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Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet--And How We Fight Back
A damning account of the forces that have hijacked progress on climate change, and a bold vision of what it will take, politically and economically, to face the existential threat of global warming head-on.
In the past few years, it has become impossible (for most) to deny the effects of climate change and that the planet is warming, and to acknowledge that we must act. But a new kind of denialism is taking root in the halls of power, shaped by a quarter-century of neoliberal policies, that threatens to doom us before we've grasped the full extent of the crisis.
As Kate Aronoff argues, since the 1980s and 1990s, economists, pro-business Democrats and Republicans in the US, and global organizations like the UN and the World Economic Forum have all made concessions to the oil and gas industry that they have no intention of reversing. What's more, they believe that climate change can be solved through the market, capitalism can be a force for good, and all of us, corporations included, are fighting the good fight together.
These assumptions, Aronoff makes abundantly clear, will not save the planet. Drawing on years of reporting and rigorous economic analysis, Aronoff lays out a robust vision for what will, detailing how to constrain the fossil fuel industry; transform the economy into a sustainable, democratic one; mobilize political support; create effective public-private partnerships; enact climate reparations; and adapt to inevitable warming in a way that is just and equitable.
Our future, Overheated makes clear, will require a radical reimagining of our politics and our economies, but if done right, it will save the world.
In the past few years, it has become impossible (for most) to deny the effects of climate change and that the planet is warming, and to acknowledge that we must act. But a new kind of denialism is taking root in the halls of power, shaped by a quarter-century of neoliberal policies, that threatens to doom us before we've grasped the full extent of the crisis.
As Kate Aronoff argues, since the 1980s and 1990s, economists, pro-business Democrats and Republicans in the US, and global organizations like the UN and the World Economic Forum have all made concessions to the oil and gas industry that they have no intention of reversing. What's more, they believe that climate change can be solved through the market, capitalism can be a force for good, and all of us, corporations included, are fighting the good fight together.
These assumptions, Aronoff makes abundantly clear, will not save the planet. Drawing on years of reporting and rigorous economic analysis, Aronoff lays out a robust vision for what will, detailing how to constrain the fossil fuel industry; transform the economy into a sustainable, democratic one; mobilize political support; create effective public-private partnerships; enact climate reparations; and adapt to inevitable warming in a way that is just and equitable.
Our future, Overheated makes clear, will require a radical reimagining of our politics and our economies, but if done right, it will save the world.
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First published April 20, 2021
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About the author
Kate Aronoff
3 books48 followersKate Aronoff is a staff writer at The New Republic and author of Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet — And How We Fight Back. She is co-author of A Planet To Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal and co-editor of We Own the Future: Democratic Socialism—American Style. Follow her on Twitter @katearonoff.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
May 24, 2021
By far the best of the recent batch of books on climate change, this is an explicit attempt to demonstrate why capitalism drives climate change and what the alternative is. It's strengths are that it places the crisis central to the economic system, but also links in wider questions of racial injustice, colonialism and the financial system with these. Aronoff is arguing for a more just, more equitable society - but also one where people work less, are paid more and don't have to worry about housing, education or bringing up the kids. The problem is that there is no strategy to get this. The excellent critique of neo-liberalism isn't extended to wider capitalism, which leaves the reader speculating that things would be better if we hadn't had Thatcher or Reagan. Even under capitalism we might win many of the reforms that Aronoff proposes - and have better, more sustainable lives - but she doesn't offer the reader any discussion of how we might win: Despite acknowledging the role of the capitalist state in blocking social and environmental change. As Naomi Klein once wrote, only mass movements can save us now. Sadly this book misses an opportunity to explore this further, which is a shame particularly as Aronoff frequently talks about the importance of workers and their organisations.
April 17, 2021
2.5 stars.
This didn’t really work for me, unfortunately. On a basic level, I agree with the central tenets of Aronoff’s argument here which are that 1. The deregulation by the government of the private sector has allowed corporations (particularly fossil fuel companies) to exert concerning levels of control over policy-making (side note: if you are interested in learning more about that, I would highly recommend Nathaniel Rich’s Losing Earth: A Recent History, which covers the early research by fossil fuel companies into climate change in the 1970s and tracks the history of the climate change denial narrative from the early 70s to 1989); 2. The climate crisis is inherently tied to issues of social equity, and its solutions should address that; and 3. The United States (and the world) needs to move away from a fossil-fuel-dependent economy as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, Aronoff majorly lost me in making that argument, for two reasons.
First, this book is simply too long. Particularly in “Part 2: Green Dreams Versus Eco-Apartheid,” Aronoff begins to repeat herself and restate her argument (sometimes in quite literally the exact same phrasing as she had used in previous chapters) in ways that do not add complexity or additional evidence to her previously established argument. In fact, when additional evidence was presented, I often found it to be presented in a convoluted and wordy way, which made it difficult as the reader to organize this new evidence within her larger argument. This was especially true when pieces of evidence were presented that appeared to refute Aronoff’s own political ideology, as she often seemed to go out of her way to minimize the evidence while also still bringing it up.
On a related note, my second gripe is less so to do with the content of the book, than with the unfortunate coincidence of the publication’s timing with President Biden’s announcement of his Build Back Better Plan. Aronoff makes it clear that her political ideology is closest aligned with that of Democratic Socialism and she is one of the strongest advocates of the Green New Deal (in 2021) that I have come across in a while. Because of this, she has a lot of critiques of both Joe Biden specifically and the sector of the Democratic Party he represents. While I can understand the critiques, I had a hard time reconciling those critiques with her discussion of the Green New Deal, given that the reality of our political climate/governmental structure means that Biden’s Infrastructure plan is the only “Green New Deal” we will realistically have* (not to mention that it does actually propose a fair amount of what she suggests in this book).
