Table Of ContentThe Unconstructable Earth
SerieS editorS
Bruce Clarke and Henry Sussman
Editorial Board
Victoria N. Alexander, Dactyl Foundation
for the Arts and Humanities
Erich Hörl, Ruhr University Bochum
John H. Johnston, Emory University
Hans- Georg Moeller, University
College Cork
John Protevi, Louisiana State University
Samuel Weber, Northwestern University
T h e U n c o n st r u cta b l e E art h
An Ecology of Separation
Frédéric Neyrat
Translated by Drew S. Burk
Fordham University Press: New York 2019
Copyright © 2019 Fordham University Press
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This work received the French Voices Award for excellence
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This book was originally published in French as Frédéric
Neyrat, La part inconstructible de la terre: Critique du géo-
constructivisme, Copyright © Éditions du Seuil, 2016.
Cet ouvrage a bénéficié du soutien des Programmes d’aide à
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Fordham University Press gratefully acknowledges finan-
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this book by the University of Wisconsin- Madison.
An advance excerpt from Chapter 13 of this book appears in
diacritics 45, no. 3 (2017).
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First edition
for my friends who continue to go on living
Contents
Introduction: Reconstructing the Earth? .......... 1
Part I. The Mirror of the Anthropocene:
Geoengineering, Terraforming,
and Earth Stewardship
The Copenhagen Chiasm ........................ 25
1. The Screen of Geoengineering ................. 27
2. The Mirror of the Anthropocene ............... 34
3. Terraforming: Reconstructing the Earth,
Recreating Life .............................. 45
4. The Logic of Geopower: Power, Management,
and Earth Stewardship ........................ 56
Part II. The Future of Eco- constructivism:
From Resilience to Accelerationism
Turbulence, Resilience, Distance ...................71
5. An Ecology of Resilience: The Political Economy
of Turbulence ................................73
6. The Extraplanetary Environment
of the Ecomodernists ......................... 83
7. The “Political Ecology” of Bruno Latour:
No Environments, No Limits, No Monsters
(Not Even Fear) .............................. 90
8. Anaturalism and Its Ghosts ....................105
9. The Technological Fervor
of Eco- constructivism ........................118
Part III. An Ecology of Separation:
Natured, Naturing, Denaturing
Object, Subject, Traject .........................133
10. Naturing Nature and Natured Nature ...........135
11. The Real Nature of an Ecology of Separation .... 146
12. Denaturing Nature ...........................155
13. The Unconstructable Earth ....................165
Conclusion: What Is to Be Unmade? .............179
Notes ..................................... 189
Index ..................................... 225
Introduction
Reconstructing the Earth?
The combined circumstances that we live on Earth and are able to see
the stars—that the conditions necessary for life do not exclude those
necessary for vision, or vice versa—is a remarkably improbable one.
—Hans Blumenberg, The Genesis of the Copernican World
You did not wish to see the face of the Unknown; you will see its mask.
—Victor Hugo, Préface de mes œuvres et post- scriptum de ma vie
A New Grand Narrative
Humanity’s conquest of outer space is over? No. We have simply discovered
a new planet: Earth. An Earth we would supposedly be able to reconstruct
and pilot thanks to the exploits of an absolute engineering process. Geo-
constructivism will be the name bestowed upon this voracious discourse that
considers the Earth as the consenting prey of an integral conquest. Aggregat-
ing a diverse number of philosophical, economic, and scientific lines of inquiry,
geo- constructivism asserts itself at the intersection of several discourses: the
discourses of engineers and architects who would like to transform the Earth
into a pilotable machine; biologists who would rather spend their time resur-
recting already extinct species rather than protecting those that are still alive;
political strategists offering solutions for global governance; the advent of new
markets by businessmen who view climate change as a new industry for eco-
nomic speculation; geographers enthralled by the power of humanity within
the age of the Anthropocene; sociologists and anthropologists proclaiming that
there is no common world and so it is up to us to build one; essayists promoting
nuclear energy for all; prophets declaring the death of nature or the birth of the
transhuman; philosophers inviting us to accelerate our technological control
