I have recently read and studied Timothy Mitchell’s book, Carbon Democracy, focusing specifically on his first chapter, in which he discusses the link between the use of oil and it’s affects upon the world and its social order. Despite being a political scientist, Mitchell uses historical analysis in order to highlight the effects the development of energy sources has had on societies and their governments. Mitchell argues that our dependency as a society on fossil fuels has laid the way for living on “very high levels of energy consumption”. Not only did this reliance change the way in which the West functioned, it also, as Mitchell states, changed the way other non-Western countries conducted themselves.
Mitchell is fairly coherent in his outlining statement discussing the changes in the use of energy sources. He is able to use historical understanding to show the changes made over time that ultimately offer us a substantial account of twenty first century energy use and how it has come to change the way mass politics operate. After his introduction he highlights how time has caused for a change in energy sources. Technology began to develop and thus the supply of energy followed in pursuit. According to Mitchell, humans have always exploited coal, however only to a certain extent. Mitchell discusses in a chronological order the development of the use of coal. For a reader this is incredible helpful as it helps outline the major changes that caused this so called, carbon democracy. Mitchell goes on the highlight the changes in human relations in reaction to a coal dependent state.
Human settlement ultimately altered, according to Mitchell. Due to the development of coal, it was unnecessary for communities to live near their energy source and therefore they began to congregate together without, “immediate access to agricultural” [1]. Immediately, as the reader, we are able to see the impact coal had on society, without having extensive knowledge of the coal industry. Mitchell, with ease, allows us to understand the early stages of coal development before powering through into his overarching point, and confusing the reader.
These early stages of coal development are largely three fold, ending in a composition of both steam power and coal power. From this point, Mitchell begins to link his overall theme of the creation of democracy to these changes he has highlighted. When reading this next paragraph, Mitchell’s theory of a carbon democracy immediately began to make sense to me. The pace of energy creation and consumption altered and thus changed the way our society functioned, and in turn causing great political change. He discusses how time was to now be used differently. It was not the case now that your energy rate was determined on the speed of photosynthesis or the life span of your cattle. Fossil fuels were now “forms of energy in which great quantities of space and time… have been compressed into a concentrated form.”[2] We can now understand far more clearly the impact coal has had on societies and the changes it has forced upon them. Mitchell is yet to discuss democracy, however I felt content with his analysis so far, in order to allow the reader the opportunity to understand the background of coal development.
In order to offer a wider scope for his argument, Mitchell’s now begins discussing his theory of democracy and its link with oil to the ‘Great Divergence’. As a reader I found this useful in order to place his argument within a wider historical context. With Europe essentially winning the industrial race during the great divergence it was from here that faster energy sources really took flight. With Chinese coal reserves proving difficult for them to navigate, it was Europe who led the industrial revolution into its beginning years in the nineteenth century. This seems to set the scene for the reader, in order for them to understand the historical impact of coal and the flourishing of industry. As this blog is keen to highlight the importance of historical analysis in the climate change debate, Mitchell’s book, and this chapter in particular, is a great way to gain some historical context for climate change and in particular how the use of coal and oil has affected the way civilisation operates.
As the chapter progresses, Mitchell takes us further through the historical changes coal had upon our society. We are now becoming more and more aware of the differences that were created through the change from agricultural energy to fossil fuels. After the role of the landowner was introduced it became apparent that many were feeling like they were not included in the production of energy. This in turn led to mass political movements in pursuit of creating a new form of politics[3] and with this, new forms of political consciousness. Here, Mitchell’s argument states that due to the many strikes from coal miners a new form of democracy was created. This was due to the fact that we needed coal miners in order to gain our energy supply, so any striking on their part would be met with a instant need for them to return to their posts. From this, according to Mitchell, came a new democracy.
Mitchell is also very keen to highlight the very switch from coal based energy sources to oil. He highlights the three main elements that enabled America to convert to a largely oil based system. Like coal, oil enabled some members of society assemble themselves into new social forces. He goes on to state however, that over time, the movement of oil compared with coal had a major affect on political systems across the world. Unlike coal, oil was much easier to be transported, using underground networks that often resemble a grid format, much like to transportation of electricity. This in turn enabled energy networks to be less vulnerable to social and political claims to those whose labour kept the networks running. Due to this change in fossil fuel networks, the ability to make democratic claims was changed forever.
The first chapter of Timothy Mitchell’s book offers a brief yet detailed overview of the development of coal and oil use within societies. In a previous review, Mitchell is congratulated on his chronological layout of his entire book.[4] This is to be said also for his opening chapter. Mitchell allows for anyone, even with little background of coal, oil and the industry that surrounds it, to be able to understand his theory and the evidence he has to back it. For me, Mitchell’s work offers an extremely thought out view of the oil industry and the effect it has had. Previous to reading his work, I had little knowledge of the coal and oil industry and would never have thought to place the two industries with the creation of democracy. However, Mitchell is very persuasive in his argument, offering sound evidence of the very obvious changes that took place after agricultural energy sources were effectively exhausted.
Hattie Wheeler
[1] Timothy, Mitchell, Carbon Democracy (London, 2011) , p15.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Geoff, Eloy, Forging Democracy: The History of the Left in Europe 1850-2000, Oxford: OUP, (2002).
[4] http://sites.uci.edu/technoethno/2014/05/22/review-carbon-democracy-political-power-in-the-age-of-oil-by-timothy-mitchell-2/ [Last accessed 15th February 2015]
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