Capitalism and Environmental Collapse

Capitalism and Environmental Collapse PDF Author: Luiz Marques
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030475271
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 463

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Book Description
This book intends to be an alert to the fact that the curve measuring environmental costs against the economic benefits of capitalism has irreversibly entered into a negative phase. The prospect of an environmental collapse has been evidenced by the sciences and the humanities since the 1960s. Today, it imposes its urgency. This collapse differs from past civilizations in that it is neither local nor just civilizational. It is global and occurs at the broadest level of the biosphere, accelerated by the convergence of different socio-environmental crises, such as: Earth energy imbalance, climate change and global warming Sea-level rise Decrease and degradation of forests Collapse of terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity Floods, droughts, wildfires, and extreme weather events Degradation of soils and water resources Increase in pollution caused by fossil fuels and coal Increase in waste production and industrial intoxication The book is divided in two parts. In the first part it presents a comprehensive review of scientific data to show the already visible effects of each of the different environmental crises and its consequences to human life on Earth. In the second part, Luiz Marques critically discusses what he calls the three concentric illusions that prevent us from realizing the gravity of the current socio-environmental crises: the illusion of a sustainable capitalism, the illusion that economic growth is still capable of providing more well-being and the anthropocentric illusion. Finally, Marques argues that "fitting" back into the biosphere will only be possible if we dismantle the expansive socioeconomic gear that has shaped our societies since the 16th century by moving from a Social Contract to a Natural Contract, which takes into account the whole biosphere. According to him, the future society will be post-capitalist or it will not be a complex society, and even perhaps, we must fear, no society at all. “This book is backed up with the latest and best science and has made the complexities understandable for the average reader, all in a context of hope for the future.” - William J. Ripple, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Ecology, Director of the Alliance of World Scientists, Oregon State University

Capitalism and Environmental Collapse

Capitalism and Environmental Collapse PDF Author: Luiz Marques
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030475271
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 463

Get Book

Book Description
This book intends to be an alert to the fact that the curve measuring environmental costs against the economic benefits of capitalism has irreversibly entered into a negative phase. The prospect of an environmental collapse has been evidenced by the sciences and the humanities since the 1960s. Today, it imposes its urgency. This collapse differs from past civilizations in that it is neither local nor just civilizational. It is global and occurs at the broadest level of the biosphere, accelerated by the convergence of different socio-environmental crises, such as: Earth energy imbalance, climate change and global warming Sea-level rise Decrease and degradation of forests Collapse of terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity Floods, droughts, wildfires, and extreme weather events Degradation of soils and water resources Increase in pollution caused by fossil fuels and coal Increase in waste production and industrial intoxication The book is divided in two parts. In the first part it presents a comprehensive review of scientific data to show the already visible effects of each of the different environmental crises and its consequences to human life on Earth. In the second part, Luiz Marques critically discusses what he calls the three concentric illusions that prevent us from realizing the gravity of the current socio-environmental crises: the illusion of a sustainable capitalism, the illusion that economic growth is still capable of providing more well-being and the anthropocentric illusion. Finally, Marques argues that "fitting" back into the biosphere will only be possible if we dismantle the expansive socioeconomic gear that has shaped our societies since the 16th century by moving from a Social Contract to a Natural Contract, which takes into account the whole biosphere. According to him, the future society will be post-capitalist or it will not be a complex society, and even perhaps, we must fear, no society at all. “This book is backed up with the latest and best science and has made the complexities understandable for the average reader, all in a context of hope for the future.” - William J. Ripple, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Ecology, Director of the Alliance of World Scientists, Oregon State University

What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism

What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism PDF Author: Fred Magdoff
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1583672729
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Praise for Foster and Magdoff's The Great Financial Crisis In this timely and thorough analysis of the current financial crisis, Foster and Magdoff explore its roots and the radical changes that might be undertaken in response. . . . This book makes a valuable contribution to the ongoing examination of our current debt crisis, one that deserves our full attention.--Publishers Weekly There is a growing consensus that the planet is heading toward environmental catastrophe: climate change, ocean acidification, ozone depletion, global freshwater use, loss of biodiversity, and chemical pollution all threaten our future unless we act. What is less clear is how humanity should respond. The contemporary environmental movement is the site of many competing plans and prescriptions, and composed of a diverse set of actors, from militant activists to corporate chief executives. This short, readable book is a sharply argued manifesto for those environmentalists who reject schemes of "green capitalism" or piecemeal reform. Environmental and economic scholars Magdoff and Foster contend that the struggle to reverse ecological degradation requires a firm grasp of economic reality. Going further, they argue that efforts to reform capitalism along environmental lines or rely solely on new technology to avert catastrophe misses the point. The main cause of the looming environmental disaster is the driving logic of the system itself, and those in power--no matter how "green"--are incapable of making the changes that are necessary. What Every Environmentalist Needs To Know about Capitalism tackles the two largest issues of our time, the ecological crisis and the faltering capitalist economy, in a way that is thorough, accessible, and sure to provoke debate in the environmental movement.

The Bridge at the Edge of the World

The Bridge at the Edge of the World PDF Author: James Gustave Speth
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300151152
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Presents an analysis of modern capitalism and its impact on the global environmental crises, and discusses how the transformation of current economic and political systems can lead to environmental sustainability.