On a related note, I also struggled in general with the way she approached policymaking, as many of her ideas seemed in direct opposition to one another, or simply unrealistic for an immediate policy proposal (or both!). This is particularly true in discussions of global politics, as Aronoff reiterates several times the importance of climate reparations for the Global South, but simultaneously proposes a lot of insular economic policies regarding global trade (except for when we will need to buy all our clean energy infrastructure from China because, as one of her interviewees basically says, they are the only logical manufacturers, but I digress…)
Finally, this book almost exclusively focuses its attention on climate mitigation, as opposed to climate adaptation (which, disclaimer, is much more where my professional and academic interests lie), so any potential reader should be prepared for much discussion about debt, energy infrastructure, and the economy. All in all, I do think there is an audience for this book, but I’m not sure more pragmatic readers interested in climate mitigation and adaptation solutions such as myself will find this as fulfilling.
*To hear someone else also say this, check out this post from The Atlantic’s Weekly Planet newsletter: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/a...
Thank you to the author and Bold Type Books (Harper Collins) for providing me with an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Overheated comes out this coming Tuesday, April 20.
This didn’t really work for me, unfortunately. On a basic level, I agree with the central tenets of Aronoff’s argument here which are that 1. The deregulation by the government of the private sector has allowed corporations (particularly fossil fuel companies) to exert concerning levels of control over policy-making (side note: if you are interested in learning more about that, I would highly recommend Nathaniel Rich’s Losing Earth: A Recent History, which covers the early research by fossil fuel companies into climate change in the 1970s and tracks the history of the climate change denial narrative from the early 70s to 1989); 2. The climate crisis is inherently tied to issues of social equity, and its solutions should address that; and 3. The United States (and the world) needs to move away from a fossil-fuel-dependent economy as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, Aronoff majorly lost me in making that argument, for two reasons.
First, this book is simply too long. Particularly in “Part 2: Green Dreams Versus Eco-Apartheid,” Aronoff begins to repeat herself and restate her argument (sometimes in quite literally the exact same phrasing as she had used in previous chapters) in ways that do not add complexity or additional evidence to her previously established argument. In fact, when additional evidence was presented, I often found it to be presented in a convoluted and wordy way, which made it difficult as the reader to organize this new evidence within her larger argument. This was especially true when pieces of evidence were presented that appeared to refute Aronoff’s own political ideology, as she often seemed to go out of her way to minimize the evidence while also still bringing it up.
On a related note, my second gripe is less so to do with the content of the book, than with the unfortunate coincidence of the publication’s timing with President Biden’s announcement of his Build Back Better Plan. Aronoff makes it clear that her political ideology is closest aligned with that of Democratic Socialism and she is one of the strongest advocates of the Green New Deal (in 2021) that I have come across in a while. Because of this, she has a lot of critiques of both Joe Biden specifically and the sector of the Democratic Party he represents. While I can understand the critiques, I had a hard time reconciling those critiques with her discussion of the Green New Deal, given that the reality of our political climate/governmental structure means that Biden’s Infrastructure plan is the only “Green New Deal” we will realistically have* (not to mention that it does actually propose a fair amount of what she suggests in this book).
On a related note, I also struggled in general with the way she approached policymaking, as many of her ideas seemed in direct opposition to one another, or simply unrealistic for an immediate policy proposal (or both!). This is particularly true in discussions of global politics, as Aronoff reiterates several times the importance of climate reparations for the Global South, but simultaneously proposes a lot of insular economic policies regarding global trade (except for when we will need to buy all our clean energy infrastructure from China because, as one of her interviewees basically says, they are the only logical manufacturers, but I digress…)
Finally, this book almost exclusively focuses its attention on climate mitigation, as opposed to climate adaptation (which, disclaimer, is much more where my professional and academic interests lie), so any potential reader should be prepared for much discussion about debt, energy infrastructure, and the economy. All in all, I do think there is an audience for this book, but I’m not sure more pragmatic readers interested in climate mitigation and adaptation solutions such as myself will find this as fulfilling.
*To hear someone else also say this, check out this post from The Atlantic’s Weekly Planet newsletter: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/a...
Thank you to the author and Bold Type Books (Harper Collins) for providing me with an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Overheated comes out this coming Tuesday, April 20.
June 10, 2021
An outstanding work of complex political economy, history, and analysis of current events that cuts through a lot of the noise to provide us with many arrows for the quiver of ecosocialist organizing and the world we want to see.
October 23, 2021
This book had some interesting history and analysis, but it was too long the organization too confusing for me to really get into it.
It was far too US-centric for me—yes, we are a big polluter and a global power, but capitalism is not confined to the US. My biggest complaint is that this book somehow manages to critique capitalism without advocating for socialism. A socialist society and a social democracy are very different, and the latter still reproduces the extractive imperative at the heart of capitalism. I’m on board with the author’s policy suggestions, but I am not so on board for her focus on government and electoral strategies to get us there, nor do I see how they would work well outside of a fully socialist society.
It was far too US-centric for me—yes, we are a big polluter and a global power, but capitalism is not confined to the US. My biggest complaint is that this book somehow manages to critique capitalism without advocating for socialism. A socialist society and a social democracy are very different, and the latter still reproduces the extractive imperative at the heart of capitalism. I’m on board with the author’s policy suggestions, but I am not so on board for her focus on government and electoral strategies to get us there, nor do I see how they would work well outside of a fully socialist society.
May 24, 2022
Strong recent history of capitalism/neoliberalism and the climate crisis, followed by a call for social democracy to achieve a low-carbon future. The first part is effective at portraying the culprits of our climate situation, and how they will continue to fight effective action. The second part plots a path towards a Green New Deal and a future where "we can have nice things" in a healthy planet. Aronoff's writing is clear, and she uses different relevant histories to inform this path- the strongest of which are Reconstruction and the New Deal era. The policy proposals could be more fleshed out, but the general framework for these proposals is very clear and convincing.
The organization of the book is what prevents this from being a five-star review. There is little narrative linking the chapters, especially in the second part. Aronoff's policy proposals are interesting, but should be made easier to find and connect to the other parts of the book.
The organization of the book is what prevents this from being a five-star review. There is little narrative linking the chapters, especially in the second part. Aronoff's policy proposals are interesting, but should be made easier to find and connect to the other parts of the book.
