What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism

by Fred Magdoff, John Bellamy Foster

Praise for Foster and Magdoff’s The Great Financial 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 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.

Genres: Environment, Nonfiction, Politics, Ecology, Economics, Science, Sustainability

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2011

About the author

Fred Magdoff is Emeritus Professor of Soils in the Department of Plant and Soil Science at the University of Vermont. He received his degrees from Oberlin College (BA) and from Cornell University (MS and PhD). Magdoff was Plant and Soil Science Department Chair for 8 years (1985-1993), a member of the National Small Farm Commission (1997-1999, USDA), and is the Coordinator in the 12-state Northeast Region for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy.

Magdoff's area of specialty is soil fertility and management. He has worked on problems of sodic and saline soils, acid soils, use of manures and sewage sludges, phosphorus soil tests, nutrient cycling, and he developed the first reliable soil test for nitrogen availability to corn for the humid regions of the U.S. This test, called the Pre-Sidedress Nitrate Test (PSNT) and the Spring or Late Spring Nitrate Test, is now used throughout much of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwestern states as well as in eastern Canada. It has also been adopted for use with a number of vegetable crops.

Magdoff has oriented his outreach activities to explaining how to apply ecological principles to agricultural production. His book, Building Soils for Better Crops (2000, Harold van Es, co-author), is an ecologically-based approach that explains how to work with and enhance the inherent built-in strengths of plant/soil systems. Magdoff is also interested in political and economic issues surrounding agriculture and was senior editor of Hungry for Profit: The Agribusiness Threat to Farmers, Food, and the Environment (2000, Monthly Review Press, NY).

Reviews

[Dan Sharber · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was fantastic! as someone who has read a ton on the environment - a bunch of which is from a marxist standpoint - i did not expect to get too much from this book. and informationaly there was not a lot of new material - shit's fucked up in all kinds of ways. this, i already knew. what i did like and what i feel has been lacking in some marxist circles is real, tangible medium term goals or issues to get behind. this book provides a veritable laundry list of things to get involved in and, in my mind, could be used as an organizing tool to launch a specifically anti-capitalist environmental activism group that worked with other groups around specific local and national issues with an eye always on fighting against and ultimately replacing the capitalist system which, as clearly argued in the book, is the root cause of the ecological crisis we now find ourselves in. another positive with this book is that it debunks 'utopian reformist' solutions (like technocratic solutions or personal choices) without insulting the generally well meaning people to believe those are the solution. i value that as i think it is important not to alienate but unnecessarily antagonizing those we can struggle with now and win to an anti-capitalist view later. this is a book i would buy (and have bought) for friends who care about the environment but don't know really what to do or where to look for the root problem. powerful little book on the scene at the perfect time.

and here is my short review of from the international socialist review: http://www.isreview.org/issues/82/rev...

[Carlos Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice, short book that does what it says on the tin, providing an explanation of the capitalist mode of production and how it drives environmental destruction. Personally I didn't need a beginner's guide to Marxist economics (although a top-up is always helpful, I guess), but this analysis deserves to be widely known in the environmentalist movement.

Much of the book comes across as a bit 'one solution, revolution'. The thing about revolution is that it solves everything and nothing: everything because it's a complete transformation of society; nothing because, well, it's not on the agenda for the moment. Therefore a revolutionary perspective is important, but it doesn't substitute for far-reaching reforms and measures to save the planet here and now. Yes, these measures run against the will of capitalism, but so did (for example) the ban on child labour in Britain's factories in the 19th century. Vast numbers of people can organise and have their demands met. This is precisely what's needed right now: vast numbers of people organising to demand carbon taxes, investment in renewables, technology transfer to developing countries, wide-ranging decarbonisation, reforestation, luxury taxes, reduced air travel, development of non-emitting combustible fuels, mass production of electric vehicles, rollout of electric buses and high-speed trains, redesign of urban environments, efficient heating/cooling, and so on. With these measures, we can actually prevent catastrophic climate change; therefore we should unite the broadest possible range of forces in order to achieve them.

[Hákon Gunnarsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In many ways this is an interesting book. The authors talk about the climate crisis in relation to the way capitalism works. Now it’s pretty clear that they are looking at this from a socialist point of view, and their analysis is based on that. So this book is going be triggering to a certain part of the population just because of that. To me, the authors show that they have some blind spots when it comes to capitalism, but on the whole I think it is actually an interesting book, even though I don’t agree with everything they say.

Still, we can’t get around the fact that capitalism and the climate crisis are linked. Oil and coal have made some people very rich, so for those people it is very difficult, probably close to impossible, to face the fact that we need to stop using those kinds of energy sources. To some it is better to continue the party until the last possible moment with complete disregard for anyone else, and you don’t have to be a socialist to see that.

Of course it’s not the latest book on the subject. It was first published in 2011. There have been some development in this field since then. Some for the better, others for the worse. But it’s short, and does show one way to deal with the climate crisis.

[Michael Clevenger · Rating 5 out of 5]

READ THIS BOOK.
As a student of regenerative agriculture who engages in organizing around climate justice, it was refreshing to hear the wholistic structural critiques of the root of anthropomorphic climate change from soil scientists like Fred Magdoff and Wes Jackson. I have pages and pages on notes, but here are a few quick ones from each chapter. Again, read this book.

