Global Political Economy, Fossil Capital and Climate Change: Looming Ecological Depletion in West Asia

• In Event: 121 - Section on Marxist Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 08. Climate Change

Abstract

Driven by fossil fuels, global political economy is inextricably linked to climate change. This linkage is so deep and wide that despite the much-hyped signing of climate pact in Paris in December 2015, the worldwide fossil fuel consumption is set to rise until 2030, when it will trend downward. As a result the likely warming of the planet is going to wreak further devastation on the world’s most vulnerable regions and sub-regions in droughts and deluges. Asia in general and west-Asia in particular rank among such regions and sub-regions. Afghanistan and Iran, which constitute the twin nations of west Asia, are particularly vulnerable to climate-caused ecological depletion. Although they each contributed the least to climate change, they will suffer the most as the climate continues to deteriorate. As both nations sit side by side in Asia, they share the same alpine ecology, arid climate, and as a result similar ecological challenges. Most of Afghanistan and Iran are barren due to arid climate, which is at the heart of their looming food insecurity. Almost 90% of Afghan and Iranian landmass is non-arable, 10% of which that is arable consumes 92% of their total freshwater supplies. If the world temperature continues to rise until 2030, food and water shortages in Afghanistan and Iran are bound to worsen. This paper takes a look at the two nations’ pre-existing vulnerabilities in food and water shortages, and maps their future scarcities in the face of rising temperatures, tracing their linkages to the global political economy.

Author

• Tarique Niazi, University of Wisconsin