October 7, 2021
Other than being too long, ( the first 200 pages is a historical summary of how we got here), I felt the analysis and suggestions for a just transition to non extractive energy sources, encompassed in a lot of the green new ideals, depend on improving quality of life and social justice issues too.
Things like reduced work weeks, full employment, reducing incarceration, housing, government participation in downsizing of the fossil fuel energy sector and incentivizing desired investments in an effort to benefit the many rather than the wealthy only, illustrate an opportunity to re invent our society to offer prosperity for many while addressing the causes and casualties of climate change.
The analysis is comprehensive and solutions offered are pretty lofty in light of the divisive character of our currently elected officials. Kate Aronoff may not be optimistic, but at least she sees how this crisis could end well.
Things like reduced work weeks, full employment, reducing incarceration, housing, government participation in downsizing of the fossil fuel energy sector and incentivizing desired investments in an effort to benefit the many rather than the wealthy only, illustrate an opportunity to re invent our society to offer prosperity for many while addressing the causes and casualties of climate change.
The analysis is comprehensive and solutions offered are pretty lofty in light of the divisive character of our currently elected officials. Kate Aronoff may not be optimistic, but at least she sees how this crisis could end well.
November 23, 2021
"Neoliberals have always operated within a world of contradictions, arguing in public that the market offers freedom and that it needs to be insulated from democracy, painting the marker as a natural part of human existence while pushing to pass policies that keep it functional. Just like climate denial, there are some dupes who truly believe in laissez-faire and the invisible hand but the real movers and shakers have always been more pragmatic than dogmatic."
"A tiny crust of 'haves' relies on a well managed army of 'have-nots' which, in the US, is disproportionately and by design non-white. Racism has been capitalism's most profitable management technique."
Kate Aronoff
"A tiny crust of 'haves' relies on a well managed army of 'have-nots' which, in the US, is disproportionately and by design non-white. Racism has been capitalism's most profitable management technique."
Kate Aronoff
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September 8, 2021Here's a book that lays out the economic systems that have got us to the point of unacceptably high carbon emissions and ways to break that habit and build a better, more human-centered world.
This was the deepest dive into a Green New Deal I've taken. I'm struck by how poorly I understood it before. Aronoff lays out in clear terms how we got to where we are and how a Green New Deal is one possible effective solution. At the same time, Aronoff makes clear that the fight to roll back climate change will likely require a fundamental reworking of the way American society values people and labor. She also highlights ways in which a Green New Deal might not just keep the planet a place people can live, but transform it into a place where people can thrive.
All in all, I think Aranoff takes a fair view of the problem and also the possibility of a Green New Deal. She's honest about its pitfalls and hopeful in the solutions.
This was the deepest dive into a Green New Deal I've taken. I'm struck by how poorly I understood it before. Aronoff lays out in clear terms how we got to where we are and how a Green New Deal is one possible effective solution. At the same time, Aronoff makes clear that the fight to roll back climate change will likely require a fundamental reworking of the way American society values people and labor. She also highlights ways in which a Green New Deal might not just keep the planet a place people can live, but transform it into a place where people can thrive.
All in all, I think Aranoff takes a fair view of the problem and also the possibility of a Green New Deal. She's honest about its pitfalls and hopeful in the solutions.
June 29, 2021
An excellent historical analysis of how capitalism has fostered conditions that are anathema to adequately addressing climate change. Among many intriguing ideas, I really loved the suggestion to have the federal government purchase 51% of each fossil fuel company, and ethically shut them down within the time frame required by climate science. We are already bailing out those planet-wreaking companies on a massive scale, which is essentially socializing the costs while continuing to privatize the gains, so...why the hell not? LFG.
"Every time you turn on a light, fill your gas tank, or fly cross-country on vacation or business, you play some small role in lofting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But unless you own a private jet or run a fossil fuel corporation, your family vacation didn't cause the climate crisis-- any more than the struggling couple buying their first house in 2006 caused the financial crisis because their bank sold them a subprime mortgage. This corporate-fueled fixation on individual carbon footprints reinforces the idea that some inborn defect in each of us is to blame for world governments' inability to handle this mess." p. 69
"Neoliberals didn't just influence government within nations, shaping economics and constraining the realm of the politically possible; they also shaped the global order to suit the global 1 percent and protect capital from threats like democracy. Decades of these efforts have resulted in rules protecting corporate investments across borders that are leagues more powerful than the nonbonding documents meant to protect the planet." p. 109-110
"Researchers with the Stockholm Environmental Institute have found that up to half of all oil developed globally through 2050 would be unprofitable if not for state subsidies." p. 180
"For every internet-- birthed in the Defense Department-- there are well over a dozen Solyndras, but it's virtually impossible to have one without the other. Yet for all its patient investments, the government gets neither credit nor a cut when the successful innovations it helped spur on take off." p. 181-182
"Cloud and AI research is already a hot topic in the more forward-thinking corners of the utility world; they might genuinely help the electricity system to cope with the real challenges of getting clean power to as many people as possible and to move past bespoke management techniques. Yet it's also not clear what controls, if any, will be placed on what these for-profit firms can do with the new data they collect from our ever-smarter and more energy efficient homes." p. 240
"By denying the urgency of and need for an energy transition-- denying the fact that a slow, painful one is already happening-- politicians leave the terms of that societal transition up to executives whose only interest has ever been to turn a profit. The only alternative is big, innovative, democratic government." p. 246
"Do we trust the companies that have spent decades delaying action on climate and spreading misinformation about its existence to steward a transition off fossil fuels, as they claim they will? To value the urgency of the climate crisis and the needs of their workers over the interest of their shareholders? If the answer is no, nationalization is our best option to decarbonize as quickly as is needed to avert catastrophes both economic and ecological." p. 269
"It's hard to imagine any company, for instance, being able to make a profit off of building playgrounds or keeping elderly people company to help ward of loneliness, which has been linked in several studies to premature death. What feeds a profit margin and what makes for a good society tend not to overlap." p. 291
