Un climat de compétition : le changement climatique comme économie politique dans la fiction spéculative, 1889-1915
This paper demonstrates how the first major locus of climate-change fiction in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries already integrates climate into an economic rhetoric that views climate policy as a zero-sum competition between rival nations. In speculative fiction of the period, clima...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | fra |
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Université de Limoges
2023-06-01
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| Series: | ReS Futurae |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/resf/11630 |
| _version_ | 1797788014245576704 |
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| author | Steve Asselin |
| author_facet | Steve Asselin |
| author_sort | Steve Asselin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper demonstrates how the first major locus of climate-change fiction in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries already integrates climate into an economic rhetoric that views climate policy as a zero-sum competition between rival nations. In speculative fiction of the period, climate change occurs principally as a result of largescale human geoengineering projects aimed at transforming the world. Examples of this deliberate anthropogenic climate change include texts by Jules Verne, Mark Twain, and George Griffith. Sf writers found ways to monetize as-yet-unincorporated aspects of nature such as climate as resources for the market economy ; access to resources, in turn, became part of the economic and political balance of power between state entities. Plots to disrupt, control, and monopolize climate were conceptualized as grandiose capitalist schemes capable of unleashing significant collateral damage ; yet many of these novels present geoengineering as laudable entrepreneurship operating out of legitimate economic self-interest. At the extreme, several stories outright weaponize the weather and convert climate change into military might, featuring the same kind of technological brinksmanship that defines an arms race. The economics of early climate change fiction foreshadows, and potentially conditions us, to view climate as a resource worth fighting for. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T01:30:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d0a144f46d5e44749d341f344332136a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2264-6949 |
| language | fra |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T01:30:29Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | Université de Limoges |
| record_format | Article |
| series | ReS Futurae |
| spelling | doaj.art-d0a144f46d5e44749d341f344332136a2023-07-04T08:58:15ZfraUniversité de LimogesReS Futurae2264-69492023-06-012110.4000/resf.11630Un climat de compétition : le changement climatique comme économie politique dans la fiction spéculative, 1889-1915Steve AsselinThis paper demonstrates how the first major locus of climate-change fiction in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries already integrates climate into an economic rhetoric that views climate policy as a zero-sum competition between rival nations. In speculative fiction of the period, climate change occurs principally as a result of largescale human geoengineering projects aimed at transforming the world. Examples of this deliberate anthropogenic climate change include texts by Jules Verne, Mark Twain, and George Griffith. Sf writers found ways to monetize as-yet-unincorporated aspects of nature such as climate as resources for the market economy ; access to resources, in turn, became part of the economic and political balance of power between state entities. Plots to disrupt, control, and monopolize climate were conceptualized as grandiose capitalist schemes capable of unleashing significant collateral damage ; yet many of these novels present geoengineering as laudable entrepreneurship operating out of legitimate economic self-interest. At the extreme, several stories outright weaponize the weather and convert climate change into military might, featuring the same kind of technological brinksmanship that defines an arms race. The economics of early climate change fiction foreshadows, and potentially conditions us, to view climate as a resource worth fighting for.http://journals.openedition.org/resf/11630climate changecli-ficlimate fictionVerne (Jules)Twain (Mark)Griffith (George) |
| spellingShingle | Steve Asselin Un climat de compétition : le changement climatique comme économie politique dans la fiction spéculative, 1889-1915 ReS Futurae climate change cli-fi climate fiction Verne (Jules) Twain (Mark) Griffith (George) |
| title | Un climat de compétition : le changement climatique comme économie politique dans la fiction spéculative, 1889-1915 |
| title_full | Un climat de compétition : le changement climatique comme économie politique dans la fiction spéculative, 1889-1915 |
| title_fullStr | Un climat de compétition : le changement climatique comme économie politique dans la fiction spéculative, 1889-1915 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Un climat de compétition : le changement climatique comme économie politique dans la fiction spéculative, 1889-1915 |
| title_short | Un climat de compétition : le changement climatique comme économie politique dans la fiction spéculative, 1889-1915 |
| title_sort | un climat de competition le changement climatique comme economie politique dans la fiction speculative 1889 1915 |
| topic | climate change cli-fi climate fiction Verne (Jules) Twain (Mark) Griffith (George) |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/resf/11630 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT steveasselin unclimatdecompetitionlechangementclimatiquecommeeconomiepolitiquedanslafictionspeculative18891915 |