System Change Not Climate Change

Description

We are in the midst of the greatest environmental crisis humanity has ever seen. Yet despite politicians' rhetoric, repeated warnings from the scientific community and countless international conferences, the situation is getting worse. This book brings together articles from leading socialist and environmental activists who argue that the problem is the capitalist system. Whether it is capitalism's addiction to fossil fuels and plastic or the systematic destruction of the natural world through industrial farming, the system destroys the environment in its endless quest for profits. Mainstream environmental solutions are based on free-market solutions or place hope in business the very causes of the crisis in the first place. In contrast, these articles draw out how capitalism creates environmental destruction and why there needs to be revolutionary transformation of society. Articles include editor Martin Empson on the "future sustainable society" and "agriculture and the environment", Ian Angus on the Metabolic Rift, Sarah Ensor on "capitalism and biodiversity", Ian Rappel on the failure of Natural Capital, Suzanne Jeffery on "social movements and climate change", Amy Leather on fossils fuels and plastic and Camilla Royle on Marxism and the Anthropocene. Introduction / Martin Empson ... 6 Chapter 1 Hopelessly Devoted to Fossil Fuels / Amy Leather ... 14 Chapter 2 Marxism and the Anthropocene / Camilla Royle ... 23 Chapter 3 The Discovery and Rediscovery of Metabolic Rift / Ian Angus ... 51 Chapter 4 Karl Marx's Idea of Ecosocialism in the 21st Century / Kohei Saito ... 68 Chapter 5 Natural Capital: A Neoliberal Response to Species Extinction / Ian Rappel ... 73 Chapter 6 Food, Agriculture and Climate Change / Martin Empson ... 96 Chapter 7 Capitalism and the Biodiversity Crisis / Sarah Ensor ... 133 Chapter 8 Why Capitalism Loves Plastic / Amy Leather ... 140 Chapter 9 Canada's Tar Sands, Indigenous Sovereignty and Just Transition for Workers / Carolyn Egan and Michelle Robidoux ... 149 Chapter 10 Up Against the Clock: Climate, Social Movements and Marxism / Suzanne Jeffery ... 154 Chapter 11 Can We Build a Sustainable Society? / Martin Empson ... 174 Further Reading