Temperatures III

Andreas Malm: Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency (held in English)

Wednesday, April 28, 2021
7pm

The third event of the online series Temperatures, Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency, takes the form of a talk and conversation with climate activist and human ecologist Andreas Malm.

The economic and social impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been unprecedented. Governments have spoken of being at war and find themselves forced to seek new powers in order to maintain social order and prevent the spread of the virus. This is often exercised with the notion that we will return to normal as soon as we can. What if that is not possible? Secondly, if the state can mobilise itself in the face of an invisible foe like this pandemic, should it not be able to confront visible dangers such as climate destruction with equal force?

In this talk Malm will reflect on his proposition that this war-footing state should be applied on a permanent basis to the ongoing climate front line. He will consider proposals on how the climate movement should use this present emergency to make that case and reflect on the action or inaction at state level, discussing ways of how to invert the wide-spread logic of tackling immediate symptoms rather than root causes.

Andeas Malm is researcher at the Institute for Human Ecology at Lund University in Sweden and has been active in the climate justice movement for 20 years. In spring 2020, he was a visiting researcher at the Center for Humanities and Social Change in Berlin. His publications include Fossil Capital. The Rise of Steam Power and the Toots of Global Warming (Verso, 2016), Corona, Climate, Cronic Emergency. War Communism in the Twenty-First Century (Verso, 2020), and How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Verso, 2021).

The event is held in English; it is accessible for free and without prior registration via the following link: us02web.zoom.us/j/89629400451