Ethics for endtimes MittigaRoss, <i>Climate Change as Political Catastrophe: Before Collapse</i> , Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2024; 176 pp. ISBN: 9780192868879, £80.00 (hbk)

As the planet warms and the death toll mounts, frustration with democracy's pace has mainstreamed support to reject it, with some political theorists at work to normatively undergird extremist approaches. Such arguments demand careful scrutiny, as they risk providing dangerously misleading rhetorical tools for the naïve or nefarious political entrepreneur. This article critically engages Ross Mittiga's Climate Change as Political Catastrophe: Before Collapse as an object lesson. Mittiga argues looming climate catastrophe justifies authoritarianism: i.e. preventing catastrophe through authoritarianism is necessary if we do not promptly change course. Yet once the ingredients of “necessity” are unpacked with rigor not rhetoric, Mittiga's claims fail every step of a necessity test, leaving little on which to ground his authoritarian claims. The book illustrates the dangers of apocalyptic framing in normative argument, the pitch of which can distract readers from facts, logic, and salient contexts. Such arguments easily stack the moral deck for dangerously irrational solutions