A petrostate is a polity whose economy and politics are tied to hydrocarbon rents. With Nils Gilman, I see an axis of petrostates dragging its feet on decarbonization.
How the word moved
In September 2025 I took up Gilman's axis: the US under Trump, Russia, Saudi Arabia. By October 2025 I was calling petrostates backward-looking - they defend rents and weaponize scarcity. The US is the odd one out, a computestate and a petrostate at once, and for now the two are in an uneasy equilibrium.
In my words
"The US is both a computestate and a petrostate. For now the two are in an uneasy equilibrium."
from Bhumics: The Weekly Planet #9: On Metabolic Sovereignty, 20 Oct 2025
Related
- Contradicts Electrostate - the order it's paired against.
- Related Computestate - the US is both.
- Related Metabolism Wars - one side of the ecological Cold War.