Technologies that promise a quick fix to the climate crisis actually pose high risks to people, ecosystems and security, and are dangerous distractions from the urgent need for deep emission cuts.
Techno-illusions
reading, red and green
Ecosocialist Bookshelf, December 2017
Six new books on democratic eco-socialism, war and the environment, genes and intelligence, climate change and the Roman Empire, the little ice age in North America, and views of the Anthropocene
Two views
Debate: Should ecosocialists oppose population growth?
In 'A Redder Shade of Green,' did Ian Angus unfairly criticize people who believe overpopulation is a major environmental problem?
Jena Experiment
Major study shows species loss destroys essential ecosystems
Long term research by German ecologists proves that loss of biodiversity has "direct, unpleasant consequences for mankind."
Biodiversity
Is mass extinction unimportant? (Updated)
A biology professor says the sixth mass extinction is no big deal because other species will evolve to fill in the gaps. History, ecology and ethics say he's dead wrong.
Ecosocialism
Marx’s ecological critique of political economy
Video: John Bellamy Foster on "Marx's 'Capital' and the Earth" — political economy and the materialist understanding of nature
Revolutionary art
“I paint what I see,” said Rivera
Marking the 60th anniversary of the death of one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century.
For a Climate Damages Tax
Make fossil fuel giants pay for climate change destruction!
'It is now time for the industry most responsible to pay for the damage it has caused, and for vulnerable countries worst affected to receive the financial assistance they so urgently need'
The 1% get richer
New reports expose ‘high and rising’ global inequality
Eight years after the great recession supposedly ended, global inequality continues to deepen, exposing claims that "wealth trickles down" and "a rising tide raises all boats" as class-based lies.
Metabolic rifts
Heatwaves can kill 27 ways, and climate change puts 74% of humanity at risk
Two recent studies show how dangerous heatwaves can be, and how global warming will put three-quarters of humanity at risk by 2100. “We are running out of choices.”
Food sovereignty now!
At global climate talks, La Via Campesina calls for peasant agroecology
"Our call for system change is urgent because the damage is growing. Commons, including land, forests and water, must be protected and restored to the people. We need to work together with our allies to be prepared for climate change.”
Paleoclimate
Slightly warmer temperatures caused Atlantic superstorms
A hundred thousand years ago, slightly warmer temperatures and CO2 levels lower than today led to dramatic superstorms and sea-level rise in the western Atlantic Ocean
Science is Clear
“There is no convincing alternative explanation”
The new U.S. Climate Science Special Report is unequivocal: climate change is real, it is caused by human activity, especially greenhouse gas emissions, and it is getting more dangerous every day
Ecosocialist critique
John Bellamy Foster on Jacobin and Ecomodernism
The editor of Monthly Review responds to 'socialists' who view the environmental crisis as a problem of technology, not a fundamental rift in society's relationship with nature.
Ecosocialist Bookshelf
MR Press launches pathbreaking new books on ecosocialism
Kohei Saito, Ian Angus, Fred Magdoff and Chris Williams offer powerful, historically grounded arguments and a way forward for society and the earth
Heat vs. humans
Lancet report: Health impact of climate change impact is ‘the major threat of 21st century’
The health of millions of people across the world is already being significantly harmed by climate change, a major new report finds.
Hothouse World
Greenhouse gas concentrations surge to new record
'The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was 3-5 million years ago, the temperature was 2-3°C warmer and sea level was 10-20 meters higher than now.'
Book Review
Sustainable agriculture versus corporate greed
Fred Magdoff reviews a new book in which Australian activists explain what’s wrong with corporate profit-centred agriculture and propose a manifesto for a people-centred alternative.
Open letter to the people of the USA
Economic reconstruction, debt cancellation and self-determination in Puerto Rico!
One month after Hurricane Maria: 'We need an adequately funded program of economic reconstruction (including the transition to renewable energy), the powers to carry it out and a true process of political self-determination.'
Letter to Canada's PM
Mexican activists demand: Stop Canadian mega-mines now
Victims of mining tell Trudeau: Canadian mining corporations damage health, contaminate and destroy environments, dispossess indigenous people, and harass, smear and assassinate critics. Get out now!