Climate Change and the Crisis of Capitalism

Climate Change and the Crisis of Capitalism PDF Author: Mark Pelling
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415676940
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
Are established economic, social and political practices capable of dealing with the combined contemporary crisis of climate change and economic disruption? Will falling back on those wisdoms that have prefigured crises help identify ways forward or simply reconfigure risk so that it might reappear in another guise in the future? This volume argues that the combination of global environmental change and global economic restructuring require a re-thinking of the priorities, processes and underlying values that shape contemporary development aspirations and policy. "If you're interested in getting to the bottom of why we are killing this beautiful planet of ours and finding out the ways in which we can fight this unfortunate tendency of our species, then, please, have a go, you might like it." - Manchester Climate Monthly

This Changes Everything

This Changes Everything PDF Author: Naomi Klein
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451697384
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
Explains why the environmental crisis should lead to an abandonment of "free market" ideologies and current political systems, arguing that a massive reduction of greenhouse emissions may offer a best chance for correcting problems.

Ecology and Socialism

Ecology and Socialism PDF Author: Chris Williams
Publisher: Haymarket Books
ISBN: 1608460924
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Around the world, consciousness of the threat to our environment is growing. The majority of solutions on offer, from using efficient light bulbs to biking to work, focus on individual lifestyle changes, yet the scale of the crisis requires far deeper adjustments. Ecology and Socialism argues that time still remains to save humanity and the planet, but only by building social movements for environmental justice that can demand qualitative changes in our economy, workplaces, and infrastructure. Chris Williams is a longtime environmental activist, professor of physics and chemistry at Pace University, and chair of the science department at Packer Collegiate Institute. He lives in New York City.

The Ecological Rift

The Ecological Rift PDF Author: John Bellamy Foster
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1583672192
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
Humanity in the twenty-first century is facing what might be described as its ultimate environmental catastrophe: the destruction of the climate that has nurtured human civilization and with it the basis of life on earth as we know it. All ecosystems on the planet are now in decline. Enormous rifts have been driven through the delicate fabric of the biosphere. The economy and the earth are headed for a fateful collision—if we don't alter course. In The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth environmental sociologists John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark, and Richard York offer a radical assessment of both the problem and the solution. They argue that the source of our ecological crisis lies in the paradox of wealth in capitalist society, which expands individual riches at the expense of public wealth, including the wealth of nature. In the process, a huge ecological rift is driven between human beings and nature, undermining the conditions of sustainable existence: a rift in the metabolic relation between humanity and nature that is irreparable within capitalist society, since integral to its very laws of motion. Critically examining the sanguine arguments of mainstream economists and technologists, Foster, Clark, and York insist instead that fundamental changes in social relations must occur if the ecological (and social) problems presently facing us are to be transcended. Their analysis relies on the development of a deep dialectical naturalism concerned with issues of ecology and evolution and their interaction with the economy. Importantly, they offer reasons for revolutionary hope in moving beyond the regime of capital and toward a society of sustainable human development.

Environment, Capitalism & Socialism

Environment, Capitalism & Socialism PDF Author:
Publisher: Resistance Books
ISBN: 9780909196998
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
"Our planet is gripped by twin crises of the most fundamental nature--social (mass poverty, austerity, militarism, etc) and environmental. In this document, the Democratic Socialist Party argues that they spring from the same cause--the capitalist system which places the ruthless pursuit of profit by the few before the needs of the vast majority of humanity. Environment, Capitalism and Socialism provides a comprehensive overview of the environmental crisis, the various explanations advanced for it and the responses to it. The document argues strongly for the need to build a mass popular movement to fight corporate planet wreckers and create a socialist order in which human beings will be in harmony with their environment. Included here as an appendix is editor Dick Nichols' thorough critique of so-called green taxation, often put forward as the answer to the crisis." -- Provided by publisher

Climate Capitalism and Communities

Climate Capitalism and Communities PDF Author: Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780745339504
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


Climate Chaos and its Origins in Slavery and Capitalism

Climate Chaos and its Origins in Slavery and Capitalism PDF Author: Reva Blau
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1785275283
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description
Climate Chaos provides readers the latest consensus among international scientists on the cascading impacts of climate change and the tipping points that today threaten to irreversibly destroy the delicate balance of the Earth’s ecosystems. The book argues that deregulation and an expansion of fossil fuel extraction have already tipped the planet towards a climate that is out of control. This crisis will cause massive human suffering when extreme weather, pollution and disease lead to displacement, food and water shortages, war, and possibly species extinction. The repression of science creates an existential crisis for humanity that has reached crisis proportions in the twentieth-first century. The scale of the crisis has prompted a call for geoengineering, large interventions into the climate by technological innovation. However, the history of colonialism and slavery make the technological and monetary elites untrustworthy to solve this humanitarian and planetary crisis. While the elites have always cast certain groups of humanity as expendable, the climate crisis makes a true humanist and egalitarian movement based in human rights and dignity not only aspirational but also existentially mandatory. The crisis demands that we remake the world into a more just and safe place for all the world’s people.