Ch. 1. The Planetary Ecological Crisis:
“it is beyond debate that the ecology of Earth—including the life support systems on which humans and all other species depend—is under sustained and severe attack by human activities. It is also clear that if we don’t radically change our ways, the results will be devastating. The multifaceted, complex, and rapidly accelerating character of the planetary environmental crisis is traceable to a single systemic cause: the economic and social order in which we live. The principal cause of ecological degradation, insisted Rachel Carson, author of the classic work Silent Spring, which sparked the modern environmental movement, is a society that worships “the gods of speed and quantity, and of the quick and easy profit, and out of this idolatry monstrous evils have arisen.” -p. 25

Ch. 2. Business as Usual: The Road to Planetary Destruction

“There is a fundamental question that environmentalists are not very good at asking, let alone answer: “Why is this, the destruction of the natural world, happening?” It is impossible to find real and lasting solutions until we are able satisfactorily to answer this question. It is our contention that most of the critical environmental problems we have are either caused or made much worse by the workings of our economic system." -p. 30

Ch. 3. The Growth Imperative of Capitalism

"We are told all the time that only economic growth can make life better. But as Gus Speth tells us in the environmental journal Solutions:

“Economic growth may be the world’s secular religion, but for much of the world it is a god that is failing—underperforming for most of the world’s people and, for those in affluent societies, now creating more problems than it is solving. The never-ending drive to grow the overall U.S. economy undermines communities and the environment. It fuels a ruthless international search for energy and other resources; it fails at generating the needed jobs; and it rests on a manufactured consumerism that is not meeting the deepest human needs. Americans are substituting growth and consumption for dealing with the real issues—for doing things that would truly make the country better off. Psychologists have pointed out for example, that while economic output per person in the United States has risen sharply ins event decades, there has been no increase in life satisfaction, and levels of distrust and depression has increased substantially.”

The failing god of growth that Speth describes for the United States is nothing more than the way capitalism operates at its most basic levels. No-growth capitalism is an oxymoron: when accumulation ceases, the system is in a state of crisis, with considerable suffering of the working class. Capitalism’s motive force is the competitive amassing of profits and accumulation, ad infinitum." -p. 42

Ch. 4. The Environment and Capitalism.

Duke University ecologist John Terborgh described a trip he took to a small African nation where foreign economic exploitation is combined with a ruthless depletion of resources:

“Everywhere I went, foreign commercial interests were exploiting resources after signing contracts with the autocratic government. Prodigious logs, four and five feet in diamter, were coming out of the virgin forest, oil and natural gas were being exported from the coastal region, offshore fishing rights had been sold to foreign interests, and exploration for oil and minerals was under way in the interior. The exploitation of resources in North America during the five-hundred-year-post-discovery era followed a typical sequence—fish, furs, game, timber, farming virgin soils—but because of the hugely expanded scale of today’s economy and the availability of myriad sophisticated technologies, exploitation of all the resources in poor developing countries now goes on at the same time. In a few years, the resources of this African country and others like it will be sucked dry. And what then? The people there are currently enjoying an illusion of prosperity, but it is only an illusion, for they are not preparing themselves for anything else. And neither are we. -p. 71


“How is it possible for anyone with any reasonable awareness of the nonstop carnage that has accompanied the entire history of giant corporations to believe that the oil companies, which are among the most rapacious players on the planet, somehow “had their act together” with regard to worst-case scenarios?

These are not Little Lord Fauntleroys who can be trusted to abide by some fanciful honor system. These are greedy merchant armies drilling blindly at depths a mile and more beneath the seas while at the same time doing all they can to stifle the government oversight that is necessary to protect human lives and preserve the integrity of the environment.
President Obama knows that. He knows—or should know—that the biggest, most powerful companies do not have the best interests of the American people in mind when they are closing in on the kinds of profits that ancient kingdoms could only envy. BP’s profits are counted in the billions annually. They are like stacks and stacks of gold glittering beneath a brilliant sun. You don’t want to know what people will do for that kind of money." -p. 75

Ch. 5. Can Capitalism Go Green?

“Today, rather than a true democracy, we have a plutocracy (rule by moneyed interests) in which some of the former elements of democracy nonetheless remain. Needless to say a real democracy, as this was classically understood in egalitarian terms, is impossible where income, wealth, and power are concentrated and where inequality is growing, that is, in the normal way of things under capitalism.” -p. -100

Ch. 6. An Ecological Revolution is Not Just Possible--It's Essential.

“All over the world radical struggles and experiments are occurring in the interstices of capitalistic society aimed at creating a more just and sustainable society. If history tells us anything, it is that progressive change occurs in response to people organizing and fighting for it. So something that can be done now is to join organizations committed to the creation of a new society—ones that are willing to work in coalitions with other groups and understand that the broad struggle for a better world has goals of social and economic justice as well as a healthy environment.” -p. 131

“If capitalism is an ecological and social dead end, what are the basic characteristics of a sustainable society and how can they be achieved? Considering a whole new type of economy and society is not as utopian as one might think. As we discuss a different economic system, consider whether it is any more utopian or unlikely than what has been proposed by others to deal with the problems of actually existing capitalism. Creating an entirely different system, no matter how difficult and visionary it may seem, is a more realistic alternative than a head-in-the-sand view that refuses to recognize the incompatibility between unlimited capital accumulation and limited resources, or that denies capitalism’s connection to social and ecological exploitation. Wresting powerful economic and political forces and then attempting to institute strict controls without otherwise altering the system may help somewhat but still leaves economic decisions in private hands with profit making still the overarching goal—and represents at best a slower path to destruction. A utopian reformism, which says you can fundamentally change the system without touching its power relations, is the greatest illusion of all.

