Chapter 5: Notes on Opacity

From 2019 onwards, the vast majority of Western countries shifted in rhetorical trend, declaring almost unanimously a ‘climate emergency’ that even the Oxford Dictionary (n.d) defined as ‘a situation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change and avoid potentially irreversible environmental damage resulting from it’. While this was heralded in normative¹ channels as a significant step in addressing the very real concern of climate change² and recognition of the issues of the environment, it was in large part due to the movement of Western citizens towards redress of the personal, geographic, and economic implications climate change was now enacting on Western metropoles.