The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable

Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is the 266th and current Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Elected to the papacy on March 13, 2013, Francis is the first Pope from the Americas and the first non-European pope since the eighth century. Pope Francis’s leadership has been marked by a strong commitment to social justice, compassion for the marginalized, and environmental stewardship. Amitav Ghosh dedicates the penultimate chapter of The Great Derangement to a close reading of Pope Francis’s Laudato Si, an encyclical, or letter to the faithful, calling for a robust Christian response to the climate crisis.

Before assuming the role of Pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio served as Archbishop of Buenos Aires and as a Cardinal in Argentina. Throughout his clerical career, he demonstrated a deep concern for the poor and marginalized, often challenging prevailing social and economic inequalities in his native Argentina. As Pope, he took the name Francis in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, reflecting his dedication to simplicity and care for creation. He has been generally popular as Pope, especially among young and progressive Catholics, earning the nickname “Dope Pope.”

One of Pope Francis’s most notable contributions to contemporary discussions on environmental issues is his 2015 encyclical (or letter to the faithful) Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home. This landmark document addressed the urgent and related global challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, and social inequality. Laudato Si’ emphasizes the interconnectedness of environmental and social problems, highlighting the adverse impacts of human activity on the planet and the disproportionate burdens faced by the world’s most vulnerable populations. Pope Francis also criticizes the pursuit of unbridled economic growth and consumerist culture that characterize the modern world. He advocates for a more sustainable and equitable economic system that prioritizes the well-being of the planet. Pope Francis urges a collective response to the ecological crisis, urging people of all faiths and backgrounds to recognize the moral imperative to care for the Earth and all its inhabitants. In The Great Derangement, Ghosh uses Laudato Si’ as an example of the kind of religious activism that he believes can help provide momentum to the climate change movement. He compares the encyclical to the text of the Paris Climate Agreement, another document released in 2015 that seeks to address the climate crisis. Ghosh argues that Pope Francis’s text is more successful because it acknowledges human culpability and the limits of individual action.

Bruno Latour, born on June 22, 1947, in Beaune, France, is a prominent French philosopher, anthropologist, and sociologist. Latour’s work, which challenges traditional notions of modernism and human individualism, has had a profound impact on contemporary social and cultural theory. In The Great Derangement, Amitav Ghosh relies on Latour’s theories of modernism to argue that the challenges of the climate crisis are difficult to depict in modern art and culture because of modernity’s emphasis on the individual. He refers to Latour’s work throughout the text in reference to art, history, and politics.

One of Latour’s most significant theoretical frameworks is actor-network theory, which describes the world as a network of actors, both human and nonhuman, which all have agency and will. Actor-network theory emphasizes the agency and influence of nonhuman entities in shaping social realities. By focusing not on individual actors but on the relationships and interactions between them, Latour challenges the traditional modernist distinctions between culture and nature, human and nonhuman. These ideas are essential to Ghosh’s arguments about the influence of the nonhuman in the Anthropocene.

Latour’s critical examination of modernity finds full expression in his groundbreaking book We Have Never Been Modern (1991), which argues that the conventional divide between nature and society is an illusion, as is the possibility of objective scientific knowledge. He suggests that the modern world’s claim to progress and rationality is inherently flawed because it fails to acknowledge the interconnected nature of human and nonhuman activity on Earth. In The Great Derangement, Ghosh uses Latour’s arguments to suggest that a misbelief in the rationality of the modern world has had a direct influence on the climate crisis.