How the utopian tradition offers answers to today's environmental
crises
In the face of Earth's environmental breakdown, it is clear that
technological innovation alone won't save our planet. A more radical
approach is required, one that involves profound changes in individual
and collective behavior. Utopianism for a Dying Planet examines the
ways the expansive history of utopian thought, from its origins in
ancient Sparta and ideas of the Golden Age through to today's thinkers,
can offer moral and imaginative guidance in the face of catastrophe. The
utopian tradition, which has been critical of conspicuous consumption
and luxurious indulgence, might light a path to a society that
emphasizes equality, sociability, and sustainability.
Gregory Claeys unfolds his argument through a wide-ranging consideration
of utopian literature, social theory, and intentional communities. He
defends a realist definition of utopia, focusing on ideas of sociability
and belonging as central to utopian narratives. He surveys the
development of these themes during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries before examining twentieth- and twenty-first-century debates
about alternatives to consumerism. Claeys contends that the current
global warming limit of 1.5C (2.7F) will result in cataclysm if there is
no further reduction in the cap. In response, he offers a radical Green
New Deal program, which combines ideas from the theory of sociability
with proposals to withdraw from fossil fuels and cease reliance on
unsustainable commodities.
An urgent and comprehensive search for antidotes to our planet's
destruction, Utopianism for a Dying Planet asks for a revival of
utopian ideas, not as an escape from reality, but as a powerful means of
changing it.