"Many of the good ideas now percolating around the climate movement can be traced back to grassroots struggles waged by people whose homes lay in the path of fossil fuel infrastructure and its consequences. For decades, they have demanded what today seems so obvious, while the wonks and politicians wasted time we won't get back. In a real democracy, they might have listened." p. 358
"Every time you turn on a light, fill your gas tank, or fly cross-country on vacation or business, you play some small role in lofting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But unless you own a private jet or run a fossil fuel corporation, your family vacation didn't cause the climate crisis-- any more than the struggling couple buying their first house in 2006 caused the financial crisis because their bank sold them a subprime mortgage. This corporate-fueled fixation on individual carbon footprints reinforces the idea that some inborn defect in each of us is to blame for world governments' inability to handle this mess." p. 69
"Neoliberals didn't just influence government within nations, shaping economics and constraining the realm of the politically possible; they also shaped the global order to suit the global 1 percent and protect capital from threats like democracy. Decades of these efforts have resulted in rules protecting corporate investments across borders that are leagues more powerful than the nonbonding documents meant to protect the planet." p. 109-110
"Researchers with the Stockholm Environmental Institute have found that up to half of all oil developed globally through 2050 would be unprofitable if not for state subsidies." p. 180
"For every internet-- birthed in the Defense Department-- there are well over a dozen Solyndras, but it's virtually impossible to have one without the other. Yet for all its patient investments, the government gets neither credit nor a cut when the successful innovations it helped spur on take off." p. 181-182
"Cloud and AI research is already a hot topic in the more forward-thinking corners of the utility world; they might genuinely help the electricity system to cope with the real challenges of getting clean power to as many people as possible and to move past bespoke management techniques. Yet it's also not clear what controls, if any, will be placed on what these for-profit firms can do with the new data they collect from our ever-smarter and more energy efficient homes." p. 240
"By denying the urgency of and need for an energy transition-- denying the fact that a slow, painful one is already happening-- politicians leave the terms of that societal transition up to executives whose only interest has ever been to turn a profit. The only alternative is big, innovative, democratic government." p. 246
"Do we trust the companies that have spent decades delaying action on climate and spreading misinformation about its existence to steward a transition off fossil fuels, as they claim they will? To value the urgency of the climate crisis and the needs of their workers over the interest of their shareholders? If the answer is no, nationalization is our best option to decarbonize as quickly as is needed to avert catastrophes both economic and ecological." p. 269
"It's hard to imagine any company, for instance, being able to make a profit off of building playgrounds or keeping elderly people company to help ward of loneliness, which has been linked in several studies to premature death. What feeds a profit margin and what makes for a good society tend not to overlap." p. 291
"Many of the good ideas now percolating around the climate movement can be traced back to grassroots struggles waged by people whose homes lay in the path of fossil fuel infrastructure and its consequences. For decades, they have demanded what today seems so obvious, while the wonks and politicians wasted time we won't get back. In a real democracy, they might have listened." p. 358
November 13, 2021
Literally gasped when she mentioned she was born in 1992. Such a smart and well researched/written uncovering of the forces at play in U.S. climate policy. From the corporate funded think tanks where policy is effectively written, to neoliberal "performance" based policies, to the parallels between the tech bubble and fracking.
I was most taken by the utilities chapter since the topic is near and dear to my heart, but (as she points out) has somehow escaped the level of ire that oil companies receive. Learned some *great* factoids about the public utility commission (a regulating body) being conceived of by EEI (utility corporate lobbying group/reformer):
"At the height of the Gilded Age, early electric companies began to rival the scale of giant railroad conglomerates, as magnates like Thomas Edison protégé and General Electric founder Samuel Insull absorbed competitions into their growing empires. The bourgeoning social movements of the day didn't differentiate much between robber barons and electricity bosses in charge of massive, vertically integrated firms known as holding companies [...] Sensing some kind of reform on the horizon, it was investor-owner utilities (IOUs) themselves that over a century ago first pushed to establish statewide utility commissions as a grand bargain. These new public utility commissions (PUCs), which now exist by some name in every state, were a means of cementing their monopolies, appeasing progressive reformers, and heading off a much less savoury alternative for them: publicly owned electricity. In 1907, Insull's National Electric Light Association (NELA)-a trade association for privately held utilities, including PG&E- drafted model legislation for several states submitting themselves to regulators, who in exchange granted them a captive, reliable market"
Apparently there was an FTC investigation in 1928 into utilities' "elaborate public relations push" against public ownership campaigns. As remains the case, all the funds for this large-scale misinformation campaign were recovered through ratepayers (even to this day utilities recover their EEI lobbying bills, even though I believe many states have policies against it). Apparently the investigation led to the breakup of NELA, which reformed as EEI within 24(!) hours. It's hard to imagine a large scale investigation of EEI today, but one can dream.
Also, she does a great job of talking about how the utilities' reach goes so deep that it's virtually impossible to gather information untouched by them (I also think this happens because the field is so niche and complex that it's easier for them to prop up barriers to entry). This rang extremely true: "Even well-intentioned regulators who aren't either wining and dining with utility executives or former utility executives themselves face a steep path to thinking too far outside the box industry has created. IOUs, Pomerantz said, have "built up an information environment around those regulators where they produce nearly everything they read or consume," from trade publications to conferences on utility management to experts housed in campus energy centers whose boards and donor rolls are filled with industry interests. "If they want answers to certain technical questions, the only people to can answer them are the utilites themselves.""
She ties in nicely these historical pieces with calls for legitimate democratic climate policy. I appreciate the nuanced approach she takes to the call for public ownership (just because something is nationally owned, does not mean it is politically good) and the call for clean energy: "Clean energy isn't an alternative to the vultures and violence. The choice of the twenty-first century is between a postcarbon abolition-democracy or an extractive eco-apartheid, whether the latter happens to be called green or not".
