Essay by Eric Worrall
The Conversation channeling the work of far left Indian philosopher Amitav Ghosh.
Climate change has deep historical roots – Amitav Ghosh explores how capitalism and colonialism fit in
Published: August 30, 2024 5.01pm AEST
Amitav Ghosh is an internationally celebrated author of 20 historical fiction and non-fiction books. The Indian thinker and writer has written extensively on the legacies of colonialism, violence and extractivism. His most famous works explore migration, globalisation and commercial violence and conquest during the colonial period, against the backdrop of the opium trade in the 1800s.
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Julia Taylor: In Ghosh’s recent non-fiction book, The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, he used his storytelling prowess to outline the roots of climate change within two systems of power and oppression: imperialism and capitalism.
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Capitalism is the dominant economic system where ownership of the means of production (industry) is private. Private actors are driven by profit and growth, which has relied on combustion of fossil fuels.
What Ghosh makes clear is that violence and destruction of the environment are key to capitalism, as they were to colonialism.
Imraan Valodia: Ghosh challenges us to think more deeply about the role of conquest and violence in shaping the planetary crisis we’re facing. And the need to reshape our economic and social relations to address climate change. He does this with remarkable acumen and clarity in another of his works of non-fiction, The Great Derangement. In the book he seeks to explain our failure to address the urgency of climate change. He asks very powerfully whether the current generation is deranged by our inability to grasp the scale, violence and urgency of climate change.
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Read more: https://theconversation.com/climate-change-has-deep-historical-roots-amitav-ghosh-explores-how-capitalism-and-colonialism-fit-in-237586
Amitav Ghosh neglected to cite examples of perfect societies which have defeated the evils of capitalism, which is a shame because history abounds with examples of nations which cancelled capitalism – Cambodia’s killing fields, Soviet Gulags, Chinese mass famines are all features of nations which reject rewarding people who do the work.
Perhaps these are examples of good governance to a green – population control in action. And those enterprising Venezuelans searching trash cans for food, you’d struggle to find a better example of fulfilling the green ideal of reducing food waste.
Ghosh seems to be OK with a little personal capitalism, though who knows, perhaps all the profits are going to a good cause. Ghosh’s book is on sale through University of Chicago press for prices starting from US $17.99. Or you can see Ghosh speak next week in South Africa, in a series of public talks.
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