The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis by Amitav Ghosh

Book review by Dr Alan Morton

The MHSG Green Book Club is a thriving group that meets every month to discuss a book that tackles climate change and sustainability from every angle: fictional and factual. If you are interested in more information or in joining the group, please contact us at info@mhsgroup.org

Here, founder MHSG member, Dr Alan Morton, shares his thoughts on our “real and bad” world.

The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis

by Amitav Ghosh

London: Murray, 2022

I would recommend this book, especially for his discussion of colonialism which begins with a 17th century example of the Dutch and the nutmeg of his title. Rather than review it here, I want to bring up some further thoughts provoked by our discussion about how we might achieve a low-carbon world.

Why are we not decarbonising at pace? In some ways, things are getting worse.

One carbon-intensive activity that’s growing is air travel with several airports in the UK hoping to expand passenger numbers. But the airlines have an answer, they aspire to reduce emissions by switching to “SAF” (“Sustainable” Air Fuel) made from waste vegetable oil, animal fats etc. Really it should be called Not-“SAF” because it is not-sustainable. It requires huge amounts of energy for its production, energy which might otherwise go towards more socially-useful purposes. Not-“SAF” will take time and great expense to deliver at scale. The only truly low-carbon alternative to air travel is for the 50% of the UK population who do fly in any one year, to drastically reduce the number of flights they make. Take half as many flights but go for twice as long!

But air travel is not just for holidays or business. The military are big users. The US Department for Defense is a huge user of fossil fuels, with over 70% used for aircraft. And they use a lot (as do other Governments). The F35 fighter uses over 5,000 litres an hour – the US now has over 630 with 1,800 to come! A car, the Honda Jazz, by comparison, would travel over 100,000 km using the fuel the F35 burns in an hour! As Ghosh’s Nutmeg book explains, carbon emissions from the world’s military were deliberately omitted from the Kyoto Protocol. Today, as part of the Paris Agreement, nations are encouraged – but not obliged – to report them. There are big gaps in what we know.

What we do know is that wars in the Middle East, Ukraine etc show little sign of abating. So we can expect the unholy alliance of the fossil fuel companies and the military to continue. The Fossil Capital firms developing new reserves to supply what they claim is ongoing demand for fossil fuels – and the military who want aircraft that rely on fossil fuels. Today the idea is that Not-“SAF” can be used up to 50% of the fuel for an aircraft. Otherwise the seals in the engine that contain the fuel might fail. Moving to 100% Not-“SAF” might require new engines – $15m a time.

But if ongoing wars are disastrous for global emissions, what about renewables as a piece of good news?

The not so good news is that overall energy use is growing so fast that renewables cannot replace fossil fuel generation as quickly as we need. Big Tech is consuming huge and growing amounts of energy for their AI efforts. While they are investing in renewable capacity to supply that electricity, they are using the new renewables that would otherwise help decarbonise the electricity supply in many countries. (Microsoft is bidding to reopen one of the nuclear power units at Three Mile Island!)

“In 2023, China accounted for an extraordinary 63 per cent of global net additions in total renewable capacity — 298 Gigawatts of the 473GW total. Even more extraordinary was its share of year-on-year growth in global additions of net capacity, which was 96 per cent. Exclude China, 2023’s net additions of renewable capacity were a mere 7GW higher than in 2022.” (Brett Cristophers FT Jul 21 2024)

In my comments on Paul Ekins’s book, I argued that to address global economic inequality we have to address climate change effectively. We also have to seek global peace. We must end serious conflicts that have dire effects, not just on the populations involved but also on the planet’s climate. A worthwhile aim. It won’t be easy, but it is all we can do.

Alan Morton

Alan Morton, pictured above, is one of the founder members of MHSG and en10ergy limited. His interest in energy and climate issues is long-standing from his upbringing in a coal-mining area in Fife, Scotland, to being Curator of Energy and Modern Physics at the Science Museum for many years. The PV panels in the background of his picture played a part in setting up MHSG.

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