I was most taken by the utilities chapter since the topic is near and dear to my heart, but (as she points out) has somehow escaped the level of ire that oil companies receive. Learned some *great* factoids about the public utility commission (a regulating body) being conceived of by EEI (utility corporate lobbying group/reformer):
"At the height of the Gilded Age, early electric companies began to rival the scale of giant railroad conglomerates, as magnates like Thomas Edison protégé and General Electric founder Samuel Insull absorbed competitions into their growing empires. The bourgeoning social movements of the day didn't differentiate much between robber barons and electricity bosses in charge of massive, vertically integrated firms known as holding companies [...] Sensing some kind of reform on the horizon, it was investor-owner utilities (IOUs) themselves that over a century ago first pushed to establish statewide utility commissions as a grand bargain. These new public utility commissions (PUCs), which now exist by some name in every state, were a means of cementing their monopolies, appeasing progressive reformers, and heading off a much less savoury alternative for them: publicly owned electricity. In 1907, Insull's National Electric Light Association (NELA)-a trade association for privately held utilities, including PG&E- drafted model legislation for several states submitting themselves to regulators, who in exchange granted them a captive, reliable market"
Apparently there was an FTC investigation in 1928 into utilities' "elaborate public relations push" against public ownership campaigns. As remains the case, all the funds for this large-scale misinformation campaign were recovered through ratepayers (even to this day utilities recover their EEI lobbying bills, even though I believe many states have policies against it). Apparently the investigation led to the breakup of NELA, which reformed as EEI within 24(!) hours. It's hard to imagine a large scale investigation of EEI today, but one can dream.
Also, she does a great job of talking about how the utilities' reach goes so deep that it's virtually impossible to gather information untouched by them (I also think this happens because the field is so niche and complex that it's easier for them to prop up barriers to entry). This rang extremely true: "Even well-intentioned regulators who aren't either wining and dining with utility executives or former utility executives themselves face a steep path to thinking too far outside the box industry has created. IOUs, Pomerantz said, have "built up an information environment around those regulators where they produce nearly everything they read or consume," from trade publications to conferences on utility management to experts housed in campus energy centers whose boards and donor rolls are filled with industry interests. "If they want answers to certain technical questions, the only people to can answer them are the utilites themselves.""
She ties in nicely these historical pieces with calls for legitimate democratic climate policy. I appreciate the nuanced approach she takes to the call for public ownership (just because something is nationally owned, does not mean it is politically good) and the call for clean energy: "Clean energy isn't an alternative to the vultures and violence. The choice of the twenty-first century is between a postcarbon abolition-democracy or an extractive eco-apartheid, whether the latter happens to be called green or not".
April 29, 2021
I had enjoyed Aronoff's earlier book A Planet to Win and her reporting at TNR, so I was excited to pick this one up. It did not disappoint. Overheated is a meticulously reported and forcefully argued case against the existence of the fossil fuel industry. It's a damning account of the industry's uniquely destructive influence on the unfolding of the climate crisis, from simultaneously watering down mitigation policy and lobbying against it entirely to exploiting the financial crisis to keep its rapacious extraction going. Along the way, in perhaps the book's most valuable contribution to the climate discussion, Aronoff provides a cogent explanation of the decline of hardcore climate denial as the party line of the right, and unmasks the 'greenwashing' that dirty industries have employed to conceal their unwavering commitment to business as usual at the expense of the planet. She also offers a vision of the type of radical democratic politics that will be required to not only to tear down extraction capitalism, but also to repair the wounds of inequality, racism, and colonialism intimately bound up with its development.
Good climate journalism is tough - it can easily fall into unbearable moralizing, or lurid doomsday porn, or Pollyanna-ish techno utopianism, or dry technical discussion. Aronoff's book, to its credit, manages to avoid these pitfalls. It's written in lucid, witty prose that evokes both indignation over the cruelty of the current system and an empathetic faith in ordinary people. Instead of bombarding the reader with doom and gloom, Overheated illuminates the possibility of a climate response that, through mobilizing the 99% and establishing true democratic governance, could transform American and global society. The policy proposals it raises are bold (or impractical, depending on your political orientation) - nationalization of the major oil companies, global climate reparations, a just transition via federal jobs guarantee - and offer food for thought for the socialist/progressive left as it aims to transform its solidaristic ideals into political action. A few sections get bogged down in names and acronyms (the chapter on PG&E and power co-ops was a bit daunting for me as someone without much prior familiarity with the subject), but on the whole this is an informative and highly enjoyable overview of the political economy of climate change, written from an unabashedly leftist position.
Good climate journalism is tough - it can easily fall into unbearable moralizing, or lurid doomsday porn, or Pollyanna-ish techno utopianism, or dry technical discussion. Aronoff's book, to its credit, manages to avoid these pitfalls. It's written in lucid, witty prose that evokes both indignation over the cruelty of the current system and an empathetic faith in ordinary people. Instead of bombarding the reader with doom and gloom, Overheated illuminates the possibility of a climate response that, through mobilizing the 99% and establishing true democratic governance, could transform American and global society. The policy proposals it raises are bold (or impractical, depending on your political orientation) - nationalization of the major oil companies, global climate reparations, a just transition via federal jobs guarantee - and offer food for thought for the socialist/progressive left as it aims to transform its solidaristic ideals into political action. A few sections get bogged down in names and acronyms (the chapter on PG&E and power co-ops was a bit daunting for me as someone without much prior familiarity with the subject), but on the whole this is an informative and highly enjoyable overview of the political economy of climate change, written from an unabashedly leftist position.
November 8, 2021
Current and thorough-climate journalist, Kate Aronoff, reviews the dire state of climate change and the political situation that prevents action on addressing it. She explores policies that we should fight for over this coming decade to decarbonize our economy including Green New Deal and nationalizing industry to control the transition.
July 14, 2021
Read about 15% of the book….couldn’t get into it. I’m not sure what the point of this was. Explain to people the problems associated with climate change? This has been going for over thirty years now. Was mostly bored with the statistics and history lessons. Awareness is NOT the problem.
dnf
September 4, 2022Enough to make me good and mad and give needed context, but I’m still waiting to find out what the hell to actually do?