“Agriculture must be based on ecological principles and carried out by family farmers, working on their own, or by people collectively organized in larger cooperatives. One of the key elements of such a system would be to raise animals on the same farms that grow their feed. Producing food using ecologically sound practices has been demonstrated to be as productive or more so than large-scale industrial production, uses less energy, and has less negative impact on local ecologies. In fact, the mosaic created by small farms interspersed with native vegetation is needed to preserve endangered species and provide habitats for beneficial insects.
A better existence for slum dwellers, approximately one-sixth of humanity, must be found. A system that requires a “planet of slums,” as Mike Davis has put it, has to be replaced by a system that has room for food, water, homes, and employment for all. For many, this may mean returning to farming, with adequate land and housing and other support provided.
Eva Morales, president of Bolivia, captured the essence of the station in his comments about changing from capitalism to a system that promotes “living well” instead of “living better.” As he said at the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December 2009:

Living better is to exploit human beings. It’s plundering natural resources. It’s egoism and individualism. Therefore, in those promises of capitalism, there is no solidarity or complementarity. There’s no reciprocity. So that’s why we’re trying to think about other ways of living lives and living well, not living better. Living better is always at someone else’s expense. Living better is at the expense of destroying the environment.” -p. 141-142

“Everywhere we must strive to create a viable “movement toward socialism”—one aimed at the creation of a democratically planned society in which bureaucracy is kept in check, and in which power over production and politics truly resides with the people and their communities.” -p. 143

Appendix: Peoples' Agreement (Pueblos Acuerdos): World Peoples' Conference on Climate Change

"The corporations and governments of the so-called developed countries, in complicity with a segment of the scientific community, have led us to discuss climate change as a problem limited to the rise in temperature without questioning the cause, which is the capitalist system.

We confront the terminal crisis of a civilizing model that is patriarchal and based on the submission and destruction of human beings and nature that has accelerated since the Industrial Revolution.

The capitalist system has imposed on us a logic of competition, progress, and limitless growth. This regime of production and consumption seeks profit without limits, separating human beings from nature and imposing a logic of domination upon nature, transforming everything into commodities: water, Earth, the human genome, ancestral cultures, biodiversity, justice, ethics, the rights of peoples, and life itself.

Under capitalism, Mother Earth is converted into a source of raw materials, and human beings into consumers and a means of production, into people seen as valuable only for what they own, and not for what they are.

Capitalism requires a powerful military industry for its processes of accumulation and imposition of control over territories and natural resources, suppressing the resistance of the peoples. It is an imperialist system of colonization of the planet.

Humanity confronts a great dilemma: to continue on the path of capitalism, depredation, and death, or to choose the path of harmony with nature and respect for life.

It is imperative that we forge a new system that restores harmony with nature and among human beings. And for there to be balance with nature, there must first be equity among human beings. We propose to the peoples of the world the recovery, revalorization, and strengthening of the knowledge, wisdom, and ancestral practices of the Indigenous Peoples, which are affirmed in the thought and practices of “Living Well,” recognizing Mother Earth as a living being with which we have an indivisible, interdependent, and spiritual relationship." -p. 145-147

[Evan Kanigara · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Lingkungan Hidup & Kapitalisme’ menyajikan sebuah pembacaan kritis terkait permasalahan ekologi (krisis ekologi) yang dihadapi manusia setelah masa industrialisasi. Magdoff memberikan pemaparan yang begitu gamblang terkait betapa nyatanya krisis ekologi yang sedang kita hadapi saat ini (buku ini tidak menjelaskan siapa yang menulis bagian mana, sehingga ini menjadi asumsi pribadi saja). Foster di sisi lain berangkat dari pemaparan Magdoff dan mengelaborasinya lebih lanjut, mengenai bagaimana relasi sosial, politik serta ekonomi menjadi akar permasalahan dari krisis ekologi. Mengutip dari buku ini “sebagian besar persoalan-persoalan gawat lingkungan hidup yang kita hadapi disebabkan atau diperparah oleh tata kerja sistem ekononomi kita" (hal 29).

“Mengingat daya rusak dari pertumbuhan yang mencirikan kapitalisme, sistem ini paling merusakn lingkungan saat dia bekerja baik dan tingkat pertumbuhan tinggi. Dia kurang merusak saat sistem dilanda krisis ekonomi dan pertumbuhan melemah.” (hal 69)

Membaca buku ini di tengah pandemi global covid-19 begitu terasa menggugah sekaligus menyedihkan. Seperti yang ditulis Jonathan Watts dan Niko Kommenda pada The Guardian, pandemi covid-19 berujung pada penurunan drastis polusi udara di planet bumi. Sebagian orang tentu terlena dengan kesimpulan banal bahwa manusia adalah virusnya dan mesti dimusnahkan saja. Namun Magdoff dan Foster melampaui kesimpulan itu. Baginya “ketika perekonomian terkena resesi dan produksi serta transportasi berkurnag, polusi udara menurun” (hal 69). Bukan berarti resesi baik bagi perbaikan iklim. Namun 'jika sistem tata perekonomian yang melandasi resesi tersebut mengalami krisis maka krisis ekologi pun juga berhenti' itulah yang menjadi benang merahnya.

Sistem perekonomian yang bersifat eksploitatif inilah yang bagi Magdoff dan Foster bermasalah. Bagi mereka “persoalan tidak terletak bagi mereka yang tidak cukup, tetapi pada mereka yang tak pernah merasa cukup” (hal 27). Menurut Magdoff dan Foster, sifat perekonomian saat inilah yang mewakili perasaan ketidakcukupan itu. Sifat dari perekonomian kapitalistik selalu imperatif dan mementingkan akumulasi laba sebesar-besarnya, dan menjadikan alam serta manusia sebagai sebuah “variabel eksternal”. Sesuatu yang dapat diutak-atik dan dimodifikasi demi tujuan pengumpulan kapital yang abadi. Maka dari itu, beberapa pernyataan pejabat pemerintahan yang mementingkan ekonomi ketimbang persoalaan pandemi akhir-akhir ini terasa janggal tetapi juga sepertinya niscaya jika sistem perekonomian masih berlandaskan asas yang demikian.

