Summary

Power Shift traces recent social and cultural shifts in how we understand and imagine energy, the environment, and the challenges of global warming. Across the globe, the need to transition to renewables has become the guiding reality of our energy present and future, despite continuing resistance to change. But what does this moment of energy transition look like for those struggling to make it happen in a way that benefits every individual and all communities? 

Featuring brief essays on 101 key terms by scholars, artists, and activists from around the world and across disciplines, Power Shift offers an expansive, kaleidoscopic guide to the history of petromodernity, recent technological and social developments, and pathways to new energy futures. The book offers new insights into the emergent politics of energy, contrasting today’s environmental and climate movements with the geopolitical contests of the Cold War era. It explores the still unfolding story of energy transition by focusing on the ongoing struggles of communities and individuals against decisions made by corporations, governments, and international organizations.

Contents

Foreword
David E. Nye

How to Use This Book

Introduction
Imre Szeman and Jennifer Wenzel

2040
What genre will the future be?
Philomena Polefrone

Abandoned
Who is tending to the present?
Liz Harmer

Action
What becomes possible when climate action fails?
Stephen Collis

Africa
Energy for whom and at what cost?
Erin Dean and Kristin D. Phillips

Air Conditioning
Has air conditioning become a technology of citizenship?
Anushree Gupta and Aalok Khandekar

Airplane
Why might we still need to fly?
Parke Wilde

Alberta
How many nuclear bombs does it take to develop an oil field?
Jeremy J. Schmidt

Animals
How do animals organize?
Jaimey Hamilton Faris

Art
How are art and energy related?
Carolyn Fornoff

Autonomy
Why do we want energy autonomy?
Darin Barney

Bankrupt
Is bankruptcy the crisis we need?
Caleb Wellum

Battery
Can batteries foster a radically just energy transition?
Isaac Thornley

Behavior
Why do appeals to values usually fail to change behavior?
Stéphane La Branche

Black
What are the Black politics of energy?
Walter Gordon

Blockade
Why are blockades an essential form of climate action?
Joshua Clover, Deedee Chao, and Emily Rich

Carbon Management
Is carbon management a moral imperative or a moral hazard?
Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow

Civil Disobedience
What rules must be broken to build a better world?
Alicia Massie

Class
Why is climate change a class issue?
Valerie Uher

Clean
What does clean energy really mean?
Gökçe Günel

Commons
What forms of governance could solve the tragedy of the commons?
Alfonso Giuliani

Communication
What are effective strategies for climate communication?
Andrew Revkin

Community
Is it still possible to trust other people?
Darren Fleet

Coronavirus
What does the coronavirus reveal about the politics of climate crisis?
Helen Petrovsky

Corporation
Will an energy transition help fossil fuel companies?
Cameron Hu

Cuba
What can Cuba teach us about climate action? 
Andrew Pendakis

Cycling
Is cycling a solution?
Stacey Balkan

Decolonization 
What can OPEC teach us about the link between energy and decolonization?
Sanaz Sohrabi

Degrowth
Is degrowth inevitable?
Dominic Boyer

Democracy
To save the planet, do we need more democracy, or less? 
Robert Danisch

Design
What does design make possible?
Keller Easterling

Development
Can development be green?
Siddharth Sareen

Digital
How does the digital reshape the material realm?
Shane Denson

Documentary
Why is uncertainty useful?
Thomas Pringle

Economy
Is economic expertise important?
Kylie Benton-Connell

Education
How should energy educators respond to youth climate activism?
Carrie Karsgaard

Electricity
How does electricity organize society?
Daniela Russ

Evidence
How is climate evidence used?
James Wilt

Expert
What counts as effective climate expertise?
Shane Gunster

Extinction
Is there a relation between energy and extinction?
Ashley Dawson

Family
What is the environmental future of the family?
Eva-Lynn Jagoe

Farm
Whose muscles power our food system?
Emily Pawley

Finance
Can we create an economy based on care?
Max Haiven

Fire/Bushfire
What can we learn from fire?
Meg Samuelson

Gaslighting
How has gaslighting circumscribed our environmental imagination?
Grace Franklin

Gender
Why is gender important to energy transition?
Petra Tschakert

Geoengineering
Is geoengineering inevitable?
Drew Pendergrass

Globalization
How does energy matter to globalization?
Tanner Mirrlees

Green New Deal
Will the Green New Deal save us from extinction?
Todd Dufresne

Greta
Why is intersectional agility Greta Thunberg’s rhetorical superpower?
Sheena Wilson

Habit
What kinds of friction can disrupt the status quo?
Rhys Williams

India
Can there be a just transition in India?
Swaralipi Nandi

Indigenous
How are Indigenous and extraction related?
Deena Rymhs

Indigenous Activism
What is the power of radical care?
Amber Hickey

Industrial Revolution
What does a focus on jobs mean for energy transition?
Cara Daggett