Read
July 24, 2022Don't really feel like I can rate this one. I learned some new things from this; to me the most interesting chapters were on utility companies and certain sections in the "eco apartheid" chapter. Things I learned about: The Public Utility Holding Company Act passed by FDR that broke up tangled webs of vertical and horizontal integration between utility and other firms, later repealed in the deregulation period; movements to democratize rural electric co-ops; campaigns to municipalize utilities by DSA chapters in California and NYC; the tangled connections between emergency response and the security state in the US (DHS containing emergency response functions and local police departments containing emergency management offices); the horrid neocolonial austerity regime imposed on Puerto Rico with enforced corporate tax cuts, deindustrialization, and authoritarian fiscal oversight board imposed by PROMESA; the fiscal dependence of many states on fossil fuel extraction that expands our understanding of what a just transition will entail; the Freedom Budget proposed by the A. Phillip Randolph Institute and the long history of civil rights and labor agitation for a federal job guarantee, which helped to sell me on a proposal I was less keen on. The history of the Waxman Markey climate bill was a welcome rehearsal of the story of fossil fuel collusion with Big Green and playing both sides to kill the bill. It was also cool to see some stuff about the beginnings of the Sunrise Movement. The book also helped me expand my sense of possibility about what we can do for a green new deal project.
On the other hand Aronoff mostly covers ground I was already familiar with. Some of these are welcome, like the facts on New Deal accomplishments, but I could have probably gotten those better from just reading a book about the New Deal. There are constant citations of Naomi Klein, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Daniel Cohen, Greg Grandin, etc., all thinkers embedded in or popular among the DSA/Bernie/Jacobin left. These are the circles I am most familiar with from Twitter browsing and subsequent reading and I was familiar with most of their ideas already; I think by now I have mostly exhausted them. Maybe this book could provide a good handbook of all these debates for someone who was unfamiliar with them, the problem being that it is quite long and repetitive. Aronoff also covers familiar ground of how we need more democracy to solve the climate crisis, the rise of eco-fascism, etc. Some of the sections are a little disorganized and repetitive and I think she needed a better editor. Still I am glad this exists and it was a pretty good read.
On the other hand Aronoff mostly covers ground I was already familiar with. Some of these are welcome, like the facts on New Deal accomplishments, but I could have probably gotten those better from just reading a book about the New Deal. There are constant citations of Naomi Klein, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Daniel Cohen, Greg Grandin, etc., all thinkers embedded in or popular among the DSA/Bernie/Jacobin left. These are the circles I am most familiar with from Twitter browsing and subsequent reading and I was familiar with most of their ideas already; I think by now I have mostly exhausted them. Maybe this book could provide a good handbook of all these debates for someone who was unfamiliar with them, the problem being that it is quite long and repetitive. Aronoff also covers familiar ground of how we need more democracy to solve the climate crisis, the rise of eco-fascism, etc. Some of the sections are a little disorganized and repetitive and I think she needed a better editor. Still I am glad this exists and it was a pretty good read.
August 23, 2022
Have you ever read a book you agree with, are interested in, yet still found to be far less than the sum of its parts? That's how I felt about Overheated. Aronoff is writing about what I think is the defining challenge of the century, and cites a lot of people I've also read recently, yet this book rarely bothers to make the arguments required to prove its subtitle, rather accepting the reader already agrees. Aronoff also does not really discuss the differences between a degree warmed by 1, 2, 4 or six degrees (Celsius, which I know from discussions around the topic yet Aronoff doesn't mention specifically) - the things that will befall our world (breadbaskets collapsing, etc.) are mentioned only in generalities.
The first half of the book focuses at least as much on the 2009-10 failure to pass cap-and-trade as it does on how extractive companies are actually breaking the planet. The second half focuses on a wish list for a Green New Deal, as well as explaining why a Green New Deal is more important than the climate issue alone. It feels like a wish list and a grab bag that she ties into various market failures of today or New Deal programs of the 1930s and how they shifted the US more towards labor than capital than at any other point in America's history. But there's no real analysis of how to accomplish this given gerrymandering and the minoritarian institutions in our country (Senate, Electoral College, and the Supreme Court). Aronoff also misses a chance to bring in emissions modelling or to discuss Modern Monetary Theory (although she quotes Stephanie Kelton, Aronoff never mentions MMT, which is an odd choice!). It comes across that she just wants to blow up the deficit and ignores the theory that would best support this policy.
The chapter on electrical utilities is confusing in its inconsistent usage of acronyms (what's an ISO? It's not introduced and not in the index). The chapter on Puerto Rico and Atlantic City feels like it belongs to a different book. The problem of this book isn't so much its length (which I've seen others mention), but that it misuses that length through tenuously connected overlong points. The frequent mentions of the human desire for sex in the conclusion feel oddly highlighted in a section about what low-carbon desires people have in life (honestly, considering she mentions Sarah Jaffe in the acknowledgements, this feels like she's ripping off how Jaffe focused on the human desire for love and emotional connections in the a part of the conclusion of "Work Won't Love You Back" focusing on the non-work things we really want out of life - the parallel is remarkable). On the whole, this is a frustrating miss for me (but the section on nationalizing American oil extraction companies was particularly good!).
The first half of the book focuses at least as much on the 2009-10 failure to pass cap-and-trade as it does on how extractive companies are actually breaking the planet. The second half focuses on a wish list for a Green New Deal, as well as explaining why a Green New Deal is more important than the climate issue alone. It feels like a wish list and a grab bag that she ties into various market failures of today or New Deal programs of the 1930s and how they shifted the US more towards labor than capital than at any other point in America's history. But there's no real analysis of how to accomplish this given gerrymandering and the minoritarian institutions in our country (Senate, Electoral College, and the Supreme Court). Aronoff also misses a chance to bring in emissions modelling or to discuss Modern Monetary Theory (although she quotes Stephanie Kelton, Aronoff never mentions MMT, which is an odd choice!). It comes across that she just wants to blow up the deficit and ignores the theory that would best support this policy.