Bagi saya buku ini merupakan sebuah buku peringatan. Magdoff dan Foster mengingatkan bahwa penyelesaian krisis ekologi melalui utak-atik ekonomi dan terobosan tekonologi berisiko tinggi meskipun tampak meringankan masalah tetapi tidak akan menghilangkan masalah. Penekanan diberikan pada perbaikan relasi manusia dan alam melalui skema perekonomian berkelanjutan. Sebuah "perekonomian terencana yang mengatur produksi sesuai dengan kebutuhan masyarakat" (hal 144), yang lebih bersifat egaliter dan partisipatif. Selain itu, tanggung jawab negara maju dalam krisis ekologi ini begitu penting sehingga skema tidak akan berlangsung lama tanpa sebuah konsensus yang bersifat global.

Akhir kata, Magdoff dan Foster dengan jernih dapat menguraikan benang kusut dari krisis ekologi sebagai sebuah ‘manifesto’ yang padat dan informatif. Buku ini menjelaskan bagaimana gawatnya sebenarnya kondisi kita saat ini, dan di posisi seperti apa kita harus bertindak. Meskipun begitu ada beberapa bagian yang membuat saya bosan di tengah buku ini, karena penjelasannya cukup teknis dan luas. Lampiran di akhir buku ini mengenai konferensi rakyat dunia di Bolivia sepertinya tidak perlu dilampirkan. Pada versi yang diterbitkan Marjin Kiri, alih bahasa yang dilakukan oleh Pius Ginting sangatlah baik. Oh iya, membaca ‘Lingkungan Hidup & Kapitalisme’ bisa cukup melelahkan karena ternyata banyak sekali hal yang harus diubah demi mengakhiri krisis ekologi ini. Seperti sebuah foto grafiti di Hongkong yang baru-baru ini viral, “We can't return to normal, because the normal that we had was precisely the problem."

[Ana · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book title caught my eye because I'm sort of an environmentalist working in a manufacturing/industrial field. I interpreted the title to mean this book would give environmentalists insight on how to work with/persuade industry to be more environmental conscience. However, this is not that book and apparently my wishful thinking.

I was pretty familiar with all of the environmental issues they described. However I disagree with the author on the topics of cap & trade and sustainability. Furthermore, the author lists all the things the see wrong with capitalism, our government, and industry but they don't say how to fix the system or even attempt to work with the system. Instead they list a bunch of pie-in-the-sky ideas and propose that we become socialist and should listen to the advice of Hugo Chavez. But I repeat, they don't say how they should convince anyone on how to make cultural change. Needless to say, I was very disappointed.

[Paste · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book's strengths are 1) its ability to point to general, inextricable characteristics of capitalism (namely, growth and profit motive) that are incompatible with environmental sustainability and 2) its abundant sources that point to where there have been opportunities for companies, technologies, methodologies, politicians or institutions to change practices toward environmental protection and not only their subsequent failure to follow through in any meaningful way but the conditions that restrict them from doing so or incentivize them to do otherwise.

The authors, however, fail to provide convincing evidence that their solution, which relies on central planning, would not also be environmentally destructive or economically successful, as many of the worst environmental atrocities are committed by state-owned companies and militaries.

I would have also liked more meta-analytical studies examining the results of companies' assertions that they will instantiate "green" practices.

[Soph Nova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this was a good antidote directly after reading a book that was very pro-market solutions, this was missing some key components. It failed to go in depth on various policy levers, and what the pros/cons on them are; instead, there was a small bullet-pointed list at the end with demands that are great but weren’t at the level of a comprehensive positive program (or as comprehensive of a program that could outweigh the depressing litany of facts that makes up most of the first 2/3 of the book). Still definitely worth reading, especially since they include the 2010 Cochabamba Declaration, but certainly of a different era of climate politics.

[Aya Prita · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Do you know why those European countries can stay so clean? Because we, the Southeast Asian countries, are paying the price: they illegally trade their waste to us!”

I remember this particular lecture from my amazing lecturer in the Southeast Asia Studies class, and it reminded me to re-read this book again. It was written before the pandemic, and it opened my eyes in so many ways as a cultural studies student who “consumes” Marx’s theory of capitalism every day. It doesn’t feel like a jargon-filled textbook; instead, it reads like an introductory book: accessible, yet deeply awakening. It also made me rethink the idea of decolonizing atmospheres.

I once thought that things would get better after the pandemic. But holy cow, the IEA’s CO2 Emissions Global Energy Review 2025 shows that our planet is definitely not getting better....

[Alif · Rating 3 out of 5]

As already mentioned in this book, capital does have more power over policy making, an egocentric notion that demands speed in terms of profit makes capital seem to justify any means for profit. Governments that are indecisive and powerless, such as developing countries, often regard capital as a client or god who brings good news in the future. With this situation, do not expect the government to issue pro-environment and people regulations, just monitoring and enforcing the law is actually lucky. A situation like this is like a vicious circle that repeats itself and does not meet a common ground. The answer to environmental damage by capital is not just right or wrong, but how fast it will happen.

[Boritabletennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drives the point home and is quite informative. Definitively worth including in the "Avert the oncoming climate catastrophe" shelf.

[Mell Benson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5?

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book focuses on a key point that is rarely discussed in polite circles. Namely that capitalism with it's imperative for perpetual growth cannot be contained on a finite planet. Even if you are pro-capitalist you can't deny that a healthy capitalist economic system needs to grow to survive, so it brings up the question of how much can we grow before we bump up against the earth's ecological limits?

The book starts out making the case that we are already bumping up against those limits when it comes to global warming, ocean acidification, deforestation, species extinction, atmospheric nitrogen levels, oceanic phosphorus levels, freshwater availability and scientists are still trying to figure out the limits for all of the manmade chemicals that have burst onto the scene in the past 100 years. It's a good survey, though probably familiar to people who already study the environmental crisis. For those of us who don't spend our time studying this stuff the list makes a handy reference and certainly drills home the point that we are in a state of ecological crisis.

The next couple of chapters go into why capitalism must grow and how that bumps up against the finite resources of our planet. The authors' analysis comes from a marxist angle and while the writing isn't beautiful, I think it's accessible and they kept the commie jargon in check. While some people might not agree with all of their points, I think the broader idea that capitalism must grow is hard to deny as is the fact that the growth we have experienced so far has come at great expense to the environment. This is very, very important and should be talked about more in public dialog.

The latter part of the book tries to provide some answers to the obvious question 'what can we do?' They argue that any serious long term solution cannot involve capitalism though they accept that capitalism is not going away in the short term so we need to try to mitigate its damage with carbon taxes, mass transit, sustainable agriculture and all the other routine ideas you can find on the Sierra Club web site. They dismiss 'green capitalism' such as carbon markets and green technology development because such markets are too small a part of the overall economy to make a real difference with respect to the massive problems we face. This latter part is the most explicitly marxist as they advocate a form of planned economy based on democratically organized local groups of people.

Overall, I gave this book 4 stars because of the importance of the central point (which, again, is just not raised enough or at all in public dialog) and because it's reasonably accessible to the lay person. But I think many points are skimmed over in order for the book to cover so much ground. The reader will need to already have done enough thinking about capitalism to accept it's growth imperative. And in general, I think a reader who is not familiar with at least basic Marxist theory will miss some of the deeper more loaded meanings of terms that come from Marxist thought. Even so, it's a very persuasive book.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very anxiety inducing short book. It is just a beginner's guide for both environment and mode of production. Excellent giftable book tbh

[Martin Chambers · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://youtu.be/QcGtOsEUPgo
By the end of this book I am thinking of this scene from Monty Python’s film Jabberwocky, that on first watching might be taken as a poke at efficiency experts and higher management interfering on the factory floor. What ensures is chaos, and the scene is hilarious.
Now the management of the planet is no laughing matter but from this skit we might learn that even with the best intentions we need to be wary of interfering in any system. The system we have is called capitalism.
The book spends a lot of time investigating and defining what capitalism is, with quite some labouring of the point, and coming to the conclusion that one of the hallmarks of it is the need for growth. Unfortunately very little time is spent defining who or what an environmentalist is, and this is my first problem with the book because in this day and age in any western culture at some level we are all environmentalists. My rational here is the evidence of banning shopping bags, support for groups like no plastic oceans, coastcare, landcare, electric cars, rooftop solar panels and so on. In fact, it is only when ‘Environmentalists’ are too radical or extreme that as individuals we will deny that we too wish to tread more lightly on the planet and reduce our environmental footprint.
So I don’t understand who this book is aimed at. I suspect capitalists will ignore it, unless researching in a ‘know your enemy’ sort of way, and capital E environmentalists will be quickly bored with the longwinded examination of capitalism and the repetitive presentation of data. Capitalism requires growth, and the only thing that grows continuously is cancer. One line. What matters now is what we do about it.
The authors are correct in that saving the lesser blue throated finch or your local wetland, or recycling plastic water bottles so Coke can make more water bottles is not going to save us. But then, neither is a wholesale demolition of capitalism. What would ensue is a Pythonesque chaos that has no guarantee of being any less destructive on the planet.
Maybe we can orchestrate an orderly dismantling of capitalism and the structured replacement of it with an environmentally centred social system. It is a wonderful utopian dream, but the reason it may never happen is that too much power rests with too few whose vested interests are in maintaining the status quo. The move to concentration of wealth is discussed in the book, and explained as an inevitable consequence of capitalism. It may well be, but let us not confuse social justice with environmentalism or to take correlation as causation.
As wealth congregates to the top few (both business and individual), so also does their ability to advertise and influence, and in the case of business, what we desire to own and to spend our money on.
What is not considered is the parallel rise of democracy with capitalism. It works like this. In a post-feudal world the new industrial wealthy agitate for power. The king refuses but the wealthy control the factories and production so enlist the workforce to the cause. The result is what we now call democracy where public opinion is to a large extent controlled by the wealthy. The public vote for political leaders who will act to maintain things as they are. It is pretty unhealthy, but like capitalism it is the system we’ve got.
Now here I would like to take a quick diversion to the biological world, and Darwin, who struggled with publishing his thesis for the trouble it would cause to the established paradigm. Often misreported as ‘Survival of the fittest’, evolution is really the extinction of the less capable. This subtle distinction allows for the survival of some pretty unsound things. Jokes aside that humans might be one of them, it is where we come back to Monty Python and the armour factory. The layout could be so much better. Put the bucket of nails closer to the job. The spine, with the spinal nerves so vulnerable, the eye, with the optic nerve exiting at the front and therefore getting in the way of what we see, the heart, with end arteries and fatal consequences. Democracy and capitalism.
People will fall into one of two camps – to work with the system for change or to fight for revolution. This book seems to propose the latter, and the problem with that is twofold. Firstly, the outcome might be as Monty Python suggests. If we are planning a better world random chaos is no place to start.
Secondly, it is unlikely to succeed.
This is because when Environmentalists become too radicalised it becomes easy to dismiss them and to dismiss the message. Or more likely, for the incumbents to fight back. In any post feudal public arena those with the most money will always prevail so radical environmental action is doomed to the fringes.
The trick is to not let them know there is a battle. By small increments people power might achieve extraordinary things as in the same way the industrial revolution heralded the rise of capitalism, the internet heralds the rise of people power. I am sure no one knows quite what to do with it yet as it swings from fake news to crackpot bandwagon, but as an environmentalist I think this is something we all need to know more about.
My final point is about paradigms. It is easy to find evidence for a world view when that world view is formed by the world we live in. The world is flat. Species were designed by God. Capitalism requires continuous growth.
I can’t say that this is a sure result of a post consumer society, but in the last year we have seen negative interest rates and inverted yields. Wealthy investors are buying Government Bonds with the certain knowledge they will get back less money after the investment period. This is unprecedented and unthought of by the definition of capitalism. Even economists don’t understand what to make of it, but it is happening with paradigm busting certainty.
Just maybe capitalism is evolving in response to a widespread public desire to stop consuming.
I hope so.
Because the alternative is either chaos, or business as usual and the continued decline of the planet.

