Climate change is often described as an existential risk to the human species, but this terminology has generally been avoided in the climate-justice literature in analytic philosophy. I investigate the source of this disconnect and explore the prospects for incorporating the idea of climate change as an existential risk into debates about climate justice. The concept of existential risk does not feature prominently in these discussions, I suggest, because assumptions that structure ‘ideal’ accounts of climate justice ensure that the prospect (...) of climate change as an extinction-level threat does not arise. Given persistent noncompliance with mitigation duties, however, we have reason to revisit these assumptions. I argue that the most promising way for theories of climate justice to account for the significance of existential risk is to look to the practices of protest and resistance in which a concern about extinction or global catastrophe is frequently given expression. (shrink)

How should political leaders address the emerging climate crisis if citizens are reluctant to accept costly but necessary climate action? In this article, I address this question by harnessing insights from the realist tradition in political theory. I propose that the realist legitimacy framework provides action guidance by offering two broadly applicable heuristics for political agents: responsibility and responsiveness. These heuristics collide if citizens are unwilling to accept policies designed to secure a nation's long-term stability. Faced with this problem, some (...) authors make the supposedly realist argument that policymakers in liberal democracies should prioritise responsibility over responsiveness and embrace eco-authoritarianism to address the climate emergency. Against this line of argument, I maintain that the realist legitimacy framework entails no such commitment. Instead, realists must emphasise that responsible climate action entails a sufficient degree of responsiveness. I conclude by sketching how this insight may guide democratic leaders and climate activists in the future. (shrink)

How can political theory respond to the challenges of mass action in the Anthropocene? In this article, I review criticisms of the recent work of William Connolly and respond by way of a particular mode of theory revision that can be found in Connolly’s work of the last 15 years. I argue that Connolly’s recent work marks a strategic turn in his thought, emphasizing the relationship between revisions to theory and practical experimentation in politics. In the second section, I illustrate (...) this relationship by revising Connolly’s notion of the ‘climate general strike’ in light of failures of climate strikes in recent years. Rosa Luxemburg’s theory of mass strikes guides the revisions advanced in this section. In the third section, I move up a level of abstraction to think through how this suggested revision to climate strike strategy can feed into alterations and clarifications of key concepts in Connolly’s political theory. (shrink)