Tropic of Chaos

Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence

By: Christian Parenti

Narrated by: Vikas Adam

From Africa to Asia and Latin America, the era of climate wars has begun. Extreme weather is breeding banditry, humanitarian crisis, and state failure. In Tropic of Chaos, investigative journalist Christian Parenti travels along the front lines of this gathering catastrophe - the belt of economically and politically battered postcolonial nations and war zones girding the planet's mid-latitudes. Here he finds failed states amid climatic disasters. But he also reveals the unsettling presence of Western military forces and explains how they see an opportunity in the crisis to prepare for open-ended global counterinsurgency.

Parenti argues that this incipient "climate fascism" - a political hardening of wealthy states - is bound to fail. The struggling states of the developing world cannot be allowed to collapse, as they will take other nations down as well. Instead, we must work to meet the challenge of climate-driven violence with a very different set of sustainable economic and development policies.

©2011 Christian Parenti (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

love it

Falls close to conspiracy theory sometimes, but overall a great audio book. Really complete picture of the relation between conflict and climate change.

A different angle on Climate Chaos

Parenti’s 2011 book examines our ongoing predicament from the perspective of its effects upon social conflicts around the world. It’s a unique perspective and provides a telling forecast into what’s likely ahead for a world that continues to largely ignore his advice for mitigation.

A very enjoyable audiobook

What did you like best about this story?

I don't agree with all the views expressed by the author, but the book is very good overall. Some parts require some patience, because the points explained at one part may not seem immediately relevant to the whole idea of climate change, but the questions brought up by the author are worth discussion.

Any additional comments?

I think there were some minor pronunciation errors by the narrator, but overall, I think the narrator did a great job of engaging the reader.

Disappointing

Clearly a psyop intended to convince the left of the futility of revolution in order to combat the climate crisis. The whole end chapter about how capitalism is part of the solution was the nail in the coffin for me. Plus the substance of the book didn’t really provide a lot of enlightening information, it’s pretty obvious that climate change will exacerbate seemingly unrelated social problems. Very meh. Waste of a credit imo.

Really important book

I thought the book was phenomenal. My only issue is with the narration. The narrator is engaging but mispronounces simple worlds like statism.

Absolute must-read topic!

If you could sum up Tropic of Chaos in three words, what would they be?

Open your eyes.

Any additional comments?

This book's topic is critical for anyone who is not deluded enough to think they and their children/grandchildren can live in a protective bubble regardless of that happens to the rest of the world.

The book exposes the convergence of climate change with previous trends of economic imperialism and Cold War arms/violence. Thus, this book primarily frames the issue of climate-induced poverty, migration, and xenophobia in the political theater.

At first glance I might prefer more analysis on the economic side, but I do appreciate the author's argument that the #1 priority is to curtail greenhouse emissions and not wait for any drastic restructuring the world's socioeconomic structure. However you frame it though, both are connected.

For more environmental details, try "Eaarth" by Bill McKibben

A great read/listen on free market/austerity consequences to public health: "The Body Economic"

For more economics:
"Capital in the Twenty-First Century" (Piketty)
"All the Presidents' Bankers" (Prins)
"The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap" (Taibbi)

Thought provoking

An insightful perspective into the future by examining some of the lessons of the past and origins of regional conflicts.

Excellent books, problematic reading

I normally don't write full reviews, but the content of this book is so good that I figured pointing out some flaws in the narration might help the narrator improve. Please, please, please be sure you are pronouncing words correctly. Desert and dessert are very different. There were a number of other places where common words and names were mispronounced to the point that I had to pause and think for a moment to figure out the meaning. EVERYTHING else about the narration was excellent. Very good cadence and tone, just those occasional brick walls of pronunciation against which comprehension smashed :-).

Excellent book but narration is rife with mispronunciations that are seriously distracting.

Christian Parenti’s book is very good, but, like others, I found the narration deeply distracting as it ridden with pronunciation errors. I gather that this narrator is primarily a voice actor. However, as an audible narrator, you pretty much “have one job.” Very frequently, in this title, nouns are pronounced as if they are verbs and vice versa. In many instances, it comes across as the voice actor has only rarely read three-syllable words aloud—and most definitely that he did not take time to block out how to pronounce words. Names, places, and proper terms are often mispronounced in ways that indicate that the voice actor, nor editors if there were any, could have been bothered to look up the words and make some effort to pronounce them correctly. As just one example: Keynesian—referring to John Maynard Keynes—(pronounced like CAINseean was always pronounced as KiNEEsian, like something maybe related to kinetics). As a professor, my first job is to get the research right but then beyond that to not embarrass myself by butchering names when delivering conference papers, lectures, or leading class discussions. To accomplish that, I do the same thing that I tell my undergrad students to do, which is to read through the material and flag any pronunciations one is unsure about, then look those up—or ask someone—to verify pronunciation. It is quite clear that the voice actor did not do this. If there is any editorial staff, it appears that they failed to devote time, attention, and expertise to getting this right. I am well-aware of distinctions between “descriptive” and “prescriptive” grammar, and I am quite flexible with the license that novelists and my students take with received grammar in ways that push the parameters of the language. However, this was not just a matter of taking creative license. It seems like a basic familiarity with diction—and the willingness to look things up—should be a fundamental dimension of narrating and editing for audible. In this instance, the narration and editing seem to be hastily executed in ways that are consequentially bad. Given that Audible is part of the vast Amazon empire, I certainly hope that resources, sufficient time, and adequate support are extended to narrators so that the audio performances do justice to —rather than distract from—books that are painstakingly researched and thoughtfully written.