[Bardjan Bardjan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just finished this book. What I can say is, we're doomed. Dirty capitalism forces us to dig our own graves TOO EARLY. The end is near. I hope someday God will come down to earth and say, "IT'S TIME TO PUSH CAPITALISM DOWN IT'S OUTDATED U KNOW. TIME TO LEAN ON SOCIALISM." *Internationale playing in background*

[Vaibhav Bhandari · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author brings up some interesting points against capitalism and defends socialism as a solution for sustainability. But the book is a very one-sided analysis. And that does not sound fair, and hence, not convincing. Enough said.

[Aniza Rania · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a mundane in studying environmental capitalism, this book gave me an understanding of the tricks and backgrounds of all environmental efforts that we all try to pull through, especially companies who has high CSR plans. That it's not all just measly green-promotions. Great bookkk

[Arianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

found it very depressing but very hopeful, well-written, informative, slightly transcendental and solid research (in terms of solutions). Definitely think a book everyone should read.

[eliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

JBF is a dilf that is all

[Mangku Parasdyo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Semua fakta dan opini mengenai Lingkungan Hidup dapat saya terima, namun fakta dan opini mengenai kapitalisme sungguh sulit untuk diterima.

Menyalahkan pelobi akan regulasi yang menguntungkan bagi korporasi dan industri memang fakta, namun seringkali regulasi yang tidak ramah lingkungan juga berasal dari masyarakat yang menuntut kemudahan dan low barrier entry untuk pertambangan, peternakan, pertanian dan kehutanan.

Di Indonesia, 40 persen lebih pencemaran sungai berasal dari kegiatan non point source seperti Rumah tangga, pertanian dan peternakan. Sumber pencemar juga kebanyakan berasal dari aktifitas pertambangan dan industri ilegal yang tidak mempunyai sistem pengolahan limbah yang memadai, sedangkan industri yang established justru lebih mudah diregulasi, diawasi dan dilakukan penindakan hukum. Pencemaran di Sungai bengawan solo sendiri justru berasal dari UMKM Ciu, Tahu/tempe, dan batik, semuanya tak mempunyai instalasi pengolahan air limbah.

Lahan rusak/kritis berupa Lahan akses terbuka (open pit) kebanyakan adalah bekas penambangan ilegal. Rehabilitasi lahan akses terbuka ini ditanggung oleh uang pembayar pajak.

Disinilah kapitalisme telah mempengaruhi semua lapisan masyarakat sehingga menyingkirkan Korporasi raksasa dan menggantinya dengan perusahaan dengan skala yg lebih kecil dan bersifat lokal tidak akan menyelesaikan masalah. Sulit menyingkirkan keserakahan manusia.

Masyarakat purba sendiri tak terhindar dari kehancuran lingkungan Collapse: Runtuhnya Peradaban-peradaban Dunia. Pun, jika masyarakat purba adalah masyarakat proto kapitalis karena mereka juga melakukan kegiatan akumulasi sumberdaya alam disekitar mereka untuk kepentingan elite dalam bentuk barang dan upacara meriah, masyarakat kita saat ini punya instrumen pengendalian yang lebih baik. Tentu saja skala kerusakan yang dihasilkan berbeda antara masyarakat modern dan purba. Contoh sukses masyarakat dalam kelompok kecil yang sukses menjaga keberlanjutan lingkungannnya dan menjadi contoh dalam buku ini memang ada, namun sulit rasanya membayangkan dan menemukan contoh nyata masyarakat non kapitalis yang sukses menjaga lingkungannya dalam skala besar seperti negara, pun jika cara-cara kelompok kecil tadi diterapkan dalam skala yang lebih besar, kebanyakan non-operable.

Solusi-solusi yang ditawarkan oleh buku ini juga sama dengan yang ditawarkan para kapitalis kecuali bagian fundamental yang terkait ideologinya.

In the end, buku ini menawarkan sebuah diskursus dari segi ideologi antara kapitalisme dan alternatifnya yaitu sosialisme, seperti nasihat para orang tua, ambil yang baik dan berguna serta tinggalkan yang tidak berguna, tak perlu menghamba buta hanya pada satu pemikiran. Nice read.

