“Notes on Exterminism” for the Twenty-First-Century Ecology and Peace Movement

In 1980, the great English Marxist historian and theorist E. P. Thompson, author of The Making of the English Working Class and leader of the European nuclear disarmament movement, wrote the groundbreaking essay "Notes on Extermination, the Last Stage of Civilization." Although the world has undergone a series of significative changes since then, Thompson's essay remains a useful starting point for addressing the central contradictions of our time, characterized by the planetary ecological crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the New Cold War, and the current "empire of chaos," all stemming from deeply rooted features of contemporary capitalist political economy. - John Bellamy Foster

Finding Flow: exploring the potential for sustainable fulfilment

Materialistic values and lifestyles have been associated with detrimental effects on both personal and planetary health. Therefore, there is a pressing need to identify activities and lifestyles that both promote human wellbeing and protect ecological wellbeing. In this Personal View, we explore the dynamics of a psychological state known as flow, in which people are shown to experience high levels of wellbeing through involvement in challenging activities that require some level of skill, and can often involve less materially intensive activities. –– Amy Isham and Tim Jackson

Deforestation and World Population Sustainability: a Quantitative Analysis

In this paper we afford a quantitative analysis of the sustainability of current world population growth in relation to the parallel deforestation process adopting a statistical point of view. We consider a simplified model based on a stochastic growth process driven by a continuous time random walk, which depicts the technological evolution of human kind, in conjunction with a deterministic generalised logistic model for humans-forest interaction and we evaluate the probability of avoiding the self-destruction of our civilisation. Based on the current resource consumption rates and best estimate of technological rate growth our study shows that we have very low probability, less than 10% in most optimistic estimate, to survive without facing a catastrophic collapse. –– Mauro Bologna and Gerardo Aquino

Is China Transforming the World?

In the early years of the 21st century, many Western capitalists saw China as a "new El Dorado". In most Western media, China is now presented as a threat, a conquering "empire", an "imperialist" power, even if the term imperialism is taboo when it comes to the behavior of global banking establishments, companies or Western institutions. And this threat seems all the more serious because Beijing's "regime" is easily described as "dictatorial" or, in diplomatic terms, "authoritarian". The United States, which remains the world hegemon, is worried about China's rise to power, and its successive administrations are building up the anxiety-provoking image of a China eager to supplant them and steal their leadership of the capitalist world system. On the other hand, it is also the case, to some extent, for the governments of the European Union who realize they are trapped in their free trade dogma. -- Tony Andréani, Rémy Herrera and Zhiming Long

Re-visiting the Owenites–contemporary cultural co-ops

Co-operatives as an alternative business model to solely commercial firms are a widely known concept, partly through UK supermarket experiences. But, as Kate Oakley summarises early findings from her recent project, there’s much more to the practice of co-ops. Her interview study shows that the political, historical and ethical meanings attached to the idea of a co-op—and of working co-operatively—is what motivates workers and keeps them going in the long term. Institutional support, however, to maintain a co-op structure against mainstream pressure is often inadequate. –– Kate Oakley

Placing People at the Heart of Climate Action

Profound societal change along with continued technical improvements will be required to meet our climate goals, as well as to improve people's quality of life and ensure thriving economies and ecosystems. Achieving the urgent and necessary transformations laid out in the recently published IPCC report will require placing people at the heart of climate action. Tackling climate change cannot be achieved solely through technological breakthroughs or new climate models. We must build on the strong social science knowledge base and develop a more visible, responsive and interdisciplinary-oriented social science that engages with people and is valued in its diversity by decision-makers from government, industry, civil society and law. Further, we need to design interventions that are both effective at reducing emissions and achieve wider societal goals such as wellbeing, equity, and fairness. Given that all climate solutions will involve people in one way or another, the social sciences have a vital role to play. –– Patrick Devine-Wright et al

Is Population Crucial for Degrowth?

