Future of Denial

Starred review from July 15, 2024
In this vigorous polemic, philosopher DeLay (Against) draws on the language of psychoanalysis to argue that American society is steeped in denial when it comes to climate change. By denial, DeLay refers not only to the conservative rejection of climate science, but also to “neoliberal” attempts at assuaging guilt over global warming (“I’m interpreting... blockages, delay tactics... and even budgetary concerns as resistance”). Using this framework, DeLay gives an unremittingly poor outlook on the potential for “neoliberal management” to avert climate catastrophe. Examples of neoliberalism’s false fixes include the fad for buying carbon offsets (which don’t reduce emissions, according to DeLay, but give “Global North companies” an excuse to “buy up property in the Global South and call it good”) and hyperfixation on individual “carbon footprints,” which pale in importance compared to sweeping, government-mandated decarbonization. Climate change denial will increasingly take on this neoliberal guise going forward, DeLay asserts (his vision is 1984-esque: an endless series of “distant, nonbinding targets” as conditions worsen). Full of bon mots (“Americans use Celsius only to talk about the end of the world”) and biting social critique (“We’ll apologize quickly to neutralize anxiety, even for things we haven’t done, but we studiously avoid talk of whatever we secretly fear we’ve done”), this is a scintillating must-read.