• Charles Darwin: Reluctant Revolutionary

    In 1846, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The German Ideology, the first mature statement of what became known as historical materialism.  This passage was on the second page: We know only a single science, the science of history.  One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature […]

  • The Myth of the Tragedy of the Commons

    Will shared resources always be misused and overused?  Is community ownership of land, forests, and fisheries a guaranteed road to ecological disaster?  Is privatization the only way to protect the environment and end Third World poverty?  Most economists and development planners will answer “yes” — and for proof they will point to the most influential […]

  • If Socialism Fails: The Spectre of 21st Century Barbarism

    From the first day it appeared online, Climate and Capitalism’s masthead has carried the slogan “Ecosocialism or Barbarism: there is no third way.”  We’ve been quite clear that ecosocialism is not a new theory or brand of socialism — it is socialism with Marx’s important insights on ecology restored, socialism committed to the fight against […]

  • After Bali: Time for a Different Kind of Climate Politics

    “We are ending up with something so watered down there was no need for 12,000 people to gather here in Bali to have a watered-down text.  We could have done that by email.” — Dr. Angus Friday, Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States In a narrow and formal sense, last month’s Climate Change […]

  • The Toronto “Anti-Terror” Arrests: An Attack on Muslims and Antiwar Opinion

    On June 2, a combined force of local, provincial, and federal police arrested 15 young Muslim men, including five minors, in the Toronto area.  Those 15, and two others who have been in jail since last August, are accused of plotting terrorist attacks on various targets in Ontario.  If convicted, they could be sentenced to […]