Most proponents of degrowth tend to avoid the population factor, many of them fearful of being perceived as Malthusian. This is not the case. However, in the context of a genuinely democratic ethos, we must incorporate population degrowth into the core of any degrowth imaginary, as we are the preeminent source of our planet's unsustainable consumption. If people become aware of the existential danger we face, we expect that many will choose to embark on a transition that includes gradual population degrowth as a key driver of our trajectory. If the majority refuses, that is always their right. In such a case, we will have to face the consequences of significantly reducing the chances of achieving a safe and just transition-ecologically safe for all species and socially just for people, especially in the Global South-to avoid the obvious existential threat we face. –– Álvaro J. de Regil

Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene

We explore the risk that self-reinforcing feedbacks could push the Earth System toward a planetary threshold that, if crossed, could prevent climate stabilization with intermediate temperature increases and cause continued warming on a "Greenhouse Earth" trajectory, even if human emissions are reduced. If the threshold is crossed, the resulting trajectory would likely cause severe disruptions to ecosystems, society and economies. Collective human action is needed to move the Earth System away from a possible threshold and stabilize it in a habitable state similar to the interglacial. Such action involves management of the entire Earth System -- biosphere, climate, and societies -- and could include decarbonization of the global economy, enhancement of the biosphere's carbon sinks, behavioral changes, technological innovations, new governance arrangements, and transformation of societal values. -- Will Steffen et al

Degrowth is About Global Justice

Campaigners for degrowth have thrown into question the dogma that holds that a growing economy is always a sign of progress. In Less is More, anthropologist Jason Hickel argues that only degrowth can steer the world away from its worsening ecological crisis. We sat down with him to discuss his new book and ask what degrowth would mean for relations between the Global North and South. –– Jason Hickel

Toward an Ecosocialist Degrowth

Today, we face the most pronounced and remarkable contradictions between "the time of capital" and "the time of nature". As a result, a series of intertwined ecological and social crises have come together, posing existential threats to life on the planet. In the face of today's profound crises, social organization and collective political action are necessary. Otherwise, as historian Vijay Prashad has afirmed, the climate justice movement "will have no legs." An ecosocialist degrowth must be built on internationalist alliances in which the periphery takes centre stage. The political subjects and collectives of the North are called upon to humbly assume the historical claims that the South has tirelessly and justly made. Only in this way will we be able to look with hope to the future and, above all, to the present. –– Alejandro Pedregal and Juan Bordera

Socialism and Ecological Survival: An Introduction

Capitalism has brought the world to the brink. We are rapidly approaching the planetary tipping point in the form of a climate Armageddon that threatens to make the earth uninhabitable for human and countless other species. Such an absolute catastrophe for human civilization and all species is still avoidable by a revolutionary-scale reconstitution of the current energy production, consumption and use system. However, the time to act is rapidly running out. –– John Bellamy Foster and Brett Clark

Notes on Time is Running Out

Time is running out for the world to carry out the social transformations necessary to avert irreversible climate catastrophe, keeping the increase in global average temperatures below 1.5°C (or below 2°C). The most optimistic scenario currently provided by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) describes a pathway in which the increase in temperature will not rise to 1.5°C until 2040, peaking at 1.6°C, and then falling back to 1.4°C by the end of this century. But to achieve this will require revolutionary scale transformational change in global social relations affecting the human relation to the climate and the planetary environment as a whole. –– The Editors of Monthly Review

The Blockade as a Double-Edged Sword

The blockade, which has been in existence for the entire history of the Cuban Revolution, despite brief movements toward normalisation, is a product of both U.S. criminal aggression and the Cuban Revolution itself. For the United States, as much as for Cuba, it has always been a double-edged sword, reflecting not only Washington’s continuing enmity to Cuba and the enormous harm inflicted on the latter, but also the U.S. failure to bring Cuba to its knees. Given continuing Cuban resistance, the termination of the blockade, as the analysis here shows, would only be a reflection of the ongoing decline and destabilisation of U.S. empire and the enduring strength of the Cuban Revolution, a dialectical process that now implicates the fate of the entire world. –– Roberto Regalado

The Present in History, 2021

In The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, Karl Marx observed that class struggle can create circumstances and relationships that make it "possible for a grotesque mediocrity to play the role of a hero." Donald Trump can be seen as one such grotesque mediocrity, infflated to "heroic" proportions by his reactionary followers. Unable to accept defeat, Trump attempted to seize power after losing the 2020 presidential election. His afirmation that victory was stolen from him by massive fraud and his effort to encourage Republican-held states and his vice president to give him the office-all possible within the formal rules established an ominous roadmap for Republican strategy in 2024. –– William K. Tabb

