Global Surpluses of Extraction and Slow Climate Violence: A Sociological Framework

Abstract

This review article examines the concept of slow violence in relation to the current climate collapse. It outlines the extractive relationship between states in the Global North and Global South, and explores how this relationship creates and sustains disproportionate climate violence for the Global South. It critiques proposed adaptation and mitigation solutions for the Global South that emphasize market-led proposals and a return on investments that mostly benefit the Global North. It argues that these proposals fail to critically engage with the root causes of vulnerability to climate change and Greenhouse Gas emissions that cause climate change. The review uses World Systems Theory to analyze the power differentials between South and North, and concepts such as the “Color Line,” “Necropolitics,” and “Slow Violence” to underline the post-colonial character of this relationship. These provide historical context to the current hegemonic role of the Global North in carbon emission negotiations and responses. In doing so, the article highlights the need to think about climate change, and solutions to climate change, as a driver of slow violence and surplus climate violence by the Global North against the Global South.