Author: Gernot Wagner File Type: pdf If you had a 10 percent chance of having a fatal car accident, youd take necessary precautions. If your finances had a 10 percent chance of suffering a severe loss, youd reevaluate your assets. So if we know the world is warming and theres a 10 percent chance this might eventually lead to a catastrophe beyond anything we could imagine, why arent we doing more about climate change right now? We insure our lives against an uncertain future--why not our planet? In Climate Shock, Gernot Wagner and Martin Weitzman explore in lively, clear terms the likely repercussions of a hotter planet, drawing on and expanding from work previously unavailable to general audiences. They show that the longer we wait to act, the more likely an extreme event will happen. A city might go underwater. A rogue nation might shoot particles into the Earths atmosphere, geoengineering cooler temperatures. Zeroing in on the unknown extreme risks that may yet dwarf all else, the authors look at how economic forces that make sensible climate policies difficult to enact, make radical would-be fixes like geoengineering all the more probable. What we know about climate change is alarming enough. What we dont know about the extreme risks could be far more dangerous. Wagner and Weitzman help readers understand that we need to think about climate change in the same way that we think about insurance--as a risk management problem, only here on a global scale. Demonstrating that climate change can and should be dealt with--and what could happen if we dont do so--Climate Shock tackles the defining environmental and public policy issue of our time. **

Author: Tony Myers File Type: pdf Slavoj Zizek is no ordinary philosopher. Approaching critical theory and psychoanalysis in a recklessly entertaining fashion, Zizeks critical eye alights upon a bewildering and exhilarating range of subjects, from the political apathy of contemporary life, to a joke about the man who thinks hes a chicken, from the ethicial heroism of Keanu Reeves in Speed, to what toilet designs reveal about the national psyche. Tony Myers provides a clear and engaging guide to Zizeks key ideas, explaining the main influences on Zizeks thought (most crucially his engagement with Lacanian psychoanalysis) using examples drawn from popular culture and everyday life. Myers outlines the key issues that Zizeks work has tackled, including * What is a Subject and why is it so important? * The Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real * What is so terrible about Postmodernity? * How can we distinguish reality from ideology? * What is the relationship between men and women? * Why is Racism always a fantasy? Slavoj Zizekis essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the thought of the critic whom Terry Eagleton has described as the most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged in Europe for some decades. Slavoj Zizek is no ordinary philosopher. Approaching critical theory and psychoanalysis in a recklessly entertaining fashion, Zizeks critical eye alights upon a bewildering and exhilarating range of subjects, from the political apathy of contemporary life, to a joke about the man who thinks hes a chicken, from the ethicial heroism of Keanu Reeves in speed, to what toilet designs reveal about the national psyche. Tony Myers provides a clear and engaging guide to Zizeks key ideas, explaining the main influences on Zizeks thought, most crucially his engagement with Lacanian psychoanalysis, using examples drawn from popular culture and everyday life. Myers outlines the key issues that Zizeks work has tackled, including* What is a Subject and why is it so important? * The Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real* What is so terrible about Postmodernity? * How can we distinguish reality from ideology?* What is the relationship between men and women? * Why is Racism always a fantasy?Slavoj Zizek is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the thought of the critic whom Terry Eagleton has described as the most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged in Europe for some decades. Slavoj Zizek is no ordinary philosopher. Approaching critical theory and psychoanalysis in a recklessly entertaining fashion, Zizeks critical eye alights upon a bewildering and exhilarating range of subjects, from the political apathy of contemporary life, to a joke about the man who thinks hes a chicken, from the ethicial heroism of Keanu Reeves in Speed, to what toilet designs reveal about the national psyche. Tony Myers provides a clear and engaging guide to Zizeks key ideas, explaining the main influences on Zizeks thought (most crucially his engagement with Lacanian psychoanalysis) using examples drawn from popular culture and everyday life. Myers outlines the key issues that Zizeks work has tackled, including What is a Subject and why is it so important? The Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real What is so terrible about Postmodernity? How can we distinguish reality from ideology? What is the relationship between men and women? Why is Racism always a fantasy?Slavoj Zizek is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the thought of the critic whom Terry Eagleton has described as the most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged in Europe for some decades.