The Problematic Role of Materialistic Values in the Pursuit of Sustainable Well-Being

Strong materialistic values contribute to the maintenance of consumer capitalism but can negatively affect individual well-being, social equity and environmental sustainability. In this article, we add to the existing literature on the adverse consequences of materialistic values by highlighting their negative association with participation in attitudes and actions that support the achievement of sustainable well-being. – Amy Isham et al

The Defence of Nature: Resisting the Financialisation of the Earth

In 2016, more than fifty multinationals came together to design a framework for monetizing the global ecology, using invented shadow pricing systems based on the capitalist market system. The report highlighted the enormous opportunities for debt "leverage" represented by "emerging natural capital markets, such as water quality trading, wetland and endangered species banking, and natural carbon sequestration." Consequently, it was imperative to "put a price on the value of nature" or, put another way, "a monetary value on what nature does for...business." The future of the capitalist economy lies in ensuring that the market pays "for ecosystem services that were previously free," which could generate new economic value for companies able to convert natural capital securities into financial assets. –– John Bellamy Foster

Billionaire Space Race: the ultimate symbol of capitalism’s flawed obsession with growth

In 1972 a team of scientists at MIT published a very influential report on the Limits to Growth. Economists have fought over whether the economy can expand forever. Those who believe it is an appeal to the power of technology to "decouple" economic activity from its effects on the planet. Those who think it is impossible point to the scant evidence that decoupling will occur at the rate necessary to avoid a climate emergency. And now comes a group of confessed technology lovers finally admitting that the planet is too small for us. Yes, they were right; they imply: the Earth cannot sustain infinite growth. That's why we have to expand into space. –– Tim Jackson

Financial, Speculative and Parasitic Capital

It is a crime to rob a bank, but it is a greater crime to found one. - Berthold Brecht -- People eat little and badly. They are crazy to swallow this! Christophe Brusset, an agri-food industrialist, denounces. From the diversion of raw materials to the manipulation of products via controversial hygiene controls, Christophe Brusset denounces the many evils of which he has been, for twenty years, an accomplice or mastermind behind the scenes of the food industry. Indian paprika stuffed with peppercorns, Chinese green tea treated with pesticides, fake Moroccan saffron, cheeses transformed into veal, fruit jam without fruit, oregano cut into olive leaves, etc. Fraud with raw materials in the food industry is also part of this mafioso system. –– Alejandro Teitelbaum

Building the Vision of the Good Life

The crux of Kate Soper’s "Post-Growth Living" is simple: we need to redefine “the good life.” We need to move away from a culture that equates the good life with endless consumption and toward one that equates it with experiences that are not defined by the market. Not only is this transition ecologically necessary, but it will also lead to fairer, and far more pleasurable, experiences, such as Soper’s desired “alternative hedonism.” I am confident that this singular plea is both fecund and needed, even if, after reading, I am still not sure exactly what “alternative hedonism” actually is. –– Jordan Fox Besek

Providing Decent Living With Minimum Energy: A Global Scenario

It is increasingly clear that averting ecological breakdown will require drastic changes to contemporary human society and the global economy embedded within it. On the other hand, the basic material needs of billions of people across the planet remain unmet. Here,we develop a simple, bottom-up model to estimate a practical minimal threshold for the final energy consumption required to provide decent material livings to the entire global population. We find that global final energy consumption in 2050 could be reduced to the levels of the 1960s, despite a population three times larger. However, such a world requires a massive rollout of advanced technologies across all sectors, as well as radical demand-side changes to reduce consumption – regardless of income – to levels of sufficiency. Sufficiency is, however, far more materially generous in our model than what those opposed to strong reductions in consumption often assume. –– Joel Millward-Hopkins et al

The Deceptive Delusions of Green Capitalism — Why Endless Consumption of Our Finite Planet Will Take Us to Our Cliff of Doom and How We Can Prevent It

Endless Consumption of Our Finite Planet's Resources is Taking Us to Our Cliff of Doom... But we can save ourselves by saving the planet by changing our economic/consumption systemsBut we can save ourselves by saving the planet by changing our economic/consumption systems. This implies a radical transition of structures, replacing capitalism with a new paradigm whose sole purpose is to pursue the welfare of people and planet and NOT the market. To do this, people must organise to force change because all governments are subservient to the market and will lead to our extinction in this century. — Álvaro J. de Regil

Leaked Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Reports

On the Climate Change Planetary Crisis. If we want future generations to live with happiness on a healthy planet, we must stop denying reality and take action, for all governments are driving us to our final demise. —(Required reading to become aware that it is up to us, the citizenry, to save ourselves by taking eco-revolutionary action. — The Editors of Monthy Review

Lithium and the Contradictions in the Energy Transition that Devastate the Global South In Favour of the Global North

Green Capitalism is a Hoax, because switching to batteries is not sustainable and it keeps depredating the ecosystems. — Nubia Barrera Silva

Notes on Ukraine

A MUST-READ —An assessment shedding sobering and objective light on the underlying causes of the eight-year civil war in Ukraine turned into a full-scale war. This is a New Cold War and a great human tragedy. — The Editors of Monthly Review

The Covid-19 Pandemic: "Their Contradictions and Ours"

It is urgent to define a clear set of demands and objectives that specifically defend the interests of the popular classes, i.e. the vast majority of the world's population. — Alain Bihr

Epidemic Response –The Legacy of Colonialism

The COVID-19 pandemic is at its root a crisis of globalisation, a crisis of racial capitalism, a crisis of colonialism, a crisis of the social organisation of our public health system. It is a crisis of treatment and care versus demonisation and wall building. And it is the latest pandemic in a long line of modern ones—from SARS to swine flu to HIV to Ebola—a predictable and predicted outcome, not the mysterious unforeseeable lightning strike as it is often portrayed. The COVID-19 pandemic is at its root a crisis of globalisation, a crisis of racial capitalism, a crisis of colonialism, a crisis of the social organisation of our public health system. — Jennifer Dohrn and Eleanor Stein

Show COP26 and Ecology

A true ecology of consumption—a new system of enduring needs is only possible by incorporating it into a new ecology of production, which requires the destruction of the capitalist system. — Alejandro Teitelbaum

Marketocracy and the Capture of People and Planet — The acceleration of Twenty-First Century Monopoly Capital Fascism through the pandemic and the Great Reset

This study examines the trajectory that the world has followed since neoliberalism was imposed on humanity half a century ago, assessing the subsequent motivations—and their consequences for humanity and the planet as a whole—of key global elite groups and individuals (Gates, Musk, Bezos and the World Economic Forum, and its proclaimed "Fourth Industrial Revolution" through "The Great Reset") who have powerful influence on the world's governments. We live in dangerous times on our planet that threaten the future of all living things, but there is a way to avoid such a future –––– Álvaro J. de Regil

COVID-19 and Catastrophe Capitalism — Commodity Chains and Ecological-Epidemiological-Economic Crises

COVID-19 has accentuated as never before the interlinked ecological, epidemiological, and economic vulnerabilities imposed by capitalism. As the world enters the third decade of the twenty-first century, we are seeing the emergence of catastrophe capitalism as the structural crisis of the system takes on planetary dimensions. — John Bellamy Foster and Intan Suwandi

Capitalism of Dispossession in the Palm Oil Plantations in the Countries of the Global South

The commodification of land has deepened the ecological, social and economic crises. The unprecedented global pandemic of the covid-19 virus comes from the destruction of the habitats of species of wild animals and plants and the subsequent migration to humans. The neoliberal model is unsupportable in the sustainable conservation of nature and the planet's economy. A change in the capitalist economy is urgently needed. — Nubia Barrera Silva

Transitioning to Geocratia — the People and Planet and Not the Market Paradigm — First Steps

Parting from the fact that saving Planet Earth, our home, changes everything, we need to build a new ethos where the majority of humankind commits to a system whose only purpose is the pursuit of the welfare of people and Planet Earth. This requires that all Earth resources necessary for the enjoyment of life of all living things be managed to achieve true long-term sustainability. — Álvaro J. de Regil

The Contagion of Capital

The U.S. economy and society at the start of 2021 is more polarised than it has ever been. The wealthy are awash in a flood of riches, marked by a booming stock market, while the underlying population exists in a state of relative, and in some cases even absolute, misery and decline. The result is two national economies as perceived, respectively, by the top and the bottom of society: one of prosperity, the other of precariousness. At the level of production, economic stagnation is diminishing the life expectations of the majority. At the same time, financialisation is accelerating the consolidation of wealth by a very few. Although the current crisis of production associated with the COVID-19 pandemic has sharpened these disparities, the overall problem is much longer and more deep-seated, a manifestation of the inner contradictions of monopoly-finance capital. Comprehending the parameters of today’s financialised capitalist system is the key to understanding the contemporary contagion of capital, a corrupting and corrosive cash nexus that is spreading to all corners of the globe, and every aspect of human existence. — John Bellamy Foster, R. Jamil Jonna and Brett Clark

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Strategies for Degrowth

In the face of global socioecological crises, envisioning alternative futures that are realistic and desirable, yet also address the urgency and scope of these crises, is a daunting endeavour. As degrowth theorists and activists argue, at the root of our multiple, interlinked, and accelerating crises is a socioeconomic system driven by endless economic growth. The consequence of this growth—the excessive material throughput of countries in the Global North—is but the tip of the iceberg. Behind this growth massive and systemic changes.stands the drive for the ceaseless accumulation of capital, itself built upon a constellation of exploitative relations. The Future Is Degrowth: A Guide to the World Beyond Capitalism, by Matthias Schmelzer, Andrea Vetter, and Aaron Vansintjan, is a welcome addition to both untangling the capitalist relations that underpin growth while tackling the formidable task of envisioning a degrowth future that will entail massive and systemic changes.

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Research and analysis to provoke public awareness and critical thinking

We contribute to the liberalisation of the democratic instituions of society, for they have been captured by the owners of the market. They work in tandem with their market agents, who, posing as public servants, are entrenched in the halls of government. The political class has betrayed its public mandate and instead operates to impose a marketocratic state to maximise the shareholder value of the institutional investors of international financial markets. They own the global corporations and think they own the world on behalf of their very private interest.

Our spheres of action: true democracy – true sustainability – living wage – basic income – inequality – ecological footprint – degrowth – global warming –human development – corporate accountability – civil, political, economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, responsible consumption, sustainable autonomous citizen cells...

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Parting from an ethos of true democracy and true sustainability, We, the citizenry, work to advance the paradigm whose only purpose is to go in pursuit of the welfare of People and Planet and NOT the market.

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Textile Sweatshops in the US
Textile Sweatshops in the US
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GDP as a real indicator of progress is one of the biggest fallacies in our society

An interview...

Market-based governance is so entrenched that intrinsic and relational values always end up losing out. And with them, biodiversity and the sustainability of life. The dominance of the short-sighted view of nature is largely underpinned by the short-sighted neoliberal system, its free market ideology and the mantra of economic growth. Couple this with GDP, as real indicator of economic progress and the compass of a policy that only considers goods and services that pass through the market, and we have a problem because it is one of the biggest fallacies in our society. Nature has many other well-being values that are not traded on its markets, but that bring us well-being. And if we unbalance these values in our decision-making, we automatically break the balance in our relationship with the environment. We are not aware that in addition to living from nature, we also live with it, in it and even like it. Unfortunately, only the first option takes precedence in economic and political decision-making. For this reason, we consider it essential to focus on institutions and how they influence us when it comes to understanding what progress means. To do so, we had to question the role of the actors who hold the levers of power and impose certain values on others. Thus, we dissected the system in layers as if it were an onion until we reached the core of the issue, the socio-ecological crisis, the underlying causes that provoke the accelerated degradation of nature that we are suffering. It was the only way to say to the representatives of states and civil society in general: "Here lies the problem. So let's discuss values and find fair solutions".

