Transition Wars---Slow, coups go nuclear, and military kills.

Tyler Hansen- Economics PhD Candidate; October 2021; "Three Essays on The Political Economy of Global Inaction on Climate Change,” University of Massachusetts Amherst Economic PhD Program, Doctoral Dissertations, 2334; ; [TMS—GK]

A revolution would entail halting capital accumulation, the central process of capitalism. The wealth of the capitalist class—those who own most of society's productive resources—would be appropriated, and society's surplus would be controlled collectively by either (1) the workers who produced it, (2) the community in which it was produced, or (3) the entire society. Wealth and income caps would be required to prevent further capital accumulation of individuals and groups. Private wealth is protected by property laws and law enforcement. These laws would have to be changed, which would require control of political institutions. In a democracy like the U.S., control of these institutions can come through elections or by directly taking power, i.e., a coup d'etat—removing current elected (and unelected) officials from their positions of power. Both cases would require a mass anti-capitalist movement. Revolutionaries, including Foster and Malm, tend to frown upon the electoral approach, which is a longer-term reformist approach.22 Thus, I will assume that they are in favor of building a mass anti-capitalist movement and directly taking power. To be successful, they would have to take control of the military, which would otherwise put an end to the attempted revolution. In the event that a revolution is successful, the revolutionaries would then have to re-build the economic, political, and legal institutions that make up organized human society. There would be counter-revolution attempts by the former political and economic elites and their supporters, and likely by external forces (i.e., other countries). In the U.S., for example, they would have to deal with Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and the 74 million people who voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 election. They would also have to establish relationships with international trading partners to ensure that they can sufficiently provide for the entire population. Finally, they would have to implement policies to reduce CO2 emissions in line with the 1.5-2 °C warming target, and create enforcement mechanisms to deal with those who do not follow the policies, e.g., fossil fuel producers and counterrevolutionaries. Given the scale and timeframe for addressing climate change, the revolution approach is extremely unlikely to find success. Moreover, its short-term strategy, i.e., what to do before a revolution, is unnecessarily restrictive—it rejects all policies that do not go against the "logic of capital." Thus, like the degrowth approach, the revolution approach would make climate stabilization exceedingly difficult.