Oceans Rise Empires Fall

Why Geopolitics Hastens Climate Catastrophe

Author: Gerard Toal

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Description

A powerful explanation of why geopolitical competition drives climate breakdown and inhibits action to prevent it. It is the decisive decade for climate change action, yet great power competition is surging. Geo-economic rivalries and territorial conflicts over Ukraine and Taiwan appear more important than collective action against catastrophic climate change. Why do great powers favor competition and rivalry overtransnational policies to address the greatest threat humanity has ever faced? In Oceans Rise Empires Fall, Gerard Toal identifies geopolitics as the culprit. Examining its meaning, history, and leadingthinkers, he exposes the geo-ecological foundations of geopolitics and the struggles for living space that it expresses. The book isolates three Earth-controlling practices that characterize geopolitics. The territorial control imperatives of great powers preclude collaborative behavior to address common challenges. Competing world historical missions drive rivalries and wars, like Russia's fossil-fuel-funded aggression against Ukraine. Military-industrial competition over leading edgetechnologies and critical minerals takes priority over collaborative decarbonization policies. In the contest between geopolitics and sustainable climate policies, the former takes precedenceDLespecially whencompetition shifts to outright conflict. In this book, Toal interrogates that relationship and its stakes for the ongoing acceleration of climate change."

Critic Reviews

Toal's new book is a most welcome entry to the interdisciplinary and unconventional approaches to international security. Burak Kadercan, Holiday Reading List 2024, War on the Rocks
This is a genuinely important book. Written in an accessible way for a broad audience while drawing on significant engagement with key literature, Toal manages to powerfully elucidate the realities of (international) politics as usual for the conditions of human existence. Environment and Security
Helping to add context to situations like Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Oceans Rise Empires Fall should be considered essential reading in political geography but is accessible enough to appeal to a general audience. What is perhaps most impressive about this book is the way that Toal is able to fit explanations of complex geopolitical theories and a discussion of how a critical geopolitical lens can be used to make sense of them within the context of environmental politics, all in just over 200 pages. Journal of Geography
This is an excellent study of our helplessness in dealing with the planetary crisis, providing an answer to the question of why we are not coping and showing how the mental clichés in which we function contribute to this. Nauka o Klimacie

About the Author

Gerard Toal is Professor of Geography at Virginia Tech and the author of numerous books, including Near Abroad (Oxford), Bosnia Remade (Oxford, co-authored) and Critical Geopolitics (Minnesota).