Jean Vioulac is one of a number of authors who have written a historical-philosophical saga of humanity as a way of reflecting on the coming catastrophe. It is not certain, however, that his saga will lead to anything other than a new catastrophic discourse with no prospect of a solution.
Ever more numerous, ever more polluting, superyachts are a ‘Capitalo-scene’: in a space that is at once vast yet highly circumscribed, they embody the hidden face of contemporary capitalism, in all its planet-killing splendor.
Accumulation in a world of finite resources: Such is the vortex into which the moderns are thrown. Current ecological concerns, however, should also be viewed as a metamorphosis of the social question.
Literature and cinema have long played with the idea of the end of the world. As Jean-Paul Engélibert explains, these narratives, which imagine the forms of life or society that will emerge from the apocalypse, must be seen primarily as a critique of the present.
We seem to struggle to take the measure of the Covid-19 pandemic. Its onset was sudden, its effects are uncertain and its long term consequences are still unpredictable. Books & Ideas gathers a selection of texts exploring the various facets of epidemics.
What are Covid-19 and the coronavirus? What are the parameters, causes and effects of this disease? What are the short and long-term prospects? Infectious disease specialist Philippe Sansonetti explains why the fate of the epidemic is in our hands.
It has taken only a few decades for so-called “natural” disasters to become a major concern for international professionals. A long, on-the-ground study reveals the concrete ways in which environmental disasters are managed, from UN officials to affected countries.
Climate change does not affect all of us equally. Developed countries are the largest contributors to global warming, but the main victims are the poorest and future generations. This raises a rarely addressed moral and political problem.
The depletion of global fish resources is less the result of anarchic trends affecting the oceans than of coordinated, government-supported policies aimed at industrializing fishing and maximizing catches. Instrumental to this predation are armadas of factory ships.
Hollywood cinema tends to represent climate change in catastrophist and sensationalistic movies. By contrast, a new type of ecological cinema emerges in which the issue of sustainability is taken into account not only as a theme, but also within the film production process.
Paleontologists distinguish five periods of mass disappearance of animal species. Are we now entering the sixth period—that of human extinction? Either way, the question brings us back to the fragility of our life conditions. So just a word to the wise!
No problem in the world is more important than climate change. In her latest book, Naomi Klein aims to show that fighting global warming means fighting capitalism. But how?
To live in New Orleans after Katrina is to witness the sweeping incursion of neoliberal policy in the guise of redevelopment and “resilience.” Crisis has worked as a lever for gentrification and intensified segregation. A closer look at the city’s development is instructive, for it might very well be the model for urban policies in places as different as New York, Cleveland or Detroit.
Patrick Zylberman examines how the concept of health security has developed over the last thirty years, focusing nowadays on global pandemics and the threat of bioterrorism. Such threats, which transcend national borders, require new surveillance systems to be put in place and call into question the very nature of state sovereignty.
