Oil companies face severe problems now, but in the long run the industry giants may be bigger and even more dangerous to life on Earth.
Our Viral Future
Archive | Energy
Energy debate
Reconsidering Nuclear Power
Socialists debate whether nuclear can generate the power needed to improve the economic well-being of the vast majority of people, without carbon emissions.
Book review
Fossil fuel production and use exploded in the 20th century. Can we stop the flow in the 21st?
In ‘Burning Up’ Simon Pirani shows why fossil fuel consumption has grown so fast, and why only radical social change can prevent climate disaster now
The Atomic Genie
Thinking about nuclear: Hard choices that may cost the planet
Some environmentalists want both nuclear power and renewables. Richard Seymour says that’s an evasion. We must choose, and the choice isn’t easy.
Emissions rising
Energy and Climate Change: No progress in 20 years
BP statistics show we are far from meeting the emission reduction targets adopted in the Paris Agreement. In 2017, we took a step backwards.
Energy poverty
Renewables plan would leave world’s poorest in the dark
Converting to renewables isn’t enough. The majority of the world’s people will be denied a good quality of life unless their energy sources increase substantially
Ecosocialist Debate
Jacobin and ecomodernism: Two replies
Climate & Capitalism readers David Schwartzman and David Walters respond to criticism of Jacobin magazine’s special issue on climate change.
Pain-free sustainability?
The green energy cornucopia is 100 percent wishful thinking
Serious energy policy must address overproduction, overconsumption and inequality. Without that, promises of an economy based on 100% renewable energy are misleading and dangerous.
New Ideas
Should the left build an alternative energy commons?
For Discussion: Patricia Mann says that building networks of renewable energy microproduction could be the basis for a mass anticapitalist movement. What do you think?
Reading from green to red
Ecosocialist Bookshelf, August 2017
Six new books on climate change and neoliberalism, movement strategy, surviving the Anthropocene, science and religion, Gaia, and energy security
Enviro
Is renewable energy really environmentally friendly?
Renewable energy sources may have low CO2 emissions at the point of use, but the mines that make the technology possible are often environmentally destructive
Book Review
Why capitalism is addicted to oil and coal
‘Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming.’ A brilliant Marxist critique of capitalism and the origins of the fossil fuel economy
Ecosocialist resources, August 2015
Call for energy justice … 2015 is hotter than you think … Islamic climate change declaration … Against Deep Green Resistance … Anthropocene book review … Exporting crude oil … Racism and ‘speciesism’ … Climate change in Canadian election
Govts give fossil fuel companies $10 Million a minute
So much for “private enterprise” – the IMF says energy companies receive $5.3 trillion a year in subsidies from governments worldwide
Ecosocialist resources, 75
Syriza program shows another energy is possible … Gates and USAID: Grabbing Africa’s seeds … After Cyclone Pam: Climate action is urgent … Desertec’s renewable energy grab
Ecosocialist resources, 64
Work and ecological justice; Nuclear in Bolivia; Indigenous voices on Peruvian deforestation; Renewables are not enough; Carbon trading or regulation?
$88 billion a year in subsidies for climate disaster
Global governments spend more than double what energy companies invest to find new regions for oil and gas drilling, despite climate change risks, report finds
Ecosocialist resources, 56
Israel vs Palestine’s environment; The Economist and renewable energy; South/South collaboration; Central America braces for drought-linked food crisis
Environmentalists urge Hansen to rethink nuclear
300+ groups write: “It is simply not feasible for nuclear power to be a part of a sustainable, safe and affordable future for humankind.”
Socialists debate nuclear, 4: A green syndicalist view
Continuing our discussion of nuclear energy, Steve Ongerth of the IWW says it’s no coincidence that many of the same forces that are fighting to deny climate change and hold back renewables are also pushing nuclear power.