The debate following our article in Grist reveals that many greens have a blindspot about class. Blaming the world’s problems on too many people makes little sense when one-half of one percent of the world’s population owns nearly 40% of all wealth and controls most of the rest (more…)
Nearly all “green” consumer products make at least one false, misleading or unproven environmental claim (more…)
The battle of the super yachts (more…)
Even the best food labeling system can’t guarantee that consumers know what they are buying. To but it bluntly, the bastards lie (more…)
If the theory of ‘consumer sovereignty’ is correct, then U.S. consumers must want salmonella in their omelets, and the DeCoster agribusiness operation, a habitual violator of safety, environment and other laws, is just responding to market demand. (more…)
Liberal journalists, pale greens and others are trivializing the BP/Deepwater oil spill and distracting attention from the social roots of environmental destruction. It’s time to dump the myth of ‘consumer sovereignty’ (more…)
There is no question that excessive consumption damages the environment, but are consumers really driving the runaway train? I offer the following as an indication that different drivers are in charge. (more…)
Perhaps because he was an anarchist, the works of Murray Bookchin are rarely read by ecosocialists today. That’s a pity, because he was one of 20th century’s most insightful writers on environmental politics. The following are excerpts from his article “Death Of A Small Planet,” originally published in The Progressive in 1989. The full text of […]
Is a desire to always have “more” a fundamental feature of human nature? In Mindful Economics, Joel Magnuson explains how consumerism was deliberately created to meet capitalism’s need for constant growth.
Readers of Climate & Capitalism debate the causes of damaging economic expansion. Do “more consumers” mean “more pollution”? (more…)
[Quotes and Insights #7] The reason we’re in trouble with automobile pollution is big cars. As Henry Ford said, “Mini cars make mini profits.” The reason Detroit went to big cars is not that people wanted them — until they were told. It was because big cars were more profitable. Still, the issue always comes […]
Introduction: In this important contribution to the ongoing debate over “individual” versus “social” solutions to global warming and ecological destruction, the editor of Synthesis/Regeneration directly and convincingly challenges the mainstream myth that the capitalist economy is based on “consumer sovereignty. He poses a societal approach that is compatible with and expands on the ecosocialist perspective that Climate […]
Another critique of the ecological views of the author of How the Rich are Destroying the Planet (more…)
