Cara Dagget wrote in her article “Petro-masculinity” about fossil fuel. One of her many claims is “Fossil fuels built the modern world. There remains an appreciation for fossil fuels – or, at least, for the high energy consumption they provided – as a catalyst of mass liberal democracy” (29-30). This shows us how she believes that the use of fossil fuels are taking us towards a positive direction. We know this is her claim because she does not use examples or supporting evidence, rather it’s an introductory statement. She supports this claim when she says, “After all, while industrialization wreaks planetary destruction, its spread was coterminous with humanist victories like the abolition of slavery, increased literacy rates, gender equality and poverty reduction” (30). She provides examples of how fossil fuel usage sparked positive changes. This is an example of supporting evidence. Dagget however contradicts herself when she says, “However, in addition to the ecological harms caused by oil and coal, fossil fuels have also done serious political harm” (30). This claims shows a negative effect of fossil fuel usage and it harms the support for her initial claim. 

Daggets Claim

“ In turn, any threat to energy sup- ply appears simultaneously as a threat to the American dream and, in turn, the dominant position of the US in the world.

In passage 32 Dagget brings us (the reader) back in time to the post Great Depression era . “The states” or United States government feared Communism and fascism would effect the American Public. So the state came up with a plan, by capitalizing  on the 1970 oil crisis the state helped to secure an artificial oil scarcity that ensured profits for oil companies. On the demand side, the state helped to cultivate oil desires, making the American public as crack is to a crackhead, “Oil craving Addicts”. Which living a life without, doesn’t  support the popular ideal for living the “American Dream”. Any threat to the energy supply is a threat to this “American dream” because without one, the idea by which equality of opportunity is available to any American, would cease to exist. An American Motto, which morale into the hearts of millions of immigrants to come seek and improve living standards.

Cara Daggett claims that fossil fuels are harming democracy, “However, in addition to the ecological harms caused by oil and coal, fossil fuels have also done serious political harm” (30). Daggett supports her claim by discussing the violent and anti-democratic methods western states have employed to secure oil in the middle east. While Daggett is correct in stating that western states have gone too far in securing oil, securing oil was not the sole reason western states have gone into middle east, which Daggett also discusses, “Likewise, fossil fuel and mineral extraction were secured, both within the US and abroad, by racist regimes of differential pay and access to benefits that were aggressively anti-democratic on the part of corporations and the states that supported them” (30). Daggett fails to mention the fact that some countries have committed acts of war against the United States, which forced the United States into taking action. After all war is not very democratic.

The Uninhabitable Earth by Wallace Wells is a very ominous piece of writing.  Throughout the entire text, there has been constant examples of things that have gone wrong in the world due to climate change and how mankind has brought about this destruction. So it is suprising to see Wallace say, “But those horrors are not yet scripted (31).”  He talks about the struggles that future earthwill face and yet talks about having a child that will experience this future. It made me realize that his previous comment, “The thing is, I am optimistic (31),” really defines the direction that he takes with the rest of his writing.  He is confident that these issues engineered by humans can be controlled by new innovative solutions that could be discovered. I found this approach counter productive because his optimism feels lackluster. He gave over 15 pages of reasons the world is doomed. Comparing the doom to events in history such as the holocaust “150 million is the equivalent of twenty-five Holocausts (28).”  He states things like, “By the end of the Cold War, the prospect of nuclear winter had clouded every corner of our pop culture and psychology (29).” He is very convincing with the world’s demise that it is hard to follow his optmistic logic.

In The Uninhabitable Earth, David Wallace-Wells’ writing is the embodiment of the reckless not-my-responsibility he accuses modern-western-humanity of. 

The planet survived many millennia without anything approaching a world government, in fact endured nearly the entire span of human civilization that way, organized into competitive tribes and fiefdoms and kingdoms and nation-states, and only began to build something resembling a cooperative blueprint, very piecemeal, after brutal world wars-in the form of the League of Nations and United Nations and European Union and even the market fabric of globalization, whatever its flaws still a vision of cross-national participation, imbued with the neoliberal ethos that life on Earth was a positive-sum game. (Wallace-Wells 25)

Sorry for the blockquote, but where is the period? As you can see, Wallace-Wells (WW) has a wonderfully descriptive and illuminating style, but if we examine his work, we find something unsettling. WW writes like an ivy league educated tech-bro that aims to ‘disrupt the mainstream,’ he throws convention aside– and makes the reader do the work to find the thesis, beginning, and ending of his argument. WW goes on to write that a global crisis like climate change should be the catalyst that brings the world together when we are doing the complete opposite. On page 25, Wallace-Wells writes that the western world is “recoiling into nationalistic corners and retreating from collective responsibility and from each other.” Well said WW, now please use your privilege for the common good and sprinkle a few more periods down from that golden perch of yours.  

Golden perch, ivory tower, whatever, I feel like I need to make a concession. WW does not need to write to the common man, and I do not believe this book is targeted to the common man. With this in mind, I think WW is doing the most good he can do with his laptop keyboard. Let me explain myself a little more. I have a very progressive friend that does not recycle; she says it is because the global environmental crisis we are facing has little to do with individual responsibility. She finds that most of the fault lies at the feet of a massive industry and leviathan corporations. Who better to write to the modern-day robber baron than an ivy league educated son-of-New York, part-time writer, part-time podcaster, with coiffed hair and a sculpted jawline (Wikipedia). Did I mention he is married to an art dealer (thecut.com)?

Works Cited

((((I DONT KNOW HOW TO MAKE THIS WORK ON HERE, BUT ON MY WORD DOC THE FORMATTING WAS CORRECT!))))

“David Wallace-Wells.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Feb. 2020, 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Wallace-Wells.

The Cut. “New York Magazine’s Sex Lives Podcast: The Couple That Shares a Toothbrush.”

 The Cut, The Cut, 19 Aug. 2016, www.thecut.com/2016/08/couple-that-shares-a-toothbrush.html.

WALLACE-WELLS, DAVID. UNINHABITABLE EARTH: Life after Warming. 

TIM DUGGAN  BOOKS, 2020.