Decades ago, he showed that environmental, energy and economic crises had a common cause: a system that demands increased profits at all costs
Ecosocialist classic
Tag Archives | Martin Empson
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.
Book review
Biofuels: A pseudo-green scam that only enriches agribusiness
Ethanol and biodiesel boost corporate profits while doing nothing to solve the world’s growing social and environmental crises
Book Review
What’s the alternative to factory farms?
‘Farming, Food and Nature’ offers a powerful critique of industrial livestock production, but fails to challenge the profit-system that drives it.
Book review
‘Dust Bowls of Empire’ exposes capital’s global assault on the land
The 1930s Dust Bowl presaged today’s global ecological crises. Hannah Holleman’s brilliant new book shows how and why capital destroys the soil that all life depends on.
Book review
Invasive species and ‘rewilding’ – Is doing nothing a solution?
In ‘The New Wild,’ Fred Pearce argues nature will restore itself if we just leave it alone. Is passive acceptance really the best response to biodiversity loss?
Book Review
‘Kill All the Gentlemen’ — seven centuries of class struggle in rural England
In his insightful history of rural rebellion, Martin Empson shows how farmers and farm-workers across England have repeatedly risen against the rich and powerful
Book Review
Beginning to end hunger: Belo Horizonte shows the way
A Brazilian city’s food program feeds the hungry and supports local farmers. It succeeds by empowering communities and challenging inequality.
Reading from the left
Ecosocialist Bookshelf, June 2018
New Books! Red-Green Revolution. Rural Class Struggle. Climate Anthropology. Will Big Business Destroy the Planet? A Climate Justice Comic. Plundering Africa. Global Inequality.
Book Review
Ecological science fiction: Two hits and a miss
Three novels by Kim Stanley Robinson: Aurora is monumental and Shaman is a great evocation of the past, but New York 2140 understates both the climate crisis and the solutions needed
book review
‘A Redder Shade of Green’ explores the intersections of science and socialism
Martin Empson says Ian Angus’s new book makes the case for a renewed synthesis between science and the humanities, using the insights offered by both to develop a strategy for action.
Book Review
An interesting but flawed take on the Anthropocene
Martin Empson says The Shock of the Anthropocene is a interesting account of the global environmental crisis, but it fails to offer to offer any alternative to the current system
Book Review
Dead Zone: Where the Wild Things Were
Martin Empson reviews an important book for activists, a frightening examination of the impact of industrial agriculture on the environment, and particularly biodiversity.
Ecosocialist Bookshelf
Summer reading for green-lefts and left-greens
Climate & Capitalism is taking a short break. To help you avoid painful withdrawal symptoms, here are five books and a pamphlet that should be in every ecosocialist’s book bag this summer — or winter, if you are in the southern hemisphere.
Book Review
Why changing our diets won’t save the Earth
Received wisdom says that to save the planet we have to change our eating habits. Elaine Graham-Leigh explains why the received wisdom isn’t just wrong, it blames working people for a crisis they didn’t cause.
Food and Farming
The True Cost of Cheap Meat
Martin Empson reviews Farmageddon, an important expose of the disastrous failings of the global food system that never quite gets to the bottom of why the agricultural system is like it is.
Recommended Reading
Ecosocialist resources, January 2016
On the Papal Encyclical; Peoples power in Venezuela; Marxism & Ecology; Alternatives to neoliberalism; Top 10 climate events; Trade unions and climate justice; New Mexico’s last wild river; Climate insurgency after Paris
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
Revitalized climate movement draws 20,000 to London protest
The movement that stalled after the failed climate talks in Copenhagen 2009 is back on the streets – bigger, stronger and more confident than ever