I think most people on the left don’t fully realize that the phenomena of “science denialism,” “carbon permit trading,” and the nascent science of “geoengineering” are not three unrelated or rival panaceas, but together constitute the full-spectrum neoliberal response to the challenge of global warming. The reason this array qualifies as neoliberal is twofold: initially, they were all proposals originating from within the array of think tanks and academic units affiliated with the Neoliberal Thought Collective; and then, if and when they come to be deployed in tandem, the net consequence is to leave the entire problem to be solved, ultimately not by the state, but rather by the market. The promotion of denialism buys time for the other two options; the financialization of carbon credits gets all the attention in the medium term, while appeals to geoengineering incubate in the wings as a techno-utopian deus ex machina to swoop down when the other options fail. At each step along the way, the neoliberals guarantee their core tenet remains in force: the market will arbitrate any and all responses to biosphere degradation, because it knows more than any of us about nature and society.

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis …, loc. 926