Subjects Archives: Ecology

In his latest book, Socialism or Extinction: The Meaning of Revolution in a Time of Ecological Disaster, Martin Empson neatly lays out his argument as to why the climate crisis cannot be solved under capitalism.

Dennis Meadows: Climate change, inflation, food shortages are symptoms of a bigger problem.

For most of human history, the oceans have been seen as a global commons, the benefits and resources of which belong to us all in equal measure. But our seas–and the marine environment as a whole–are being ravaged by exploitation for corporate profit. The result is a social, economic and ecological crisis that threatens the very life support system of the Earth.

Our contemporary era of perpetual crises demands, we contend, a critical reappraisal of the state’s potential role, to supplant the predominant market-led responses to crisis, to advance a more equitable society. Historically, all major theories of the state—liberal and radical—have been generated in tumultuous eras.

Hoover Dam’s Lake Mead is dangerously close to dead pool status for the first time since construction in the mid 1930s. A vicious hammering drought sequence for over two decades throughout the West threatens to bring America’s biggest water reservoir to its knees.

In recent years, climate activists charged with crimes for trying to avert our impending global death via climate change have increasingly turned to the “necessity defense” in court to defend against their charges.

The new climate package furthers the U.S.’ most profligate pastimes: drilling oil and driving big cars.

The global biodiversity crisis is one of the great threats to planetary health.

Cuba has more than 380,000 urban farms producing 1.5 million tons of vegetables each year.

Fossil fuel firm’s profits are ‘an insult to families struggling to get by,’ TUC says.

When Exxon’s CEO is celebrating, you know there’s a problem. But there’s also a solution.

China has vowed to accelerate the installation of clean energy. Rooftop solar installations have emerged as a major force to achieve that. Nearly 53 gigawatts of solar capacity were added in 2021, with more than half coming from rooftop installations.

A letter obtained by The Lever shows the call for climate action is now coming from inside the administration.

The heat wave devastating southern and western Europe gradually began to recede yesterday, as violent storms brought cooler weather across parts of France and Britain. The heat wave continued in southern Europe, with temperatures close to 40°C across much of southern Spain and Italy, and wildfires are still burning across the region.

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR. Like so many others, Africans have long been misled. Alleged progress under imperialism has long been used to legitimize exploitation. Meanwhile, Western colonial powers have been replaced by neo-colonial governments and international institutions serving their interests.

Alejandro Pedregal – in conversation with Max Ajl

Ubiquitous, and worsening, environmental instability means we will have to throw out the anthropocentrism of economics.

The West seems more fixated on spending social wealth on the military rather than addressing the climate catastrophe.

The core countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the rest of Europe (collectively referred to here as the Global North) use on average about 130 gigajoules of energy per capita each year, nearly ten times more than what low-income countries use (13·4 GJ/capita).

We have to recognize that there is a pathway forward for humanity, but that the capitalist world system, and today’s governments that are largely subservient to corporations and the wealthy, are blocking that pathway, simply because it requires revolutionary-scale socioecological change.