Climate change is something that has been overcooked for centuries. Unfortunately, humans do not share the concern for the deterioration of our habitat. Authors Nixon and Ghosh have taken to the papers, their interesting take on the trend to write about Anthropocene eras.
Nixon discusses the reality of how human’s decisions and behaviors are leading civilization to a path of destruction. His reference to “slow violence” is parallel to the saying of “slow burn”. The dangerously unexpected build up of something so negative, inevitably leading to the downfall of a civilization. Nixon points out that capitalists have been taking advantage of nature’s resources for quite some time. While the poor are stuck getting the short end of the stick and being used as a dump site, capitalists are not thinking about the consequences. Nixon references a case study,
“ Casualties of slow violence become light- weight, disposable casualties, with dire consequences for the ways wars are remembered…” (14).
In this case study, it was found that the dioxin levels of Bien Hoa residents were 135 times that of residents from a different region. This was a result of an experiment that happened several years prior. The slow violence happening here is years after the tainting of the natural resources increased these people’s likelihood of becoming sick with parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease.
Ghosh takes on an approach of questioning the distinction between recognition and first encounters. What does this have to do with climate change? To Nixon’s point there is a moment following the initial act where realization sets and the occurrence is recognized as violence.
As ghosh so eloquently phrased, “Recognition is famously a passage from ignorance to knowledge”(2).
Ghosh moves onto personifying natural disasters. He discusses the terrible incident of 1988 in the Congo where 1700 people died due to the immense amount of carbon dioxide in the air. He refers to these natural disasters as ”forces” that cannot be predicted or stopped, essentially calling out humans as powerless.
The brilliant depiction of climate change and nature turning its back on humans inspires conversation about people’s power to control or rather respond to the seemingly inevitable disaster that will destroy the Earth. By realizing that there is a larger “force” at play than humans greedily consuming Earth’s resources, thought processes can change from a capitalist’s perspective to that of a poorer people (Ghosh,2). People without the resources are usually the ones who resist the use of them. This is due to the fact that those without access to these resources are the ones most impacted by “slow violence”(Nixon, 1). In order to get this message across, Nixon and Ghosh both exposed a reality where humans are just little people who actually don’t have much power at all except to make the decision to treat their habitat better. In return people might just be granted some longevity.
