Abstract
This chapters reflects on some possibilities for transforming the complex, adaptive, and destructive petrochemical industry. First, it unpacks the industry’s idea of the “essential,” particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in contrast with the idea of the “indispensable” in critical environmental justice studies. Next, it examines the multiscalar problem of petrochemical lock-in, which is one of the biggest complex systems-level obstacles to radical industrial transformation. To conclude, the chapter outlines some possible critical interventions toward an alternative planetary petrochemical politics.