The Politics of Humanity

for the survival of the species itself, but also impact on the oceans, the

lands, the weather and indeed the very stability of the planet.^29

The crucial point here, though, is that human impact on the climate constitutes an
involuntary and uncontrolled collective human agency. It has not been able to
replace nature’s whims with humankind’s will. It has merely succeeded in raising
the stakes of the play of nature’s whims.^30 The problem of responding to the threat
of climate change brings home the absence of a meaningful, volitional collective
agency of humanity with which to respond to the problem, and forces us to place
our hopes in more diffuse and contingent possibilities of human solidarity. But, for
the eminent historian David Hollinger:

Global warming is a convenient example of a threat to everyone that is

difficult to engage from the point of view of any solidarity smaller than the

species. But any solidarity capacious enough to act effectively on problems

located in a large arena is poorly suited to satisfy the human need for

belonging. And any solidarity tight enough to serve the need for belonging

cannot be expected to respond effectively to challenges common to a larger

and more heterogeneous population. To be sure, one can have multiple

affiliations, many ‘we’s,’ some more capacious than others. That we all have

multiple identities (national, ethnoracial, religious, sexual, geographical,

ideological, professional, generational, etc.) and are capable of several

solidarities is widely understood. But the energies and resources and

affections of individuals are not infinite in supply.^31

As such the humanitarian challenge of climate change goes far deeper than
increasing the frequency of “humanitarian crises”, it reveals what Hollinger calls the
“political economy of solidarity”, and brings sharply into focus both the necessity
and the difficulty of the “politics of humanity” at stake.^32
29
Kent, "International Humanitarian Crises": 860. For the HFP’s analysis of climate change,
see HFP, Humanitarian Horizons: Climate Change and Its Humanitarian Impacts (London:
Humanitarian Futures Programme, 2009). Available at
http://www.humanitarianfutures.org/main/hfppubs/climatechange; accessed on 20 June

2010. See also HFP and FIC, Humanitarian Horizons: A Practitioners' Guide to the Future
      (Boston: Feinstein International Center, 2010). 30
      For an alarming view of nature fighting back, see James Lovelock, The Revenge of Gaia
      (London: Penguin, 2006). 31
      32 Hollinger, "From Identity to Solidarity": 27.
      Ibid.