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The Extinction Curve: Growth and Globalisation in the Climate Endgame
Global communities have arrived at a critical crossroads. The planet is heating up at a historically unprecedented rate and the ecological conditions sustaining vast species, including our own, are poised at irreversible tipping points. Time is up to avoid climate and ecological catastrophe. In such dire circumstances, 'business as usual' - and by extension 'politics as usual' - can no longer be accommodated.
The Extinction Curve charts the dynamics of the economic and social relations driving this perilous climate endgame. Recent economic crises have fractured consent over the consequences of growth and globalisation, and political fracturing is now at a defining moment. Ultra-right nationalism, shaped by the vested interests of a tiny minority at the expense of the global majority, threatens descent into a darker and more fortressed world. In contrast, enhanced progressive and environmental activism presents hope of an alternative course.
The 50-year attempt by the mainstream environmental movement to create a greener capitalism has failed to reach the required objectives. This book argues that reversing the extinction curve requires ending the growth pandemic embedded within the core of capitalism as a mode of production and consumption. It maps fresh directions for a democratic social, economic and sustainable ecological transformation in the interests of the global majority and, crucially, demonstrates how this can be achieved.
The Extinction Curve charts the dynamics of the economic and social relations driving this perilous climate endgame. Recent economic crises have fractured consent over the consequences of growth and globalisation, and political fracturing is now at a defining moment. Ultra-right nationalism, shaped by the vested interests of a tiny minority at the expense of the global majority, threatens descent into a darker and more fortressed world. In contrast, enhanced progressive and environmental activism presents hope of an alternative course.
The 50-year attempt by the mainstream environmental movement to create a greener capitalism has failed to reach the required objectives. This book argues that reversing the extinction curve requires ending the growth pandemic embedded within the core of capitalism as a mode of production and consumption. It maps fresh directions for a democratic social, economic and sustainable ecological transformation in the interests of the global majority and, crucially, demonstrates how this can be achieved.
170 pages, Paperback
Published January 22, 2021
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 15, 2024
This treatise makes the same point over and over: Capitalism has got to go. It is this economic system that has supported the rich (capitalists) at the expense of the rest of us. We have cooperated, for the most part, in continuous exploitation of both laborers and the environment. Capitalism is leading us to our own extinction as a species.
The authors are especially scornful of the “Green New Deal” approach, which aims to produce more sustainable and less destructive technologies while still allowing owners to keep the profits from their sale.
As for alternatives, the authors call for an “eco-socialist transformation.” They advocate nationalizing industries and putting power in the collective of laborers, but with a democratic administration of power (unlike prior and current authoritarian Marxist regimes).
A challenging and idealistic premise, not well presented. There is not really a book here— just a lengthy article with cycles of repetition.
The authors are especially scornful of the “Green New Deal” approach, which aims to produce more sustainable and less destructive technologies while still allowing owners to keep the profits from their sale.
As for alternatives, the authors call for an “eco-socialist transformation.” They advocate nationalizing industries and putting power in the collective of laborers, but with a democratic administration of power (unlike prior and current authoritarian Marxist regimes).
A challenging and idealistic premise, not well presented. There is not really a book here— just a lengthy article with cycles of repetition.
Displaying 1 of 1 review