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Anthropocene, Capitalocene, and Other “-Cenes”
 

Why a Correct Understanding of Marx’s Theory of Value Is Necessary to Leave the Planetary Crisis

The perception that we are living in a critical historical period regarding the conditions of habitability on Earth—not only for humans but for many other living organisms too—is gaining more and more adepts among common people, academics, politicians, and social movements. This critical period has been typified as the planetary crisis of the Anthropocene Epoch and studies undertaken in the present century show that habitability on Earth is progressively deteriorating. There is an increasing perception too, though more restricted, of the close relation between the ongoing habitability crisis and today’s global capitalist society. This perception is based more on intuition and on the historical correspondence of planetary crisis indicators with the capitalist mode of social production than on scientific studies showing that the crisis is a structural necessity of capital reproduction. As a result, a number of alternative terms to the Anthropocene have been coined to name the present historical period. Although terms such as Plantationocene, Chthulucene, Growthocene, Econocene, Pyrocene, Necrocene, and so on may have a provocative scope, it is also true that they are based on an incomplete understanding of the ongoing crisis. Among the alternatives to the Anthropocene, Capitalocene is the term that has undergone a deeper conceptual unfolding. However, the concept of the Capitalocene is not devoid of important misconceptions regarding the crisis and its relation with the fundamentals of the capitalist mode of social production based on the reproduction of capital.

In this contribution, I undertake a critical analysis of the current terms for the ongoing planetary crisis, and of the different conceptualisations underlying these terms. The focus is mainly on the Anthropocene versus Capitalocene dispute both because these are the more widespread terms and because they have undergone deep theoretical development. I show that the flaws in these terms are based on a misunderstanding of both the planetary crisis and the fundamentals of the capitalist mode of production, and of their mutual intertwining. These shortcomings are reflected in the proposals to formalise the planetary crisis in the GTS and they are discussed in this context. Emphasis is put on the methodological and epistemological limitations of the Anthropocene and Capitalocene approaches, which are ultimately responsible for the weaknesses of their political proposals to leave the crisis behind.

 

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Notes from the Editors of Monthly Review on “The Capitalinian: The First Geological Age of the Anthropocene”

Our article on the relation of capitalism to the Anthropocene, “The Capitalinian: The First Geological Age of the Anthropocene,” published in the October 2021 issue of Monthly Review, was directed at the question of how to characterise the current geological age of Earth history. In recent years, scientists have proposed that the Holocene Epoch of the last 11,700 years should be seen as having been succeeded by the Anthropocene Epoch, reflecting the fact that anthropogenic (as opposed to non-anthropogenic) forces now constitute the dominant factors in Earth System change and lie behind the planetary ecological crisis. However, the designation of the Anthropocene Epoch within the Geological Time Scale, though still not officially approved by the International Union of Geological Sciences, means that we are now not only in a new geological epoch, but also in a new geological age, since every epoch has a number of ages nested within it.

In our article, we proposed that the first geological age of the Anthropocene Epoch, following the Meghalayan Age—the last age of the Holocene—be named the Capitalinian Age, reflecting the fact that it is the capitalist system in its mature phase of globalised monopoly capitalism that has given rise to the current anthropogenic rift in the Earth System. This framework was subsequently carried forward in a new book by one of us (John Bellamy Foster, Capitalism in the Anthropocene [Monthly Review Press, 2022]) and in our article “Socialism and Ecological Survival,” published in the July–August 2022 issue of Monthly Review.

Unknown to us when developing this analysis, Carles Soriano, a geologist and volcanologist at Geosciences Barcelona (part of the Spanish National Research Council, or CSIC), in a 2020 Geologica Acta article titled “On the Anthropocene Formalisation and the Proposal by the Anthropocene Working Group,” had already introduced—prior to our discussion of the Capitalinian—the notion of the “Capitalian as a Stage of the Anthropocene Epoch.” In this article, Soriano argues that this designation is necessary to ensure that “a truly comprehensive understanding of Earth history is obtained, which comprises the ultimate causes of the ongoing planetary transformation and its stratigraphic expression.”

