Abstract
The period from the late 1990s until the end of 2008 was tumultuous. The events noted in this chapter illuminate the global political system led by American hegemonic power. The system itself has become dysfunctional in several ways and unable to address key global problems. Moreover, America for a time proved unable to resist the temptation to use hegemonic power in self-serving ways—and unable to avoid imposing the costs of hegemony on its own economy and citizens. The systemic flaws described in this chapter led to the election of Barack Obama, but none have been comprehensively or permanently corrected. There has been change, but nothing like the needed transformation of the system either within the United States or globally.
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Notes
See Robert Paehlke, Some Like It Cold: The Politics of Climate Change in Canada (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2008) regarding the politics of Kyoto in Canada. Evidence that the earth is warming is not diminished by the offputting language of some climate scientists in the famous-in-conservativecircles stolen emails.
See the photos and graphics in Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth (New York: Rodale, 2006).
Naomi Klein, “Climate Change is the Fight of Our Lives—Yet We Can Hardly Bear to Look at It,” www.theguardian.com (April 23, 2014).
See Mike Berners-Lee and Duncan Clark, The Burning Question (Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2013).
See Ian Bailey and Hugh Compston (eds), Feeling the Heat: The Politics of Climate Policy in the Rapidly Industrializing Countries (Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). China, for example, suffers from horrendous air pollution and wants to become a leading producer of solar panels.
David Orr, “Governing in the Long Emergency,” www.resilience.org/2013–05–14/governance-in-the-long-emergency. Accessed May 16, 2013.
See the Stern Report as well as George Monbiot, Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2006); David Goodstein, Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil (New York: Norton, 2004);
and Michael T. Klare, Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict (New York: Owl Books, 2002).
Biomass from grain has serious net energy problems. See David Pimentel, “Energy Balance, Economics and Environmental Impacts are Negative,” Natural Resources Research 12 (June, 2003), pp. 127–134. Many also argue that clean coal is simply impossible.
See also Tom Philpott, “Biofuel Skeptic Extraordinaire,” www.grist.org (December 8, 2006). For an argument that clean coal is an oxymoron see www.thisisreality.org.
Regarding the energy content in the US stimulus bill, see Michael Grunwald, “How the Stimulus is Changing America,” www.time.com (August 26, 2010).
See Gwynne Dyer, Climate Wars (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2008).
Rapid growth in North American oil use began after World War II so this depletion has been more rapid than is usually assumed. For the early history of oil use, see Sam H. Schurr, Energy and Economic Growth in the United States (Washington: Resources for the Future, 1962) and for historic data on world oil consumption, see www.eia.doe.gov.
Regarding settlement and energy demand see, for example, Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kenworthy, Cities and Sustainability: Overcoming Automobile Dependence (Washington: Island Press, 1999).
James Howard Kunstler, The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century (New York: Grove/Atlantic Books, 2006).
For a quick summary of a key study on this point see Hilary Osborne, “Stern Report: the Key Points,” www.theguardian.com (October 30, 2006).
Brad Plumer, “China May Soon Get a Carbon Tax,” www.washingtopost.com (February 21, 2013).
See Paul Krugman, “An Affordable Truth,” www.nytimes.com (December 7, 2009).
See, for example, Barry G. Rabe, “Power to the States: The Promise and Pitfalls of Decentralization,” in Norman J. Vig and Michael E Kraft (eds), Environmental Policy (Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2006), pp. 34–56.
For a discussion, see Molly Ivins, “Outrage of the Week,” www.alternet.com (October 13, 2005). The normalization of torture was also apparent in the passage of the Military Commissions Act just prior to the 2006 midterm election (when many Democratic members were unwilling to appear soft on terrorism).
Paul Krugman, “Enemy of the Planet,” www.nytimes.com (April 17, 2006).
Al Gore, “I Don’t Plan to Run for President,” www.yahoo.com (October 13, 2005).
See Paul Rutherford, Weapons of Mass Persuasion: the War against Iraq (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004).
See, for example, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, 7th edition (Washington, DC: Regerny Publishing, 2001).
This conclusion is captured in Israeli military historian Martin van Crevald’s observation that the Iraq war was the greatest strategic blunder of the past 2000 years because it was initiated following on 60 years of history in which no such war had been successful. See Brian Whitaker, “Nowhere to Run,” www.guardian.co.uk (November 29, 2005).
See, for example, George Packer, Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005).
See Ewan MacAskill, “Romney Election Triumph Would Sink US Reputation in Europe, Poll Finds,” www.theguardian.com (September 11, 2012).
See Dinesh D’Souza, The Roots of Obama’s Rage (Washington, DC: Regerny Publishing, 2010). Some, even some conservatives, have commented that this book reads like a bad conspiracy theory.
See Nick Wing, “Dana Rohrabacher, GOP House Science Committee Member: “Global Warming is a Total Fraud,” www.huffingtonpost.com (August 12, 2013).
The near certainty of the absence of such weapons was plainly stated by both Hans Blix, Chief UN Weapons Inspector and Mohamed ElBaradei, Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, prior to the invasion. See Hans Blix, Disarming Iraq: The Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction (London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2005).
See Eric Boehlert, Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush (New York: Free Press, 2006).
Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson showed some of the many ways this is true in their book, The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2011). Many social ills (poor health, happiness, crime, mental illness), it turns out, are higher in more unequal wealthy societies, even among the middle class and the rich. This makes the contemporary trend of rising inequality all the more ominous.
See also Joseph E. Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality (New York: Norton, 2012).
Eric Le Boucher, “Arrêtez la salade verde!” www.lemonde.fr (November 11, 2006). Translation and original citation from author Jerome á Paris on www.dkos.com same date.
George F. Will, “Leviathan in Louisiana,” www.msnbc.com (September 12, 2005).
Maureen Dowd, “Lost in the Desert,” www.nytimes.com (November 22, 2006).
See Trymaine Lee, “Rumor to Fact in Tales of Post-Katrina Violence,” www.nytimes.com (August 26, 2010).
How normal is made clear by Rank who notes that 40 percent of Americans between 25 and 60 will spend at least one year below the official poverty line and more than that will experience unemployment or near poverty. See Mark R. Rank, “Poverty in America is Mainstream,” www.nytimes.com (November 2, 2013). Accessed November 4, 2013.
Michael Harrington, The Other America: Poverty in the United States (New York: Scribner, 1997), originally published in 1962.
See Mark Pelling, Adaptation to Climate Change (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2011).
See Ariella Cohen, “No-Go Zone,” www.newsweek.com (August 25, 2010).
Eugene Robinson, “Where’s Bush? Not in New Orleans” www.washingtonpost.com (December 16, 2005).
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© 2014 Robert C. Paehlke
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Paehlke, R.C. (2014). A Tale of Three Cities: Kyoto, Baghdad, and New Orleans. In: Hegemony and Global Citizenship. Philosophy, Public Policy, and Transnational Law. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137476029_2
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