Books we’re reading this month … The Life of V. Gordon Childe; The Tragedy of US Science; Four Billion Years of Life; Marx and Climate Crisis; Tell the Bosses We’re Coming; Essays on Red Rosa
Reading in Lockdown
Archive | Science
New study
3.5 billion people may face ‘unlivable’ heat in 50 years
Every degree of global warming will push a billion people out of the human survival zone
Biodiversity under pressure
Rising heat may crash entire ecosystems
New studies show global warming is raising the risk of sudden, near total collapse of the wild populations that sustain human society.
Book Review
Making room for humans in scientific ecology
20th century ecology moved from racism and eugenics to studies of undisturbed natural ecosystems. Today, ecological science must integrate social sciences.
Superbugs in the air
Burned or buried, garbage spreads antibiotic resistance
New research shows that breathing near a site where trash is burned or buried may be dangerous to your health.
Global climate report
Confirmed: 2015 to 2019 were the five hottest years on record
Meteorologists agree that temperatures will continue to rise, and record years like 2019 are becoming the new baseline
Mass Extinctions
A third or more of all species could be gone by 2070
Even if Paris goals are met, climate change could wipe out 20% of species by 2070. If warming is greater, far more will die.
Profit versus life
Blue Acceleration: Capitalism’s growing assault on the oceans
“A new phase in humanity’s relationship with the biosphere, where the ocean is not only crucial but is being fundamentally changed”
Cutting Pollution
In Cuba, greener farming means cleaner rivers
Joint Cuba-U.S. study finds sustainable agriculture in Cuba keeps river pollution far below levels in U.S. waterways
Climate crisis
2020 is hot, and it’s going to get much hotter
Emissions are rising. Each decade is warmer than the last. The oceans are heating up. Australia is burning. And that’s just January.
Metabolic Rift
Disrupting the nitrogen cycle: Articles on a major metabolic rift
How the global nitrogen cycle has been disrupted by an economic system that values profits more than life itself.
Metabolic Rifts
How Capitalism ‘Solved’ the Nitrogen Crisis (continued)
Part Four of Ian Angus’s examination of the disruption of the global nitrogen cycle by an economic system that values profits more than life itself.
New study
Millions of years of low CO2 … until now
In Facing the Anthropocene, I showed that CO2 levels are higher than they have been for 800,000 years. New research extends that to 2.6 million years
Metabolic Rifts
Capitalism versus the Global Carbon Cycle
Carbon cycles regulate the Earth’s temperature and provide essential elements of life. Capitalist industry and agriculture are disrupting those vital life support systems
Reading matters
Ecosocialist Bookshelf, August 2019
New books for reds and greens. How the Richest Drive Climate Change; Planning from Below; The Scottish Clearances; Slime; Here Comes the Sun; Eco-Socialism and Practical Utopias
Video
The Discovery and Rediscovery of Metabolic Rift
Ian Angus discusses the scientific developments that led Marx to develop metabolic rift theory in the 1800s, and a new generation to rediscover it the 21st century.
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
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
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.
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