Climate and Capitalism editor Ian Angus presents new books on oil, empire, the science of death, fungal health threats, degrowth and socialist strategy.
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Crude Capitalism:
Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market
By Adam Hanieh
Verso
Going beyond simplistic narratives that frame oil as “prize” or “curse”, Hanieh shows in depth how oil is woven into the fabric of modern capitalism. Oil has a foundational place in all aspects of contemporary life — no challenge to the fossil fuel industry can be effective without taking this fact seriously. An essential contribution to debates around oil dependency and the struggle for climate justice.
The Truth About Empire:
Real Histories of British Colonialism
Edited by Alan Lester
Hurst
A growing chorus of reactionary writers argues that the British Empire should be celebrated, that it was a benign, positive force. These powerful essays counter that campaign of misinformation, showing how racism, slavery, genocide and unbridled exploitation defined the centuries of British world domination.
Why We Die:
The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality
By Venki Ramakrishnan
William Morrow
Could we eventually cheat disease and death and live for a very long time, possibly many times our current lifespan? Ramakrishnan, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, examines the latest cutting edge efforts to extend human lives by altering our physiology, and debates social and ethical costs of attempting to live forever.
What if Fungi Win?
By Arturo Casadevall
John Hopkins University Press
While pharmaceutical researchers focus on bacteria and viruses, fungal pathogens may produce the next global outbreaks, pandemics for which no vaccine and few medications exist. Global warming is forcing fungi to evolve, and in the process making them more dangerous to bats, amphibians and food crops — and to immunocompromised humans.
The Poverty of Growth
By Olivier de Schutter
Pluto Press
The quest for growth not only undermines planetary sustainability, it erodes human rights, widens inequality and modernises poverty without eliminating it. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights calls for a new path in which progress is no longer focused on wealth and profit.
The Long Retreat:
Strategies to Reverse the Decline of the Left
By Boris Kagarlitsky
Pluto Press
The Russian Marxist dissident asks if the left can put aside its paralysing sectarianism and conceits of ideological purity in order to transform society for the benefit of the global working class. He believes it can, as long as it is unafraid to look critically at its own ideas and actions.
[Reprinted from Climate and Capitalism. Inclusion of a book does not imply endorsement.]