Emo-Techno-Ecology: Fear and Anger about Climate Change

Abstract

In her book A Paradise Built on Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster (2009), Rebecca Solnit does not hold back on her anger at what she describes as the fear-mongering US news reports of gangs, marauders, looters, and rapists (read ‘black’, she claims) that were seen to underwrite disaster reporting about Hurricane Katrina in 2005. According to Solnit, the rescue operation became a state and civilian armed kettling to save private property rather than lives, and the criminalization of those involved in this disastrous extreme weather event (1833 confirmed dead) was produced by racist fears. Six years later, the weather-war dyad with racism as a key public sentiment continues to permeate ordinary online discussions, as this extract of a conversation posted on YouTube’s Earth Hour, September 2011, bears out (all errors in original):

perfect hour for niggers to break into ur home and steal shit, 1 hour doesnt do fuck all to the planet. CryptWarrior69

@CryptWarrior69 that isnt at all what it’s about, its about finding people who care about the environment to celebrate a fucking hour without technology together, together to send a message that if we fuck over this planet, we’re fucking ourselves, just care a little more, is that so hard? xdoods