Carbon in the atmosphere and power in America: climate change as state-corporate crime

Climate change caused by anthropogenic global warming is the most serious social problem, most important political issue, and greatest moral challenge the world community faces today. This article contends that the political failure of the US government to act to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and the socially organized denial of climate change that shapes that failure, can be conceptualized as state-corporate crimes. After a brief description of the nature and effects of climate change and a consideration of how these harms might be conceptualized as a criminological topic, a political economy theoretical analysis of the failure to reduce carbon emissions and the denial of climate change that impacts that failure is presented.