What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism

A Citizen’s Guide to Capitalism and the Environment

John Bellamy Foster, Fred Magdoff

There is a growing consensus that the planet is heading toward environmental catastrophe: climate change, ocean acidification, ozone depletion, global freshwater use, loss of biodiversity, and chemical pollution all threaten our future unless we act. What is less clear is how humanity should respond. The contemporary environmental movement is the site of many competing plans and prescriptions, and composed of a diverse set of actors, from militant activists to corporate chief executives.

This short, readable book is a sharply argued manifesto for those environmentalists who reject schemes of “green capitalism” or piecemeal reform. Environmental and economic scholars Magdoff and Foster contend that the struggle to reverse ecological degradation requires a firm grasp of economic reality. Going further, they argue that efforts to reform capitalism along environmental lines or rely solely on new technology to avert catastrophe misses the point. The main cause of the looming environmental disaster is the driving logic of the system itself, and those in power—no matter how “green”—are incapable of making the changes that are necessary.

Contents

·      Preface

·      1. The Planetary Ecological Crisis

·      2. Business as Usual: The Road to Planetary Destruction

·      3. The Growth Imperative of Capitalism

·      4. The Environment and Capitalism

·      5. Can Capitalism Go Green?

·      6. An Ecological Revolution Is Not Just Possible—It’s Essential

·      Appendix: Peoples’ Agreement (Pueblos Acuerdos): World Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change

·      Notes

·      Index

About the Authors

John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review. He is professor of sociology at the University of Oregon and author of  The Ecological Revolution, The Great Financial Crisis  (with Fred Magdoff), Critique of Intelligent Design (with Brett Clark and Richard York), Ecology Against Capitalism, Marx’s Ecology, and The Vulnerable Planet.

Fred Magdoff is professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont. His most recent books include Agriculture and Food in Crisis (edited with Brian Tokar), The ABCs of the Economic Crisis (with Michael Yates), and The Great Financial Crisis (with John Bellamy Foster).