[Bibi Surya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buku ini memecahkan keheningan aku yang seakan mabuk dengan ketenangan isolasi gara-gara perintah kawalan pergerakan. Referens banyak diambil pada dasawarsa yang lalu. Tiada banyak perubahan melainkan seruan Greta Thurnberg yang protes dengan kedegilan para politisi dan kapitalis koperasi mega yang berdiam diri dalam usaha mengekang perubahan iklim & secara langsung ancaman kepada kehidupan di bumi. Banyak negara telah mengambil jalan isolasi dan mengawal pergerakan kerana wabak covid-19 yang menular seluruh pelosok dunia. Harga minyak jatuh merundum kerana kekurangan permintaan yang selayaknya untuk diimbal balik kepada kos produksinya. Tiada orang berjalan, melancong ke sana sini, dan pembangunan juga terhenti seketika. Dalam tempoh dua bulan, banyak hidupan haiwan telah mejelajahi kota yang sepi daripada manusia. Air sungai menjadi bersih daripada sampah dan buangan toksik kilang/pabrik. Satu-satunya wabak ini mengajarkan aku dalam relasi kepada buku ini, pihak kerajaan SELURUH DUNIA mempunyai kuasa dalam membendung masalah perubahan iklim. Hal ini bukan sesuatu yang lucu atau khayalan hanya kerana kiamat belum datang. Tetapi kita hanya menunda kekalahan melawan nafsu yang menjarah hasil bumi dan mengusir kehidupan asal yang normal. Pihak kerajaan berjaya mengawal pergerakan koperasi besar, manusia, walaupun terdapat insiden ketidak-adilan yang berlaku dalam memberkas orang kecil yang bertindak untuk kelangsungan kehidupan hari sehari dalam berniaga atau bercucuk tanam. Orang kaya dibiarkan buta dan tuli dan hidup dalam tempurung kekayaannya. Ada sisi gelap dalam wabak yang melanda tetapi ada juga sisi jernih. Ada yang mengambil kesempatan untuk memperluaskan dan memperkuatkan kuasa dalam saat kita semua 'terkawal'. Seperti ucapan di Kopenhagen yang dilampirkan dalam buku ini, kita harus merealisasikan hal ini, setidaknya bermula dengan diri sendiri. Perubahan-perubahan kecil dalam memprotes konsumsi dan cara hidup yang lebih hijau seperti bercucuk tanam sendiri, paling tidak menyokong petani kecil, nelayan dan pengusaha runcit dalam komuniti setempat. Bukan lagi memberi sokongan kepada pasar besar yang 'mass produce with unsustainable materials'.

[Junius Welch · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I started reading environmental and social justice books, not just occasionally but as a habit, around maybe 2007, everything was new to me. I was astonished at the wealth of information that seemed to have been kept from me about the realities of the world. Overfishing, climate feedback loops, human encroachment, you get the idea. As I read more and more, I found that less and less surprised me. I was getting to the point where I could see that books devoted most of their pages just getting a reader up to speed on how bad everything is already.

I didn’t become aware of this book until 2018-ish, bought it then, but then didn’t read it until November 2023.

And I wish I could send it back in time to the me who lives in 2011 (maybe with a note about how to prepare for a pandemic). That me would have appreciated the first five chapters. They lay a simple-to-understand path from the logic of neoliberalism to “everything about capitalism is terrible”, and every “green” claim in capitalism is a lie (or at best a VERY specific cherrypicking of factoids). That me would have saved a bunch of time, and might have therefore gone out to the Occupy movement and learned even more. Alas, I missed that, too.

The final chapter was still excellent to me, today, knowing what I know. Because it lays out a lot of ideas on what, specifically, needs to be done to transition to a just future in balance with the natural world. While I don’t agree with every single point, it does give an excellent overview of what the options are, which in turn gives valuable signposts for further research, debate, and foci for activism. The final chapter holds up well over a decade later, which is both impressive and depressing (since many of these could have been adopted already).

When I teach online courses about capitalism and the environment, this is among texts I recommend to help students quickly understand the stakes and the options. If you’re new to environmentalism, it’s a must-read, and if you’re an old hand, the final chapter (at least) is excellent. I fully recommend it to anyone interested in environmental activism and/or building a better world.

[Wahid Kurniawan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hak-hak kaum proletar yang tak terpenuhi, sering terlihat di sekitar saya. Bukan saja disebabkan banyak tetangga yang bekerja sebagai buruh pabrik, atau tempat tinggal yang berdekatan dengan pabrik-pabrik, lebih dari itu, melainkan saya pun mendapatinya sendiri dalam kehidupan bapak saya. Dua dekade lebih ia menggantungkan hidupnya (dan keluarga kami) di satu pabrik, tetapi kurang dari setahun yang lalu ia di-PHK. Sialnya, sampai sekarang masih ada beberapa hak yang semestinya ia dapat, tapi belum juga menemukan kejelasan. Padahal, beragam upaya sudah ditempuh, dari negosiasi damai sampai yang dengan ancaman. Dan sekarang, agaknya ia makin tak memikirkannya, ia berusaha ikhlas, tetapi tak juga menutup harapan akan dipenuhinya hak-haknya tersebut.

Lalu mengapa saya menceritakan soal bapak saya? Tidak lain, sebab kasus yang dialami Bapak amat erat kaitannya dengan bahasan buku ini. Terang saja, buku ini menyoal betapa kapitalisme adalah sistem yang bermasalah dan menjadi muasal dari seberagam persoalan kehidupan dan, yang utamanya, ancaman buat nasib bumi kita tercinta ini. Tidak saja memberi dampak yang tak adil bagi sebagian umat manusia, tetapi pula, dari keberlansungannya sejak berdekade-dekade silam, bersama masifnya teknologi, sistem ini memberi pengaruhnya yang besar terhadap alam. itulah sebabnya, penulis dengan cukup radikal, mengajak untuk memikirkan ulang sistem ini, untuk kemudian mengubahnya sama sekali. Yang itu adalah dasar bagi revolusi ekologis yang bertendensi sosialisme.

Sebagai pengantar, saya menilai, buku ini cukup gamblang membeberkan persoalan masa kini dan pandangan masa depan terkait kehidupan manusia, utamanya dalam sektor ekonomi dan lingkungan. Selain itu, yang patut dihargai, buku ini memiliki kualitas terjemahan yang enak, bahkan tak berasa seperti karya terjemahan.

[Sintesarasa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pembaca disuguhkan bagaimana logika dasar kapitalisme bekerja, yaitu akumulasi kapital. Mereka para kapitalis menuhankan keuntungan, persetan dengan lingkungan.

Hal paling menarik yang dikritik buku ini adalah

"Saat semua orang berlomba menjadi semakin kaya dan kaya, menimbun uang sebanyak-banyaknya dan kerakusan manusia itu tidak ada batasnya sedang sumber daya bumi itu terbatas".

Buku ini tak hanya mengkritik kapitalisme dari sudut pandang lingkungan tetapi juga mengusulkan banyak sekali solusi. Sayangnya... Sekali lagi... Kita sebagai rumput-rumput teki ini bisa apa? Tak ikut sistem juga gak makan... Membiarkan kerusakan juga gak bisa makan, meski untuk 30 tahun kedepan.

Yaa sayang sekali... Memang kebanyakan buku yang mengkritisi kapitalisme berakhir pada solusi logis tapi utopis.

[Dimas Anggada · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dengan sangat kritis, buku ini mengurai hasil dari kerja-kerja kapitalisme, yang mengejar akumulasi kapital hingga tanpa henti, untuk keuntungan dan segalanya, dan hal-hal tersebut berdampak serius bagi ekologi. Lebih mudah membayangkan akhir dunia ketimbang akhir dari kapitalisme. Seluruh sendi, juga proses pertumbuhannya, sangat mengancam keberlangsungan alam—dan itu semua adalah logika dasar dari kapitalisme.

Buku ini mewakili kegelisahan kita akan masa depan yang tak menentu, yang kita hidup bersamanya sekarang akibat kapitalisme: pemanasan global, polusi, hutan-hutan yang habis, dsb. Dan tak akan pernah lebih baik lagi ke depannya, jika kita tak memikirkan kembali, gerakan radikal alternatif apa saja yang baik untuk memulihkan ekosistem bumi.

[Anika Reja · Rating 3 out of 5]

What this book does well-
* characterizing how capitalism hurts the environment and our ecologies
*what capitalism is
*why capitalism will never aid in solving the climate crisis
*how exactly capitalists degrade the environment, like specific situations and processes

However, this guys has a TERRIBLE take on the USSR and a lukewarm take on China. You cannot be a serious socialist and have State department talking points about those two places. How can you be pro-venezuela and pro-cuba but be anti-USSR?? Do you have a fetish for the suffering of poor people? Are socialist projects not successful if they wield power ? Or do we always have to be groveling and destitute to be 'real' socialists.

Typical Western Academic Marxist archetype

[Kahfi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sebuah buku tipis yang isinya memuat kegelisahan kita semua, ke dua buku ini sangatlah apik perihal menggambarkan bagaimana kapitalisme tidak hanya berbahaya bagi lingkungan hidup maupun keberlangsungan planet. Namun berbahaya juga karena kapitalisme bukan hanya soal praktik, akan tetapi logika kapitalisme yang menjadi hakikat sistem ini justru kita anut bersama.

Secara garis besar, pembahasan buku ini tidaklah mudah dipahami. Mungkin karena saya pribadi yang jarang berkecimpung pada buku-buku yang membahas tentang ekologi, dan ketika dihadapkan oleh buku ini terjadilah semacam perasaan kaget dan perlu waktu yang cukup banyak untuk mencerna. Karena buku ini merupakan buku ilmiah.

[Jake Ecker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The good: explains clearly how capitalism inevitably plunders and destroys the environment, shows benefits of (and already-existing examples of) planned economies that are both meeting people's material needs and living well with nature

The bad: doesn't mention decolonization or land back once, devotes too much time to stressing the urgency of the problem before getting into the theoretical basis for capitalism's incompatibility with environmentalism

Overall, a good intro to the subject if you wonder why people say capitalism can't solve climate change, but The Red Deal does a better job envisioning what a post-capitalist society could be in the US, as does The People's Green New Deal which also does a better job connecting imperialism and militarism to climate change

[Sandys Ramadhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sebagai buku pengantar buku ini memberi efek yang menggugah mata dan pikiran, poin-poin yang dibahas mulai dari apa itu kapitalisme, bagaimana regulasinya, apa dampak yang ditimbulkan bagi lingkungan, dan kemudian mengkritisinya.

Penerjemahan di buku ini bagus, saya suka. Entah kenapa buku-buku terbitan marjin kiri ini kualitas terjemahan nya top banget dah. Dilengkapi juga dengan footnote untuk memudahkan akses pencarian lanjutan terhadap sumber lainnya.