Ecosocialist Bookshelf is a monthly Climate & Capitalism feature, hosted by Ian Angus. Books described here may be reviewed at length in future. Inclusion of a book does not imply endorsement, or that C&C agrees with everything (or even anything!) these books say.
Helen Anne Curry
ENDANGERED MAIZE
Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction
University of California Press, 2022
Over the past century, crop varieties standardized for industrial agriculture have increasingly dominated farm fields. Behind widespread concerns for the loss of plant diversity is another extinction narrative that concerns the survival of farmers themselves, Curry examines the rich history of corn in Mexico and the United States to uncover this hidden narrative and proposes alternative strategies to protect and preserve crop diversity.
Chris Armstrong
A BLUE NEW DEAL
Why We Need a New Politics for the Ocean
Yale University Press, 2022
We face two urgent challenges at sea: massive environmental destruction, and spiraling inequality in the ocean economy. Armstrong examines these crises, from the fate of people whose lands will be submerged by sea level rise, to the exploitation of people working in fishing, to the rights of marine animals, and presents a radical manifesto for putting equality, democracy, and sustainability at the heart of ocean politics.
World Ocean Review #7
THE OCEAN, GUARANTOR OF LIFE
Sustainable Use, Effective Protection
Maribus, 2021
Since 2008, World Ocean Review has presented the latest scientific knowledge about the oceans in understandable form. The seventh edition focuses on the effects of climate change on the physics of the ocean and on its biotic communities; the consequences of fishing, shipping, resource extraction, energy production, and marine pollution. It questions how the ocean can be managed in the future in such a way that both its protection and the participation of as many people as possible in its services and goods are ensured.
Ted Hamilton
BEYOND FOSSIL LAW
Climate, Courts and the Fight for a Sustainable Future
OR Books, 2022
Financial interests, colonial powers, and outmoded legal ideas are blocking efforts to prevent global warming, but people are fighting back. Climate movement lawyer Ted Hamiltyon tells the story of the Valve Turners, a group of climate activists who successfully stopped the flow of tar-sands oil to the United States in 2016. Their courtroom battles to justify an act of civil disobedience were a major step forward in crafting a new, democratic law of climate justice.
Sarah Vogel
THE FARMER’S LAWYER
The North Dakota Nine and the Fight to Save the Family Farm
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021
In 1980 Sarah Vogel, then a struggling young lawyer and single mother in North Dakota, brought a national class action lawsuit to stop the foreclosure of family farms by the U. Department of Justice. This is her account of that battle, and her call for action to prevent the similar crisis facing farmers today.