How the global nitrogen cycle has been disrupted by an economic system that values profits more than life itself.
Metabolic Rift
Archive | Science
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The promise of a world without disease has been replaced by warnings of evermore virulent pathogens, created by the drugs that were supposed to save us.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
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.
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.
Metabolic rift
Broiler chickens: The defining species of the Anthropocene?
Forget jokes about crossing the road. New research identifies chickens as a vivid symbol of the transformation of the biosphere in our time
movement building
Help relaunch Science for the People magazine!
Climate & Capitalism supports the Kickstarter campaign to re-establish Science for the People as a powerful voice for radical science
Healthy people, healthy planet
Defining a safe operating space for food systems in the Anthropocene
A food system revolution is urgently needed, to provide healthy diets for all while preventing irreversible damage to the Earth System.
It's happening now
Scientists: Climate change causing heatwaves, droughts and floods
New report shows that recent extreme weather could not have happened without warming caused by human-induced climate change.
Earth in hot water
Ocean warming sets new records year after year
The oceans are heating up faster than predicted, and the speed is accelerating. Expect higher seas, stronger storms, and extreme precipitation.
Science Denial
Warming hiatus: The climate change myth that refuses to die
Climate science deniers say warming stopped from 1998 to 2013, and temperatures are now falling. Both claims are blatantly false.
Science is clear
New study: Greenhouse gas is more dangerous than regulators thought
New evidence not only strengthens the EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding, it shows that greenhouse gas impacts could be much worse than expected
Earth's metabolism
Exploring the deep biosphere: Organisms abound in regions thought devoid of life
70% of all bacteria live deep in the earth, constituting a reserve of carbon and biodiversity that vastly outnumbers and outweighs all humans combined