Kevin A. Young Authors New Book, ‘Abolishing Fossil Fuels’

Kevin A. Young, associate professor of history, has published a new book on climate activists' quest to eliminate fossil fuels. In "Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won"(PM Press, April 2024), Young argues that climate destruction is a problem of political power and that activists should draw on the lessons of successful movements in U.S. history.<_o3a_p>

The book submits that the tide has started to turn against fossil fuels, but that it is occurring much too slowly due to the political influence of the industry. It illustrates that activists have been most successful when they've targeted the industry's enablers: banks, insurers and big investors that finance its operations, the companies and universities that purchase fossil fuels, and the regulators and judges who make life-and-death rulings about pipelines, power plants and drilling sites.<_o3a_p>

"Abolishing Fossil Fuels" also analyzes four historic movements that achieved their objectives: the abolition of slavery, battles for workers' rights in the 1930s, Black freedom struggles of the 1950s and 1960s and the fight for clean air. The book argues these movements were successful because they used boycotts, strikes and other mass disruptions to force powerful figures to move against others in the ruling class. Young finds that these victories were not typically won by electing and pressuring politicians to take action, but rather that gains in the political realm were usually the byproducts of social uprisings.<_o3a_p>

"Of the many present crises facing the future of humanity, climate change and its threat of mass extinction appears to be the most daunting. Kevin Young argues compellingly, however, that electoral strategies to fight climate change are a dead end," says Michael Goldfield, author of "The Southern Key: Class, Race, and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s." "Rather, his study of past successful movements suggests that radical upsurges, the building of disruptive mass movements, including demonstrations, civil disobedience and large strikes, are more compelling alternatives for stemming the tide, while ultimately only the end of capitalism will save us. A tour de force!"<_o3a_p>

"Abolishing Fossil Fuels" is available directly from PM Press and from booksellers everywhere.