IPCC
What can the IPCC tell us about the relationship between knowledge and action?
Marcela da Silveira Feital and Jessica O’Reilly

Japan
Why do fears of energy scarcity obstruct energy transition?
Hiroki Shin

Justice
What kind of justice is energy justice? 
Pauline Destrée and Sarah O’Brien 

Keep It in the Ground
How can we build momentum to keep fossil fuels in the ground?
Angela Carter

Law
How can we change the law to prevent the climate crisis?
Michael B. Gerrard

Lifestyle
Are lifestyle changes a waste of time?
Mark Simpson

Local
How do local climate politics work best?
Brian Cozen and Danielle Endres

Mining
Why are the ways that we imagine mining important?
Gianfranco Selgas

Music
How are listening and energy related?
Sherry Lee and Emily MacCallum

Nationalism
What is the impact of transition on nationalism?
Zeynep Oguz

Natural Gas
Can natural gas be made visible, or viable?
John Szabo

Neoextractivism
What comes after neoextractivism? 
Donald V. Kingsbury

Net Zero
Do we really want to live in a net-zero world?
Mijin Cha

Nonlinear
Can nonlinear imaginative practices help us survive nonlinear catastrophes?
Katy Didden

Normal
What will be normal after fossil fuels?
Stephanie LeMenager

North Dakota
How does oil extraction reshape space and time?
Kyle Conway

Online
When we are online, what lines are we on?
Anne Pasek

Organize 
Can the master’s tools dismantle the master’s house?
Zainab Ashraf, Rachel Krueger, Guy Brodsky, Lesley Johnston, and Joy Hutchinson 

Paris Agreement
Does the Paris Agreement still matter?
Amy Janzwood

Permafrost
What do you do when the ground starts to melt beneath your feet?
Brigt Dale

Pipeline
Why is opposition to pipelines important?
Kai Bosworth

Planet
What happens to politics on an increasingly unlivable planet?
Leah Aronowsky

Populism
What can energy politics learn from populism?
Rodrigo Nunes

Protest
Why is protection more important than protest in Indigenous struggles? 
Kimberly Skye Richards

Renewable
What do renewables renew?
Marianna Dudley

Resource
Can waste serve as a resource for energy transition?
Kesha Fevrier and Anna Zalik

Retrofit
What does it mean to breathe life into buildings?
Fallon Samuels Aidoo and Daniel A. Barber

Sabotage
Can sabotage ever be more than a romantic gesture?
Ted Hamilton

Scale
What if scale were about equity rather than magnitude?
Cymene Howe

Scales
What can the human voice tell us about the scale of climate change?
Lisa Moore

Scenario Planning
Is the future a waste of time?
Josefin Wangel

Science
Do scientists believe that science matters?
Adam Sobel

Settler Colonialism
How can modern energy systems be indigenized?
S. Awâsis

Shipping
What would actual free shipping look like?
Christiaan De Beukelaer

Solar Farm
Can solar farms foster energy justice, instead of obstructing it?
Dustin Mulvaney

Solidarity
How can solidarity catalyze energy democracy?
Ana Isabel Baptista

Sport
Can sport be untangled from oil?
Graeme Macdonald

Storytelling
What can storytelling really do?
Misty Matthews-Roper

Sustainability
Does sustainability’s popularity indicate the failure of environmentalism?
Stephanie Foote

Trans-
What is trans- about transition?
Emerson Cram

Transitions
If transition is inevitable, will it be just?
Matthew S. Henry

Treaty
How can treaties help states transition away from fossil fuels?
Carlos Larrea, Bhushan Tuladhar, and Mohamed Adow

Vegan
What does transition look like on your plate?
Allisa Ali and Jordan B. Kinder

Waste
What is at stake in using waste for energy?
Aarti Latkar and Aalok Khandekar

Water
How can microbe metabolism foster sustainable infrastructures?
Melody Jue

Wind
What color is the wind?
David McDermott Hughes

Youth
Why is youth culture indispensable to energy transition?
Derek Gladwin

Acknowledgments

Contributors
Alternative Index

Author

Imre Szeman is director of the Institute for Environment, Conservation, and Sustainability and professor of human geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He authored books such as On Petrocultures: Globalization, Culture, and Energy and Futures of the Sun. 

Jennifer Wenzel is professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature and the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University. Her books include The Disposition of Nature: Environmental Crisis and World Literature and Bulletproof: Afterlives of Anticolonial Prophecy in South Africa and Beyond. 

Reviews

“We urgently need Power Shift if we are to find our way forward toward a decarbonized future.”
—David E. Nye, author of Seven Sublimes and Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies