Beyond the Ruins: The Fight Against Environmental Breakdown

Verso Reports

by Matthew Lawrence (Editor), Laurie Laybourn-Langton (Editor), Adrienne Buller

We are hurtling towards total climate breakdown. Extractive capitalism has wreaked havoc on our planet, and countries in the global south pay the heaviest price for a crisis they contribute to the least. But we are far from powerless in the face of this catastrophe. How can the left build a more sustainable future, and win back a world fit for life? This collection brings together key thinkers, activists, researchers and writers who are leading the conversation on the urgent, global response that is required. Edited by Mathew Lawrence and Laurie Laybourn-Langton, authors of Planet on Fire: A Manifesto for the Age of Environmental Breakdown.

Contributors include Adrienne Buller, Pia Eberhardt, Fabian Flues, Dalia Gebrial, Antonia Jennings, Harpreet Kaur, Laurie Laybourn-Langton, Mathew Lawrence, Cecilia Olivet, Julia Steinberger and Olúfémi Táíwò.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Environment, Climate Change, Ebooks, Essays

50 pages, ebook

First published April 1, 2021

Reviews

[Brandy Cross · Rating 1 out of 5]

This and everything in it is too short to be meaningful in any fashion. Some of it contradicts itself. This is just promoting a larger piece?

[dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

a nice, short collection of essays that serve as an intro to climate change and what needs to happen to stop it. v v v good despite a couple of glaring editing errors

[Johan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do not need to be convinced of the danger presented by climate change.
Yes, it is man-made. Yes, the situation is dire. Yes, worldwide action is needed.
What I don't need is more opinions, more alarmist articles, more people who use climate change to push their own agenda, ... They make me feel numb, powerless, defeated and hopeless.

I want to read articles that explain the science, that explain the models, that give me something I can do, ..., but not this. Not any more.

[Ethen Winright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book with small essays on different approaches (or different facets of the same approach) for dealing with climate change, as well as status updates on current climate initiatives or hurdles.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too short, so isn't able to explain or expand upon the ideas introduced, functioning rather as advert for Verso's new book.

[brisingr · Rating 4 out of 5]

wonderful short resource on the current situation re. environmental breakdown, with a worldwide and intersectional framework.

[Hayden Berg · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent edited collection that touches on important and prescient concerns of climate crisis.

One of the problems with academic work about climate change is that the situation is constantly changing at such a rapid pace that books quickly become outdated; I appreciated Beyond The Ruins for being extremely relvant and up to date and pushing for change in the present and keeping an eye on the future.

It's made me think a lot about what steps we can take now and how to enact meaningful political change in the direction of what sounds like ecosocialism or something close to it.