Climate Science, the Military-Industrial Complex, and the Political Economy of Knowledge-Making: Beyond the Capitalist Ontology of Nature?

Authors

Daniel Cunha, Center for Humanities and Information, The Pennsylvania State UniversityFollow

ORCID

0000-0001-5586-6184

Keywords

Climate science, knowledge-making, war, military-industrial complex, Vietnam war, climate change

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Research Article

Abstract

Climate science is one of the main political drivers of today’s world, informing critical scholars and social movements alike. Yet, many scholars associate it with projects of domination (the Cold War, capitalism, imperialism) while relying on it to elaborate a critique of capital. This article proposes a new historical account of climate science. Drawing from archival findings, interpreted with historical sociology combined with the critique of political economy, the article shows that a conflict developed at the National Academy of Sciences during the Vietnam War, between scientists who wanted atmospheric research to be under the auspices of NATO, as proposed by the “father of the H-bomb” Edward Teller, and others who favored global cooperation, led by meteorologist Jule Charney. The resolution of this conflict had consequences for both the institutional framework and the content of what is today understood as climate science. It is argued that this conflict was part of the social movements of the time, and had momentous consequences for knowledge-making by rejecting the association of atmospheric science with the military-industrial complex, an essential component of capitalist accumulation. Most notably, it resulted in the conceptualization of the atmosphere as a commons, which undermines its treatment as a sink, private property, or commodity, and qualifies it as a potential informer of the allocation of resources in an emancipated society. Therefore, the article sheds light on the resonance between climate science and current social movements and critical scholars: the constitution of climate science was in mediation with a worldview that was critical of aspects of the capitalist political economy and its ontology of nature.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Cunha, Daniel (2024) "Climate Science, the Military-Industrial Complex, and the Political Economy of Knowledge-Making: Beyond the Capitalist Ontology of Nature?," Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis: Vol. 3: Iss. 2, Article 7.
Available at: https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/emancipations/vol3/iss2/7