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On October 14, 2021, journalist Kate Aronoff gave an online lecture at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation on the recent publication of her book Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet – and How We Fight Back. The presentation was followed by a discussion under Aronoff; Alyssa Battistoni, assistant professor of political science at Barnard; Kian Goh, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at UCLA; Patrick Houston, Climate and Inequality Campaigner, New York Communities for Change; and GSAPP Professor Reinhold Martin, outgoing director of the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture.
Overheated reports on the forces that have misused progress on climate change and shares a vision of what is needed politically and economically to face global warming head-on. Aronoff addresses the new denial that takes root in the halls of power, shaped by decades of neoliberal politics and centuries of anti-democratic thinking. Since the 1980s, Democrats and Republicans have each made tremendous concessions to industries focused on keeping business as normal. And policy makers have given oil and gas managers a seat at the table to draft guidelines that should put their business model to sleep.
This approach, Aronoff points out in Overheated, will continue to drive the planet into distress. She outlines an alternative vision and describes how democratic majorities can curb the power of polluters; Creation of millions of well-paid union jobs; Issue climate repairs; and make the economy more sustainable.
Upending models of how the world might change in the future
Aronoff spoke about the impetus for the book, which she initially proposed to publishers in 2018 in a different political climate. At the time, “The Green New Deal was outside of me, some friends and people on the climate links,” she said. “So writing an eco-socialist book felt like a pretty strange thing.”
Aronoff referred to an interview with Betty Sue Flowers as something of a revelation for Overheated. Flowers, professor emeritus of English at the University of Texas, Austin and former director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, was hired as a scenario planning expert for Royal Dutch Shell in the 1990s. In that role, she was tasked with changing leadership models of how the world might change over the next 10 to 30 years.
“The irony that a multinational oil company was the inspiration for a book that suggests putting her to sleep has not escaped me, but I think Flowers and her team had the right idea,” said Aronoff. “We don’t know what’s going to happen and we probably can’t, but we can be prepared with ideas, dreams, organization and the tools to make the future better.”
Overheated Challenges “Capitalist Realism,” a term coined by British writer Mark Fisher to describe the idea that there is no possible alternative to capitalism. Aronoff sees the past few years as “a pretty good reprimand from capitalism” and an opportunity to imagine how radical changes could create different kinds of futures.
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https://news.columbia.edu/news/recap-gsapp-overheated-book-by-kate-aronoff
