The Secure and the Dispossessed

An exploration into how the elite exploit the impact of climate change and how communities can resist this process.

While the world's scientists and many of its inhabitants despair at the impact of climate change, corporate and military leaders see nothing but opportunities. For them, melting ice caps mean newly accessible fossil fuels, borders to be secured from 'climate refugees', social conflicts to be managed and more failed states in which to intervene. They are 'securing' their assets at the expanse of the planet and its inhabitants.

The Secure and the Dispossessed looks at these deadly approaches with a critical eye. It also considers the flip-side: that the legitimacy of the elite is under unprecedented pressure – from resistance by communities to resource grabs to those creating new ecological and socially just models for managing our energy, food and water.

Topics covered include geoengineering, militarism, refugee protection, greenwashing and the agricultural crisis among others. Adaptation and resilience to a climate-changed world is desperately needed, but the form it will take will affect all of our futures.

List of Figures and Boxes
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Susan George
Introduction: Security for Whom in a Time of Climate Crisis? - Nick Buxton and Ben Hayes
Part I: The Security Agenda
1. The Catastrophic Convergence: Militarism, Neoliberalism and Climate Change - Christian Parenti
2. Colonising the Future: Climate Change and International Security Strategies - Ben Hayes
3. Climate Change Inc.: How TNCs are Managing Risk and Preparing to Profit in a World of Runaway Climate Change - Oscar Reyes
Part II: Security for Whom?
4. A Permanent State of Emergency: Civil Contingencies, Risk Management and Human Rights - Nafeez Ahmed, Ben Hayes and Nick Buxton
5. From Refugee Protection to Militarised Exclusion: What Future for ‘Climate Refugees’? - Ben Hayes, April Humble and Steve Wright
6. The Fix Is In: (Geo)engineering Our Way out of the Climate Crisis? - Kathy Jo Wetter and Silvia Ribeiro, ETC Group
7. Greenwashing Death: Climate Change and the Arms Trade- Mark Akkerman
Part III: Acquisition through Dispossession
8. Sowing Insecurity: Food and Agriculture in a Time of Climate Crisis - Zoe W. Brent, Nick Buxton and Annie Shattuck
9. In Deep Water: Confronting the Climate and Water Crises - Mary Ann Manahan
10. Power to the People: Rethinking 'Energy Security' - The Platform Collective
Conclusion: Finding Security in a Climate-Changed World - Nick Buxton and Ben Hayes
Notes on Contributors
Index