Six important books on slavery, capitalist diseases, climate action, scientists resisting, economic planning, and technofossils.
Ecosocialist Bookshelf is a monthly column, hosted by Ian Angus. Books described here may be reviewed at length in future. Inclusion of a book does not imply endorsement, or that C&C agrees with everything (or even anything!) it says. Climate & Capitalism has received review copies of some of these books, but we do not receive any payment for reviews or for reader purchases.
(Apologies for skipping July and for this late post in August: I will try to resume my regular schedule in September,)
Steve Cushion
SLAVERY IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE
And Its Legacy in the Modern World
Monthly Review Press
Cushion situates the crime of enslavement within the business practices that place profit before people. Not only did slavery pollute British politics for over two hundred years, but it still contaminates its contemporary capitalist system. To this day many of the direst problems still facing the world—from horrific economic inequality to rampant environmental decline—have their origins in the institution of slavery.
Brent Z. Kaup & Kelly F. Austin
THE PATHOGENS OF FINANCE
How Capitalism Breeds Vector-Borne Disease
University of California Press
Over the past fifty years, insects have transmitted infectious diseases to humans with greater frequency and in more unexpected places. Through case studies, the authors show how financialization of society contributes both to the creation of landscapes that favor vector-borne diseases and to the failure to prevent them.
Mariana Rodrigues & Sinan Eden
ALL IN
A Revolutionary Theory to Stop Climate Collapse
All-In
The capitalist system is the root cause of the climate crisis and has absolutely no perspective of solving it. The authors, associated with the Portuguese activist group Climáximo, propose an analytical, tactical and organizational model they believe can “push society into the biggest transformation ever occurred in history.”
Francisco Racimo
SCIENCE IN RESISTANCE
The Scientist Rebellion for Climate Justice
University of California Press
In April 2022, hundreds of scientists rose in civil disobedience, breaking the law in more than twenty-eight countries. Risking arrest, they glued their hands to roads, blocked government and corporate buildings, and chained themselves to the White House fence. A first-person account of the growing international movement of researchers stepping beyond conventional roles to alert the public about the need for action in the climate emergency.
Simon Hannah
RECLAIMING THE FUTURE
A Beginner’s Guide to Planning the Economy
Pluto Press
Decades of right-wing scaremongering has tried to consign economic planning to the dustbin, but the need for it is greater than ever — it might be the only thing that can save us from climate catastrophe. In this myth-busting and accessible guide, Hannah lays the building blocks for a grassroots economy that aligns our economy within human needs and environmental limits.
Sarah Gabbott & Jan Zalasiewicz
DISCARDED
How Technofossils Will Be Our Ultimate Legacy
Oxford University Press
A blizzard of new objects has suddenly appeared on Earth: plastic bottles, ballpoint pens, concrete highways, outsize chicken bones, aluminium cans, teabags, mobile phones, T-shirts. Designed to resist sun, wind, rain, corrosion, and decay, many will remain, petrified, as future geology. This new planetary phenomenon has generated new kinds of science, to show the far-future human footprint on Earth.