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Why is capitalism addicted to fossil fuels?
A review of Andreas Malm, Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming (Verso, 2016), £20
One of the biggest challenges that humanity faces is how to stop global warming. It is clear that if we don’t cut carbon emissions quickly then we face climate catastrophe. There is one very simple solution: to stop burning fossil fuels and make a rapid switch to the use of renewables such as solar, wind and tidal. But the problem is the very opposite is happening. The last decade has seen a boom in what may be termed dirty energy—fracking, deep water drilling and tar sand extraction have all been recently developed to enable the continued extraction of coal, gas and oil from hard-to-reach locations.
So why is this happening? When the entire future of the planet is at stake why are…