Abstract

In the Anthropocene, we can do more than we can understand. This raises the question of whether we can think through climate change at all. “The Unnatural Growth of the Natural” surveys the paradoxes bedeviling the Anthropocene. High-energy civilization has unleashed natural metabolic energies beyond all natural limits. This is known as economic growth. If this cannot be sustained, then we are in a crisis that calls for radical change. Yet, although many pay lip service to the “climate crisis,” few really believe it. Most of us belong to the energy orthodoxy, a belief that we can grow and tech-fix our way out of climate change. The chapter concludes with an overview of the paradoxes that are explored in the remainder of the book.