The Human Crisis Revisited: Albert Camus and Climate Rebellion

ABSTRACT

Faced with the absurdity of continued climate inaction, more people are becoming morally outraged about the projections of human suffering and loss due to global warming impacts. This article draws from the work of Albert Camus to examine human responses to absurdity through rebellion and how this can be applied to understand the notion of climate rebellion. Focusing on Camus’ works The Rebel and The Plague, as well as his speech “The Human Crisis”, I examine the conditions of climate injustice that present the grounds for climate rebellion, what becoming a climate rebel might mean, the importance of solidarity in climate rebellion, and lastly how Camus’ value of limitation might inform ethical responses to minimize climate-related harm.

KEYWORDS:

• Camus
• climate
• rebellion
• solidarity
• justice
• rebel

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Camus, “The Human Crisis.”

2 Zerofsky, “Camus Again,” Paragraph 8.

3 Sharpe, “On a Neglected Argument,” 17.

4 Meagher, Albert Camus and the Human Crisis.

5 Camus, The Rebel.

6 Meagher, Albert Camus and the Human Crisis.

7 Lane, “Le Chambon.”

8 Wilsher, “Albert Camus Novel The Plague.”

9 Sharpe, “Camus and Forgiveness,” 152.

10 Camus, The Rebel, 10.

11 Hayden, “Farewell to Teleology,” 3.

12 Camus, The Rebel, 21.

13 Gayle, “Fire and Concrete.”

14 Meagher, Albert Camus and the Human Crisis.

15 Camus, The Rebel, 10.

16 Robinson, “Theorizing Politics After Camus,” 2.

17 Dupuy, How to Think About Catastrophe.

18 World Health Organization, “Climate Change and Health.”

19 Zhao et al., “Global, Regional, and National Burden.”

20 Bressler, “The Mortality Cost of Carbon.”

21 United Nations, “Climate Change Key Findings.”

22 Ibid.

23 Burke, Shahiduzzaman, and Stern, “Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the Short Run.”

24 Steffen et al., “Trajectories of the Earth System”; Ripple et al., “World Scientists' Warning”; Chen et al., “Does Energy Consumption.”

25 Ripple et al., “World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency.”

26 Parrique et al., “Decoupling Debunked”; Haberl et al., “A Systematic Review of the Evidence”; Hubacek et al., “Evidence of Decoupling.”

27 Keyßer and Lenzen, “1.5°C Degrowth Scenarios.”

28 Hickel, Less Is More; Kallis, Degrowth.

29 Oxfam, “Richest 1% Bag Nearly Twice as Much Wealth.”

30 Kartha et al., “An Assessment of the Global Distribution.”

31 Jorgenson et al., “Social Science Perspectives on Drivers.”

32 Bousso, “Big Oil Doubles Profits.”

33 United Nations, “Climate Change Key Findings.”

34 Dupuy, How to Think About Catastrophe, 15.

35 Ibid., 24.

36 Camus, The Rebel, 13.

37 Meagher, Albert Camus and the Human Crisis.

38 Sharpe, “On a Neglected Argument,” 21.

39 Brulle, “Institutionalizing Delay”; Brulle et al., “Obstructing Action.”

40 Caraway, “Albert Camus and the Ethics of Rebellion,” 130.

41 Arkush and Braman, “Climate Homicide,” 37.

42 Ibid., 43.

43 Bressler, “The Mortality Cost of Carbon.”

44 Dupuy, How to Think About Catastrophe.

45 Camus, The Plague, 73.

46 Camus, Camus at Combat.

47 Camus, The Rebel.

48 Ibid., 285.

49 Camus, “The Human Crisis.”

50 Camus, The Rebel.

51 Camus, The Plague, 106.

52 Ibid., 111.

53 Camus, The Rebel, 303.

54 Srivtav and Rafaty, Five Worlds of Political Strategy.

55 Camus, The Rebel, 10.

56 Ibid., 22.

57 Ibid., 22.

58 Caraway, “Albert Camus and the Ethics of Rebellion,” 131.

59 Pausch, “Democracy Needs Rebellion.”

60 Camus, The Rebel, 17.

61 Camus, The Plague, 170.

62 Meagher, Albert Camus and the Human Crisis, 117, 116.

63 Camus, The Rebel, 22.

64 Ibid., 56.

65 Han and Barnnet-Loro, “To Support a Stronger Climate Movement,” 2.

66 Piven, Challenging Authority, 24.

67 Ibid., 23.

68 Chenoweth and Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works.

69 Fisher, “AnthroShift in a Warming World.”

70 Wright, Envisioning Real Utopias, 119, 121.

71 Camus, The Plague, 34.

72 Ibid., 34.

73 Camus, The Rebel, 304.

74 Pausch, “Democracy Needs Rebellion,” 98.

75 Camus, The Rebel, 295.

76 Foster, “Against Doomsday Scenarios”; Foster, Capitalism in the Anthropocene; Gayle, “Fire and Concrete.”

77 Robinson, “Theorizing Politics After Camus,” 18.

78 Meagher, Albert Camus and the Human Crisis; Sharpe, “On a Neglected Argument.”

79 Camus, The Rebel, 27.

80 Ibid., 27.

81 Ibid., 299.

82 For Example: Kallis, Degrowth; Hickel, Less is More; Schmeltzer et al., The Future is Degrowth.

83 Camus, The Rebel, 265.