Climate change

“Metabolic rift theory” is not so useful

Updated 2 nd February 2024 John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark, and Richard York’s 2010 The Ecological Rift: Capitalism's War on the Earth has some interesting nuggets, but overall the book is deeply flawed, of limited political value, and tainted by Stalinism in theoretical approach as well as political conclusions. The book’s core is “the central concept of the... ‘metabolic rift,’ or a rift in the metabolic exchange between humanity and nature. … [T]he essence of a metabolic rift is the rupture or interruption of a natural system.” It’s “necessary to ‘restore’… metabolism to ensure...

"Toward the zero hour": Support the GKN workers!

Workers at the occupied GKN car parts factory at Campi Bisenzio in Italy, near Florence (Firenze), have made an international appeal to support their plan to launch a co-operative producing cargo bikes and solar panels. The struggle they have been waging since 2021 is now under threat, with workers facing the sack and eviction on 1 January 2024. Update: the campaign seems to be suggesting that they have successfully pushed back the deadline; but it is not clear. More soon. The workers' statement is below, above links to more information and to actions you can take. GKN and the asset-stripping...

COP28 shows contradictions of capitalism

Each year the COP meeting highlights a deep contradiction in capitalist society. Extraordinary efforts are made to generate climate science... Yet the talks reveal the seeming powerlessness of capitalist politicians to act on this knowledge.

Metabolism, Part 1: Marx

Printed in the first Discusssion Bulletin on ecology, November 2023 Introduction Every political theory has to conceive of the relationship between humanity and nature, whether explicitly or not. It is unavoidable to make some assumptions about the universe and the place of humanity within it, the impact of ecosystems on human lives, as well as the consequences of human social relations for the planet. The relationship between society and nature has been contested throughout human history. 1 What is the most coherent Marxist starting point for tackling these questions? Marx used the term...

Differences on ecology

Printed in the first Discusssion Bulletin on ecology, November 2023 I think we have few programmatic differences among us on environmental issues, and none of them paralysing. I am confirmed in that by my recent time in Australia, where there is more environmental activism than here, but among our comrades there is no sense that our programmatic positions as mapped by conference resolutions are rendered inoperable by paralysing differences. I sense that many comrades feel that there are huge and paralysing disagreements which they don't understand. The recent geoengineering study group session...

Contribution to discussion: The ecological insights of Marx and Engels

Printed in the first Discusssion Bulletin on ecology, November 2023 "Everything affects and everything is affected by every other thing, and it is mostly because the manifold motion and interaction is forgotten that our natural scientists are prevented from gaining a clear insight into the simplest things" (p178, Dialectics of Nature , F. Engels) In the preface to Capital volume 1 Marx states his purpose is to "reveal the economic law of motion of modern society" and explain “the development of the economic formation of society …as a process of natural history” (p92, Capital vol 1). There is...

Ecology — Suggestions for a bibliography, with reviews

Printed in the first Discusssion Bulletin on ecology, November 2023 Below are some reviews, focussing on books which I think are relevant to debates on theoretical background issues. The books in the class struggle ecological and wider science sections are valuable in general, for ecological stuff: the third section engages more with theoretical questions. My reviews are not polished for articles, they are mostly half-formed critiques, thoughts, and extracts. Some I intended to review, but never pulled together notes. But I share them for reference: General class-struggle ecology, very good —...

Discussion bulletin on ecology #1, November 2023, #2, February 2024

Discussion bulletin on ecology #1, November 2023 (DB 371) Click here for pdf of the first Eco DB, in the two column format as printed. Click here for a PDF of the same but in a one-column format, if preferred for reading online. Click here for doc version of the bulletin. Discussion bulletin on ecology #2, February 2024 Click here for pdf of the second Eco DB, in the two column format as printed. Click here for a PDF of the same but in a one-column format, if preferred for reading online. Click here for doc version of the bulletin. Contents #1 Click to read online: Metabolism, Part 1: Marx, by...

To curb emissions, curb the rich

The super-rich 1% are responsible for 16% of global carbon emissions, equal to the emissions of the poorest 66% of humanity (five billion people). The richest 10% (incomes over $91,000) are responsible for half the emissions. Limiting long-term global warming to 1.5°C requires a 48% cut in total global emissions by 2030 (compared to 2019 levels). There is no way of achieving this without radical cuts to the oversized emissions of the rich. Progress on poverty alleviation and longer term climate goals also necessitates social control of investment decisions. As the super-rich gather for the...

For researching a "brutally ugly" climate fix

As if inexorably, the Keeling curve measuring carbon dioxide emissions continues to ratchet up. At the same time, annual global average temperatures continue to increase. This year looks set to become the warmest for millennia. Paltry efforts to curb fossil fuel use, to prevent the problem of climate change at source, have stalled or are swallowed by ever-growing energy demand. Net zero resembles a distant mirage. Activists have to redouble our efforts to impose mitigation measures on profiteering capitalists and their unwilling bourgeois states. While emissions abatement must remain the main...

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