The chapter on electrical utilities is confusing in its inconsistent usage of acronyms (what's an ISO? It's not introduced and not in the index). The chapter on Puerto Rico and Atlantic City feels like it belongs to a different book. The problem of this book isn't so much its length (which I've seen others mention), but that it misuses that length through tenuously connected overlong points. The frequent mentions of the human desire for sex in the conclusion feel oddly highlighted in a section about what low-carbon desires people have in life (honestly, considering she mentions Sarah Jaffe in the acknowledgements, this feels like she's ripping off how Jaffe focused on the human desire for love and emotional connections in the a part of the conclusion of "Work Won't Love You Back" focusing on the non-work things we really want out of life - the parallel is remarkable). On the whole, this is a frustrating miss for me (but the section on nationalizing American oil extraction companies was particularly good!).
November 23, 2023
this world is far more complicated than I ever would've thought. Kate Aronoff does an excellent job of breaking it down. the historical shifts in ideologies of businesses, political factions, & other entities in the realm of energy & climate science are grimly fascinating. which is to say we are *maybe* doomed (hard maybe). I won't say the rampant greed & destructiveness of a wealthy few driving the entire globe toward compounding disasters are just human nature. I have to believe that most humans are in fact caring & creative & unwilling to commit filicide on a generational scale for a few extra fleeting comforts. but it is grimly fascinating.
I could write an entire screed along those lines but let's not dwell on it. picking up this book, I expected to learn more about governments, fossil fuel corporations, privately-owned utilities, international bodies, social & scientific schools of thought, grassroots movements, and maybe even Astro-turfed movements. and I did learn about all of these. but I was pleasantly surprised how much I learned about the New Deal era. what it got right, what it got wrong. but having read this book, it's important right now that we have a good understanding of that era. building on that, Aronoff is so precise in identifying how the Green New Deal can learn from its successes and mistakes.
the final chapter ("We Can Have Good Things") brought such an inspiring vision to my mind of a more just & welcoming world, maybe even one infused with a little solarpunk, that is honest-to-God achievable when the people pull together. that sounds cheesy, and it is a little bit, but I say that with solemnity. I just finished "Slaughterhouse-Five" and I was so moved by Kurt Vonnegut's description of a WWII movie in reverse. so that's the head space I'm in. here's part of that passage.
"When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks & shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night & day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly so they would never hurt anybody ever again.
The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed. That wasn't in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. Everybody turned into a baby, & all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam & Eve, he supposed."
I could write an entire screed along those lines but let's not dwell on it. picking up this book, I expected to learn more about governments, fossil fuel corporations, privately-owned utilities, international bodies, social & scientific schools of thought, grassroots movements, and maybe even Astro-turfed movements. and I did learn about all of these. but I was pleasantly surprised how much I learned about the New Deal era. what it got right, what it got wrong. but having read this book, it's important right now that we have a good understanding of that era. building on that, Aronoff is so precise in identifying how the Green New Deal can learn from its successes and mistakes.
the final chapter ("We Can Have Good Things") brought such an inspiring vision to my mind of a more just & welcoming world, maybe even one infused with a little solarpunk, that is honest-to-God achievable when the people pull together. that sounds cheesy, and it is a little bit, but I say that with solemnity. I just finished "Slaughterhouse-Five" and I was so moved by Kurt Vonnegut's description of a WWII movie in reverse. so that's the head space I'm in. here's part of that passage.
"When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks & shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night & day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly so they would never hurt anybody ever again.
The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed. That wasn't in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. Everybody turned into a baby, & all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam & Eve, he supposed."
February 22, 2023
This book acts as a sequel to Naomi Klein’s “This Changes Everything” and as a companion text to the Green New Deal.
Aronoff knows the fastest way to a clean future is one without capitalism. Unfortunately, by the time we can realistically topple capitalism, it will be too late for the planet. So what do we do in the meantime? How can we remove the influence of oil corporations over climate policy? How can we transform local energy monopolies into ones that champion green technology? How do we avoid a future in which a few CEOs of “green technology” companies run our society?
Arnoff argues the answer is one with more democracy, with more power given to workers via a federal jobs guarantee and universal health care and unionization - removing the heavy influence polluters have on our day to day lives. Empowered workers influence their leaders’ actions, have the energy to participate in more democracy. Federal support systems cushion the blow when we dismantle the oil companies.
I wish Arnoff hadn’t avoided topics like urban design - which has a drastic influence on American life - and the book ran quite long. But overall a fascinating read on how we got here and some possible solutions on how we go forward in an equitable manner.
Aronoff knows the fastest way to a clean future is one without capitalism. Unfortunately, by the time we can realistically topple capitalism, it will be too late for the planet. So what do we do in the meantime? How can we remove the influence of oil corporations over climate policy? How can we transform local energy monopolies into ones that champion green technology? How do we avoid a future in which a few CEOs of “green technology” companies run our society?
Arnoff argues the answer is one with more democracy, with more power given to workers via a federal jobs guarantee and universal health care and unionization - removing the heavy influence polluters have on our day to day lives. Empowered workers influence their leaders’ actions, have the energy to participate in more democracy. Federal support systems cushion the blow when we dismantle the oil companies.
I wish Arnoff hadn’t avoided topics like urban design - which has a drastic influence on American life - and the book ran quite long. But overall a fascinating read on how we got here and some possible solutions on how we go forward in an equitable manner.
May 11, 2023
Really appreciate Aronoff's passion for climate activism. She also clearly dedicated a lot of her time towards extensively researching the history of climate change policy in the US. Her opinions are hard to argue against as it's pretty clear to everybody at this point that fossil fuel lobbying (@Shell) was a big driver of climate denialism and inaction in the past, which has irreparably hurt our chances of survival as a species in the long run because at this point it's pretty unlikely we'll stay below the <2 degree warming maximum by 2050. Interesting insights into how those same fossil fuel lobbyists are switching their strategy to greenwashing and how that is a hidden, harmful trend that we have to eliminate ASAP, along with tamping down on eco-fascism. Policymaking in this space is so convoluted.
Unfortunately this is one of those nonfic books that is pretty much outdated as soon as it hits the bookshelves, and minus one star for Aronoff's lack of focus as she tends to jump from one statistic to the next without a strong thesis for the majority of the book.
Unfortunately this is one of those nonfic books that is pretty much outdated as soon as it hits the bookshelves, and minus one star for Aronoff's lack of focus as she tends to jump from one statistic to the next without a strong thesis for the majority of the book.
