Worlds at Stake - by Aaron Saad (Paperback)

About the Book

"The galloping climate crisis has put the world on high alert. For those living in the high-consuming, high-polluting swaths of the world, we know that something about our society, our politics, our economy--our very way of life--must change. But the quality and character of those necessary changes are a source of seemingly intractable dispute. Does the answer lie in the development of new technologies or the supposed wisdom of a self-correcting market? Or does it lie in the radical reorganization of society, from wealth redistribution to ideas about what the "good life" could look like? How we think about the world works affects how we think about climate change and what we think can and should be done about it. In this original and accessible book, Saad presents an erudite survey of political perspectives and ethical arguments about how we should respond to the climate crisis. By arranging these approaches into two broad categories of "system preserving" and "system changing frameworks", Saad takes the reader on a journey through competing ideas about how we can think about and address our collective responsibility to a livable global future."--

Book Synopsis

The intensifying climate crisis has put the world on high alert. For those living in the high-consuming, high-polluting swaths of the world, it is clear that something about our society, our politics, our economy -- our very way of life -- must change. But the nature of those necessary changes is a source of seemingly intractable dispute. Does the answer lie in stimulating the dynamism of capitalist market forces with a carbon price, or in the deployment of new, climate-engineering technologies? Or does it lie in still more radical changes -- something akin to a wartime-like mobilization to rapidly build a more just post-carbon world, or a shift to an ecologically bounded society that has transcended perpetual capitalist growth? Our ideologies -- the competing ways we believe the world should be -- powerfully affect how we see the problem of climate change and what we think ought to be done about it. In this highly original and accessible book, Saad presents an erudite survey of political perspectives and ethical arguments about how we should respond to the climate crisis. By arranging these approaches into two broad categories of "system preserving" and "system changing" frameworks, Saad takes the reader on a journey through competing ideas about how we can address our collective responsibility to create a livable global future.

Review Quotes

Worlds at Stake offers a unique perspective and comes as a breath of fresh air to those who grasp the urgency of climate action but may feel unfamiliar with the topic or don't quite know where they stand yet.-- "Politics Today"

"Provides a very useful survey of how a range of ideologies respond to climate change in a political sense, considered from a climate justice perspective. I haven't encountered a book like it before."--David Camfield, author of Future on Fire and We Can Do Better

"Saad does a good job of covering the essentials in an environmental book for 2022 -- which is Indigenous and anti-colonial perspectives, which have been lacking in environmental books for too long. It's great to have succinct explanations about denialism and geoengineering."--Justin Podur, author of Siegebreakers

About the Author

Aaron Saad is a writer and professor focusing on the politics of climate justice and the intersections of ideology and climate politics. He teaches at Humber College in Toronto and is a columnist for Ricochet Media. He holds a PhD in environmental studies from York University.