Happy Apocalypse

Why do we accept pollution in the name of progress? Why has the pursuit of modernity permitted increasing exposure to environmental catastrophe? In Happy Apocalypse, Jean-Baptiste Fressoz—co-author of the highly successful The Shock of the Anthropocene—shows how debates on risk and profit in the Industrial Revolution set the foundations of our own precarious times.

This book plunges us into the controversies and struggles around vaccines and factories, railways and urban infrastructure, steam engines and chemical industries. It presents the dangers of progress as everyday hazards to be tolerated.

For instance, the 'polluter pays principle' is often seen as a 1970s invention aimed at curbing pollution. In fact, it was established in the early 19th century under the pressure of industrial capitalists themselves and replaced a far more stringent way of regulating pollution based on police.

Furthermore, Fressoz argues that the determination of risk management has been used to suppress protests and alternative models of economic advancement.