One Marxist line of inquiry into environmental problems has outshone all others in creativity and productivity: the theory of the metabolic rift.
Subjects Archives: Ecology
Marxist Ecology, Environmental Science and Ecological Crisis
On Paul Kingsnorth and Unruly Nature
Myth, an early and enduring human technology, will always be with us, in both unconscious and conscious forms. As we now face the slow-motion collapse of the biosphere, the call for new myths is not so much an escapist alternative to concrete analysis and action as a starting point.
More young Japanese look to Marx amid pandemic, climate crisis
As the global challenge of climate change mounts and the coronavirus pandemic magnifies economic inequalities, Karl Marx, who pointed to the contradictions and limitations of capitalism, is gaining new admirers in Japan, particularly among the young.
Sexed semen—Why the technology of producing only female calves should be opposed firmly
There is a fast increasing trend in cattle breeding towards sex semen technology which will result in birth of only female calves. 90 per cent success in ensuring success (in terms of having only female calves) is claimed by promoters of this technology.
A made-in-India shock doctrine, with a little help from Latin America
While an assertive Hindutva deep state was already a work in progress under Narendra Modi, what is striking is how the contingency of the pandemic has been used to mask it with a no-holds-barred steamrolling of market reforms.
Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous trap
Sometimes realization comes in a blinding flash. Blurred outlines snap into shape and suddenly it all makes sense. Underneath such revelations is typically a much slower-dawning process. Doubts at the back of the mind grow.
Is Biden’s big climate pledge real?
Joe Biden chose Earth Day (April 22) to convoke world leaders to a virtual climate summit and pledged to cut U.S. carbon emissions in half by 2030 compared to 2005 levels.
Whose agriculture drives disease?
We concur that linking land-use change science, ecology, and epidemiology is a critical step towards developing a more robust understanding of zoonotic diseases. Yet we are wary of the way the authors omit the historical specificities, political economy, and agroecological dynamics of land-use change, and their implications for disease ecologies.
Should marine species own the high seas?
To save the ocean, give property rights to the creatures living there.
A model U.S. “fair shares” pledge
You remember the Paris Agreement, right? As a good thing, right?
What Bill Gates has wrong about “advanced” nuclear reactors
If nuclear power needs to be part of the climate solution, why not continue to use what we have? I understand the reactors that we have are aging out. But why not either shore those up or use the same design that we currently have where we wouldn’t have to go through the lengthy and […]
For an ecosocialist transition that breaks from capitalism: Arguments and proposals
The 149 proposals issued by the French Citizens’ Convention on Climate last June, with the goal of achieving at least a 40% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030 compared to 1990, manifestly belong to a thoroughly reformist approach.
Battles lost, wars won: An environmentalist’s story
After Friends of Nature director-general Zhang Boju saw his activism fail, he went another route.
Grave concerns raised as Japan announces release of radioactive water into the sea
JAPAN has come under fire after its government announced today that it would release more than a million metric tonnes of radioactive water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean.
What about China?
China surged past the United States to become the #1 carbon emitter in 2006. Currently (2019 data from BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy), its CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel burning are over 9,800 million metric tons (“tonnes”) a year.
China and climate change: an exchange
In the Notes from the Editors to the March 2021 issue of Monthly Review, the MR editors questioned some of the arguments in Richard Smith’s book, China’s Engine of Environmental Collapse, as well as replied to Simon Pirani’s related criticisms (writing under his pseudonym of Gabriel Levy) of MR editor John Bellamy Foster on China […]
Zambia is the tip of the tail of the Global dog
On 12 August 2021, the people of Zambia will vote to elect a new president, who will be the seventh person elected to the office since Zambia won its independence from the United Kingdom in 1964 if the incumbent loses.
Intensive fishing and the birth of capitalism, Part 3
How England’s government-licensed pirates stole the Newfoundland fishery from Europe’s largest feudal empire.
Dialectical ecology
“If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster.” Thus reads one of the Hopi prophecies which echo throughout Philip Glass’s haunting soundtrack for Koyaanisqatsi (1982).
Ministry for the Future with Kim Stanley Robinson
Science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson joins Money on the Left to discuss his Modern Monetary Theory-inspired “cli-fi” novel, The Ministry for the Future (2020).
