The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming

Wallace-Wells briefly explores the relationship between American consumption habits and climate change, along with the political and psychological underpinnings of these actions. He explains the frequent habit, particularly among right-leaning Americans, of identifying the hypocrisy of wealthy environmental activists like Al Gore who fly on private jets. Far from being an astute and incisive accusation of hypocrisy, the author writes, this behavior merely works to justify one’s own actions, along with the inaction of people in a position to enact change. The author adds:

If the world’s most conspicuous emitters, the top 10 percent, reduced their emissions to only the E.U. average, total global emissions would fall by 35 percent. We don’t get there through the dietary choices of individuals, but through policy changes (187).

For that reason, a person who cares about climate change can have a much greater impact by simply voting than by eating organic food, according to the author.

Shame and fear surrounding consumption are also evident in broader movements against genetically modified organisms and nuclear power, two technologies the author believes could help ease the transition to a decarbonized society and which are nevertheless as hated as carcinogens in some circles.

Next, the author imagines what new kinds of politics will emerge as the planet gets hotter.