 

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Marx’s Critique of Enlightenment Humanism: A Revolutionary Ecological Perspective

The fact that Karl Marx was the foremost revolutionary critic of Enlightenment humanism in the nineteenth century can scarcely be denied. No other thinker carried the critique of the Enlightenment’s abstract, egoistic Man into so many areas—religion, philosophy, the state, law, political economy, history, anthropology, nature/ecology—nor so thoroughly exposed its brutal hypocrisy. But Marx’s opposition to Enlightenment humanism can also be seen as transcending all other critical accounts down to the present day in its distinctive character as a dialectical and historical critique. His response to bourgeois humanism did not consist of a simple, one-sided negation, as in the Althusserian notion of an epistemological break separating the early and mature Marx. Instead, it took a more radical form in which the substance of his original humanist and naturalist approach was transformed into a developed materialism. The result was a simultaneous deepening of his materialist ontology, which now took on a definite, corporeal emphasis focused on the conditions of human subsistence, together with the extension of this to the historical realm in the form of a practical materialism.

Marx’s analysis was thus unique in offering a higher synthesis envisioning the reconciliation of humanism and naturalism, humanity and nature. Rather than stopping with a mere antithesis (as in most contemporary “post” conceptions), the object was the supersession of those material conditions of the capitalist mode of production that had made Enlightenment humanism the paradigmatic form of bourgeois thought. This radical rejection of bourgeois humanism was integrated with the critique of colonialism, where capitalism was seen as walking “naked” abroad, exposing its full barbarism. In this regard, Marx’s revolutionary response to Enlightenment humanism helped inspire the later critiques by such anticolonial thinkers as W. E. B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, and Aimé Césaire, all of whom called for the development of a “new humanism.”3

Recent research into the ecological foundations of Marx’s thought, particularly his conception of the metabolism of humanity and nature mediated by social production, has brought out more fully the depth and complexity of Marx’s overall critique of capitalism’s alienated social metabolism. This line of investigation demonstrates that, far from being anthropocentric, or succumbing to the Enlightenment notion of the conquest of nature, his vision encompassed the wider realm of what he called “the universal metabolism of nature.” This included an appreciation of other life forms and his critique of environmental destruction in his famous theory of metabolic rift, giving rise to what can be called a revolutionary ecological perspective.

Post-humanist (including so-called new-materialist) thinkers have recently sought to challenge Marx’s metabolic vision and revolutionary ecology in general by promoting a phantom-like world of “dark ecology,” hyperobjects, and vitalistic forces. However, such irrationalist views, as we shall see, invariably fail to address the fundamental criterion of the philosophy of praxis: the object is to change the world, not simply to reinterpret it.

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 Transitioning to Geocratia — the
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Outside the Safe Operating Space of the Planetary Boundary for Novel Entities

We submit that the safe operating space of the planetary boundary of novel entities is exceeded since annual production and releases are increasing at a pace that outstrips the global capacity for assessment and monitoring. The novel entities boundary in the planetary boundaries framework refers to entities that are novel in a geological sense and that could have large-scale impacts that threaten the integrity of Earth system processes. We review the scientific literature relevant to quantifying the boundary for novel entities and highlight plastic pollution as a particular aspect of high concern. An impact pathway from production of novel entities to impacts on Earth system processes is presented. We define and apply three criteria for assessment of the suitability of control variables for the boundary: feasibility, relevance, and comprehensiveness. We propose several complementary control variables to capture the complexity of this boundary, while acknowledging major data limitations. We conclude that humanity is currently operating outside the planetary boundary based on the weight-of-evidence for several of these control variables. The increasing rate of production and releases of larger volumes and higher numbers of novel entities with diverse risk potentials exceed societies’ ability to conduct safety related assessments and monitoring. We recommend taking urgent action to reduce the harm associated with exceeding the boundary by reducing the production and releases of novel entities, noting that even so, the persistence of many novel entities and/or their associated effects will continue to pose a threat.

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Trees and the ‘Net-Zero‘ Emissions Hoax

The trees of the forest, a natural paradise of complex plant engineering under the deception of 'net zero' emissions in the Amazon. The irreconcilable contradiction between the cycles of nature and the spiralling growth of capital

The U.S., the European Union and China, the world's biggest polluters, have fallen far short of the commitments and targets in the climate change targets. These were to be achieved by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is evidenced by the 1.1°C rise in global temperatures, the highest since the end of the 19th century. The climate policies of the North are driven by the rhetoric of energy transition and a return to fossil fuels. At the same time, in the Global South, countless corporations, environmental NGOs and private investment funds are scattered everywhere to plunder the natural world. Together they are selling carbon credits to third parties at higher prices, replacing fertile agricultural land with large-scale commercial monoculture tree plantations, and selling off land, water, air and photosynthesis as part of the definition of ecosystem services.

In the Pan-Amazonian region, corporate policies of adaptation and mitigation to the climate crisis have updated old mechanisms of ethnic-peasant eviction from their territories and accelerated the destruction of vegetation cover, and native trees, including ecosystems and biodiversity as a whole. After COP27, green capitalism has swept through tropical rainforests and natural reserves for the conservation of biodiversity, as well as the oceans, water, air and photosynthesis. Among the legal instruments, the concession, another form of deterritorialisation of indigenous peoples, occupies a privileged place. This is defined as the act or effect of granting, making available, and making accessible consent or permission. This is the case of the Fundo or Fecho de Pasto communities, who are confronted with concessions in defence of their customary rights by supporting the notion of dispossession established in colonial times with renewed exploitative tools. Capital accords with local governments, its unconditional accomplices in the fragmented surrender of every component of the majestic Amazon forest to financialised capital.

From the Pan-Amazon region, we ask ourselves, will the trees at the top of plant evolution survive the sixth extinction of humanity? We do not know, but we are sure that extinction announces and also forewarns us about what to do about the coming eco-social instabilities in the making. For more than fifty years, a conflict between industrial societies and nature's biophysical limits has been predicted to engulf the Global South. We are at a turning point. Projections are distorted, and politicians are confused and make decisions contrary to the demands of their citizens in the face of an avalanche of unexpected climatic, environmental and social events. In these scenarios, the only possible reality is uncertainty. Hence sooner rather than later, rebellions will be the order of the day.

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Africa boasts examples of ecological resilience

Despite its low pollution levels, the black continent is much more committed to ecological transition than many other territories tied to their old patterns of industrial production.


It is no longer news. In recent years, Africa has emerged as the region most affected by global warming. There is a wealth of evidence to support this assertion: temperature rises of more than 1.5°C since pre-industrial times in various regions, creeping desertification in the interior, coastal erosion along the entire western coastline, increasing droughts in the east, floods and hurricanes - all linked to a disrupted hydrological cycle that is pushing the continent to its environmental, human, social, economic and political limits.

This context becomes even more painful when we consider that Africa is not the least responsible for the climate change we are denouncing: the warming caused by human activity and the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Indeed, it is estimated that African countries account for only 3.8% of total emissions, very little compared to China, the United States or Europe, which account for 23%, 19% and 13%, respectively, of global emissions.

Africa is not waiting for the industrialised world to react. There is no time for this any more. On the contrary, it is quite possible that, despite its low pollution levels, the black continent is much more committed to ecological transition than many other territories tied to their old patterns of industrial production. It is this idea that I try to highlight in África: cambio climático y resiliencia (Publicaciones UAB, 2022).  


 

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Vegan capitalism: food multinationals and BlackRock

After seducing the population with the supposed wonders of the vegan diet, transnational meat producers and big investment funds have landed in the food industry, presenting themselves as substitutes for the vegan diet

Until not so long ago, six or seven decades ago, the majority of the rural population's diet was austere, balanced and subject to the possibilities of their territories. In parallel to developmentalism and the concentration of the people in the cities, study centres, universities and prestigious magazines - in coordination with the food industry - spread the message of the need to improve eating patterns, increasing protein consumption, especially animal protein. Through the power of much advertising and propaganda, as in the case of fast food, the message permeated the culture and was installed in the imaginary as the pattern to be followed. To satisfy this "created" demand, the food industry, capable of producing much milk, meat and its derivatives at low prices without contemplating or worrying about its excessive externalities, was justified, thanked and exalted. Traditional food and agriculture were scorned and ridiculed, affecting bodies and territories. From buying and cooking fresh food, we moved on to ultra-processed food reheated in the microwave, and the industry was the clear winner. Something as intimate as our food has ended up being delegated to a few mega-corporations controlled by investment funds.  

 

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Castellano Transitioning to Geocratia — the