy democracy?Ana Isabel Baptista SportCan sport be untangled from oil?Graeme Macdonald StorytellingWhat can storytelling really do?Misty Matthews-Roper SustainabilityDoes sustainability's popularity indicate the failure of environmentalism?Stephanie Foote Trans-What is trans- about transition?Emerson Cram TransitionsIf transition is inevitable, will it be just?Matthew S. Henry TreatyHow can treaties help states transition away from fossil fuels?Carlos Larrea, Bhushan Tuladhar, and Mohamed Adow VeganWhat does transition look like on your plate?Allisa Ali and Jordan B. Kinder WasteWhat is at stake in using waste for energy?Aarti Latkar and Aalok Khandekar WaterHow can microbe metabolism foster sustainable infrastructures?Melody Jue WindWhat color is the wind?David McDermott Hughes YouthWhy is youth culture indispensable to energy transition?Derek Gladwin Acknowledgments ContributorsAlternative Index

"We urgently need Power Shift if we are to find our way forward toward a decarbonized future." —David E. Nye, author of Seven Sublimes and Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies