Some writers imagine that machines can feed the world. They ignore the damage caused by industrial agriculture, and don’t value the work of people who feed most of humanity today.
Food Sovereignty
Author Archive | Ian Angus
Global heat
Atmospheric carbon dioxide level hits all-time high
Seventh consecutive year of steep increases leads to the highest greenhouse gas concentration recorded in 61 years of observations
Movement building
What will it take to win a Green New Deal?
Canadian NGOs have launched a “Pact for a Green New Deal.” Will they build the movement that’s needed to win real changes?
Six new books
Ecosocialist Bookshelf, June 2019
Marxist environmental essays … Science and the Anthropocene … Is disaster avoidable? … Capitalism at sea … Beef and class struggle … Climate and the biggest volcano
Book Review
Environment, Labor, and Capitalism at Sea
A compelling first-hand study shows that fishing is a deadly occupation because capitalism forces workers to take terrible risks in order to survive.
Metabolic Crisis
Superbugs in the Anthropocene: A Profit-Driven Plague
The promise of a world without disease has been replaced by warnings of evermore virulent pathogens, created by the drugs that were supposed to save us.
Challenge filed
Amazonian community’s lands destroyed for ‘sustainable’ palm oil
With 7,000 hectares of forests destroyed, community leaders and members have faced multiple attempts on their lives, threats and intimidation.
New epoch
Major step towards formalizing the Anthropocene
BULLETIN: Overwhelming majority of working group votes: A new epoch in Earth history began in the mid-20th century
Capitalism fouls things up
Fine dust and fossil capital in Korea
There is a good reason why there are blue skies in much of the United States while those of us living in Northeast Asia are choking — most of their factories have moved over here.
Video
Fossil capitalism, ecosocialism, and the Anthropocene crisis
Ian Angus speaking in Ottawa following a tour of the National Gallery of Canada exhibit on the Anthropocene
New books for reds and greens
Ecosocialist Bookshelf, May 2019
Two views of food and farming. The origin of climate science denial. The high cost of living well. And a socialist who mostly disagrees with ecosocialism
Review
Labor unions and green transitions in the USA
New report investigates how US unions are addressing climate change — and why and how their positions vary.
UN REPORT
Overwhelming evidence shows global biodiversity in crisis
One million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades, more than ever before in human history.
Movement building
Ecosocialists debate the Green New Deal (continued)
Continuing our discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of the Green New Deal proposal, and how the left should respond.
Metabolic rifts
Nitrogen glut: Too much of a good thing is deadly for the biosphere
Part Two of Ian Angus’s examination of the disruption of the global nitrogen cycle by an economic system that values profits more than life itself.
Unprecedented actions
Extinction Rebellion: A new stage for the climate change movement
It would be criminal if political criticisms keep the organized left from supporting and joining the Extinction Rebellion campaign. Three articles from the British left …
Reading Matters
Ecosocialist Bookshelf, April 2019
Five new books. Marine disease rises; Energy, food, nature, and the future; Civilizations and planet; Political economy of carbon; Understanding microbiome science
Metabolic rifts
Nitrogen Crisis: A neglected threat to Earth’s life support systems
Part One of a discussion of the disruption of the global nitrogen cycle by an economic system that values profits more than life itself.
respect traditional owners
End human rights abuses in forest conservation
“The National Park model of excluding indigenous peoples and local communities is fundamentally flawed. We have witnessed countless examples of human rights abuses in conservation projects.”
A Red-Green Manifesto for the 21st Century
No shortcuts: The climate revolution must be ecosocialist
Only a mass socialist, feminist, internationalist, pro-peasant, anti-racist, indigenous, and anti-colonial movement can save humanity