Climate change as a hyperthreat

To avoid dangerous climate change, a global-scale energy transformation is required. Yet to achieve such a seismic shift, climate communication research finds that this pragmatic activity needs to be underpinned by a meaningful new philosophy. In seeking to fill this void, eco-philosopher Timothy Morton developed the idea of framing global warming as a hyperobject––something humans are unable to fully conceive, see, or manage, which nonetheless requires a new non-human-centric worldview. In this chapter, Morton’s hyperobject conception is drawn upon to develop an alternate hypothesis––the idea of conceiving climate change as a hyperthreat. This approach situates Morton’s philosophy in the arena of climate and environmental security discourse, while also drawing upon some elements of traditional war strategy, developed by Carl von Clausewitz. The chapter concludes that the hyperthreat of climate change has warlike destructive capabilities that are so diffuse that it is hard to comprehend the enormity of the destruction, nor those responsible for these hostile actions. The hyperthreat defies existing human thought and institutional constructs. It is powered and energised by three key enablers; its invisibility, its ability to evade all existing human threat response mechanisms, and by human hesitancy – the slower humans are to act, the stronger it becomes.