Violence of Climate Change

Climate change is viewed as a primarily scientific, economic, or political issue. While acknowledging the legitimacy of these perspectives, Kevin J. O'Brien argues that we should respond to climate change first and foremost as a case of systematic and structural violence. Global warming is largely caused by the carbon emissions of the affluent, emissions that harm the poor first and worst. Climate change is violence because it divides human beings from one another and from the earth. O'Brien offers a constructive and creative response to this violence through practical examples of activism and nonviolent peacemaking, providing brief biographies of five Christians in the United States-John Woolman, Jane Addams, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr., and Cesar Chavez. These activists' idealism, social commitment, and political savvy offer lessons of resistance applicable to the struggle against climate change and for social justice.

An engaging work . . . In its essence, this book is a call to resist. To resist the structural violence that O’Brien identifies climate change to be., O’Brien is at his strongest when he attends to the idiosyncrasies of his witnesses and their distinctive contributions to thinking about climate change. He is thoughtful and constrained, presenting clear connections and lessons for the reader., A creative, timely, and helpful contribution to the canon of Christian environmentalist literature. . . . The book is an excellent resource for scholars and particularly for climate activists facing the discouragement common in their work., A powerful addition to the developing study of evironmental and social justice., O’Brien points to the practical examples of activism and nonviolent peacemaking

Kevin J. O'Brien is dean of humanities and associate professor of Christian ethics at Pacific Lutheran University. He is the author of The Ethics of Biodiversity (GUP), coeditor of Grounding Religion, and coauthor of An Introduction to Christian Environmentalism. He holds a PhD from Emory University.