Tropic of Chaos : Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence

From Africa to Asia & Latin America, the era of climate wars has begun. Extreme weather is breeding banditry, humanitarian crisis, & state failure. In Tropic of Chaos, investigative journalist Christian Parenti travels along the front lines of this gathering catastrophe--the belt of economically & politically battered postcolonial nations & war zones girding the planet's midlatitudes. Here he finds failed states amid climatic disasters. But he also reveals the unsettling presence of Western military forces & explains how they see an opportunity in the crisis to prepare for open-ended global counterinsurgency. Parenti argues that this incipient "climate fascism" -- a political hardening of wealthy states-- is bound to fail. The struggling states of the developing world cannot be allowed to collapse, as they will take other nations down as well. Instead, we must work to meet the challenge of climate-driven violence with a very different set of sustainable economic & development policies.°°° Christian Parenti is a contributing editor at the Nation. The author of Lockdown America, The Soft Cage, & The Freedom, he has written for Fortune, Mother Jones, Conde Nast Traveler, Playboy, the New York Times, & the London Review of Books, among others. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. From Africa to Asia and Latin America, the era of climate wars has begun. Extreme weather is breeding banditry, humanitarian crisis, and state failure. In Tropic of Chaos, investigative journalist Christian Parenti travels along the front lines of this gathering catastrophe--the belt of economically and politically battered postcolonial nations and war zones girding the planet's midlatitudes. Here he finds failed states amid climatic disasters. But he also reveals the unsettling presence of Western military forces and explains how they see an opportunity in the crisis to prepare for open-ended global counterinsurgency. Parenti argues that this incipient "climate fascism" -- a political hardening of wealthy states-- is bound to fail. The struggling states of the developing world cannot be allowed to collapse, as they will take other nations down as well. Instead, we must work to meet the challenge of climate-driven violence with a very different set of sustainable economic and development policies. Pt. 1. Last call for illusion Who killed Ekaru Loraman Military soothsayers War for a small planet : adaptation as counterinsurgency Pt. II. Africa Geopolitics of an east african cattle raid Monsoons and tipping points The rise and fall of East African states Somali apocalypse Theorizing failed states Pt. III. Asia Drugs, drought and Jihad environmental history of the afghanistan war Kyrgyzstan's little climate war india and pakistan glaciers, rivers, and unfinished business India's drought rebels Pt. IV. Latin America Rio's agony : from extreme weather to "planet of slums" Golgotha Mexicana : climate refugees, free trade, and the war next door American walls and demagogues Implications and possibilities. Journalist Christian Parenti examines the influence of extreme weather which is caused by global warming on unrest and violence in countries located along mid-latitudes and examines how sustainable living among the world's population could solve the problems An award-winning journalist combines on-the-ground reportage with incisive analysis to reveal the disturbing connection between climate change and increased social and political violence.