August 3, 2023
Strong recent history of capitalism/neoliberalism and the climate crisis, followed by a call for social democracy to achieve a low-carbon future. The first part is effective at portraying the culprits of our climate situation, and how they will continue to fight effective action. The second part plots a path towards a Green New Deal and a future where "we can have nice things" in a healthy planet. Aronoff's writing is clear, and she uses different relevant histories to inform this path- the strongest of which are Reconstruction and the New Deal era. The policy proposals could be more fleshed out, but the general framework for these proposals is very clear and convincing.
The organization of the book is what prevents this from being a five-star review. There is little narrative linking the chapters, especially in the second part. Aronoff's policy proposals are interesting, but should be made easier to find and connect to the other parts of the book.
The organization of the book is what prevents this from being a five-star review. There is little narrative linking the chapters, especially in the second part. Aronoff's policy proposals are interesting, but should be made easier to find and connect to the other parts of the book.
March 14, 2024
Maybe one of the most important, all encompassing, detailed, and clever books I’ve ever read. It doesn’t seem to start out as a book with a roadmap to a far better world, but that’s how it left me.
Kate is a wonderful writer, but maybe a better research journalist. The amount of data and references, presented in a concise way, is phenomenal. And after presenting the data, Aronoff arrives at common sense, deeply considered conclusions and suggestions.
If you truly want to know what to do and which direction to take regarding climate change, Kate lays it out for you.
I think we all know and continually feel the limits and shortcomings of capitalism. This author spells them out so you can intelligently ask and answer the question; why do we worship capitalism??
It’s not light reading in any sense. But it left me far more optimistic than I anticipated.
Kate is a wonderful writer, but maybe a better research journalist. The amount of data and references, presented in a concise way, is phenomenal. And after presenting the data, Aronoff arrives at common sense, deeply considered conclusions and suggestions.
If you truly want to know what to do and which direction to take regarding climate change, Kate lays it out for you.
I think we all know and continually feel the limits and shortcomings of capitalism. This author spells them out so you can intelligently ask and answer the question; why do we worship capitalism??
It’s not light reading in any sense. But it left me far more optimistic than I anticipated.
November 2, 2021
I won a copy of this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway.
I enjoyed the book, and learned some really interesting things about the history of capitalism and climate change. I am now a convert to a Green New Deal supporter, and am looking to see what I can do at my house to become more eco-friendly.
What I felt was missing, was a clear call to action on what steps individuals can be taking to help improve the current situation. Whether it's things we can do ourselves (such as installing green energy at our homes, switching to electric vehicles, better insulation, etc), organizations to get involved in (political action groups, non-profits, etc), or how to create our own local community group to push the Green New Deal.
I enjoyed the book, and learned some really interesting things about the history of capitalism and climate change. I am now a convert to a Green New Deal supporter, and am looking to see what I can do at my house to become more eco-friendly.
What I felt was missing, was a clear call to action on what steps individuals can be taking to help improve the current situation. Whether it's things we can do ourselves (such as installing green energy at our homes, switching to electric vehicles, better insulation, etc), organizations to get involved in (political action groups, non-profits, etc), or how to create our own local community group to push the Green New Deal.
January 10, 2022
Currently reading this. While I agree with many of Aronoff's positions and analyses, I'm immediately struck by a lack of citations. That's not to say she has no citations- there definitely are some, but I just read about 5 pages of claims with no citations in site!
It leaves me wondering if I can trust the facts she presents as evidence to back up her claims. I'll update my review when finished with the book, but I found this odd and it makes me hesitant to recommend this book to others in my circle.
It leaves me wondering if I can trust the facts she presents as evidence to back up her claims. I'll update my review when finished with the book, but I found this odd and it makes me hesitant to recommend this book to others in my circle.
April 20, 2021
Aronoff owns an average intellect. So the solution is the old tried and true: we join hands, and we think real hard to the god that will solve the problem. If the problem is solved: good, it shows this god was the one true god. If it doesn't work, than this is proof that somebody was not praying with a pure heart, because this is the one true god, so penitence and flagellation for all, and that would teach you not to have a pure heart next time we meet to pray.
September 23, 2022
Best book about energy/environmental issues that I've read in the last few years. I have learned a lot from reading Kate Aronoff's book and following her online. Great nods to the hope and potential provided by a Green New Deal and emphasis on why that's not a pipe dream, but the only way out. Good straightforward look at why the corporations that got us into this mess are never going to be the ones that get us out.
February 7, 2024
Well researched and written chronicle of societal norms related to our wasteful planet. The stories of how countries operate under both democracy and capitalism show how consumption is at its root. The Green New Deal is discussed as is ways to move forward to a society, not a set of habits, that can consumer less and enjoy life more. I agree with her perspectives and hope for her visions. Not very confident we have any chance of getting there.
January 17, 2022
This book provides a general summary of how we got here and what is the role of capitalism in the present and future. Very insightful and legitimate references, Aronoff’s writing is urgent and factual.
3/5 stars for all the points she raised and for giving hope to an impossible fleet to eradicate this crisis. 2 stars left out for vague solutions.
3/5 stars for all the points she raised and for giving hope to an impossible fleet to eradicate this crisis. 2 stars left out for vague solutions.
January 27, 2023
This book perfectly articulated the details of capitalism that caused climate change as we know it today. While a good chunk of the material of the book is pessimistic, there were turns of optimism and hope for our future as Aronoff provided ways in which we can fight back against climate change and its greatest contributors.
September 20, 2023
A strong recent history and mapping of the environmental movement from a left perspective. Though you may not find anything new in these pages, there is a strong narrative and assessment of the state of play that will be valuable for anyone trying to wrap their head around our current environmental moment.
December 11, 2024
TBH, most of this was a scan, but what I saw was what I already gleaned from previous sources. It is not useless, though, since not everyone has been through the same key background.
The reason the planet is overheating is from human activity, but mankind can change what it does to make a difference.
The reason the planet is overheating is from human activity, but mankind can change what it does to make a difference.
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