Capitalism and the Sea:
The Maritime Factor in the Making of the Modern World
By Liam Campling and Alejandro Colás
Verso, 2021
The global ocean has long served as a trade route, strategic space, fish bank and supply chain for capitalism. The authors argue that the Earth’s geographical separation into land and sea has had significant consequences for capitalist development. They focus on the creative destruction that has resulted from the collision of capitalism with the massive natural force of the sea.
Climate Justice and Community Renewal:
Resistance and Grassroots Solutions
Edited by Brian Tokar and Tamra Gilbertson
Earthscan/Routledge, 2020
Front-line fighters from five continents explore the impacts of extreme weather events and efforts to halt the expansion of fossil-fuel infrastructure. They offer various perspectives on how a just transition toward a fossil-free economy can take shape, they share efforts to protect water resources, better feed their communities, and implement new approaches to urban policy and energy democracy.
Post Growth:
Life After Capitalism
By Tim Jackson
Polity Books, 2021
Combining philosophical reflection, economic insight and social vision, Jackson argues that a post-growth society will be richer, not poorer — a place where relationship and meaning take precedence over profits and power. Post Growth is both a manifesto for system change and an invitation to rekindle a deeper conversation about the nature of the human and a world beyond capitalism.
Forces of Production, Climate Change and Canadian Fossil Capitalism
By Nicolas Graham
Brill, 2021
Graham reinterprets the Marxist concept of forces of production from an ecological standpoint and in the context of the deepening climate crisis.
His case studies, focusing on Canadian fossil capitalism, provide a concrete-complex analysis of the deepening of fossil-fueled productive forces and the ways that capitalism fetters the development of renewable energy technology and green infrastructure.
Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions
By Michael Moss
Penguin Random House, 2021
Some foods are even more addictive than alcohol, cigarettes or drugs. Moss shows what the food industry is doing to exploit and deepen our addictions, and proposes ways to seize back control.
A powerful account of the legal battles, insidious marketing campaigns and cutting-edge food science that have brought us to our current public health crisis.
Planet on Fire:
A Manifesto for the Age of Environmental Breakdown
By Mathew Lawrence and Laurie Laybourn-Langton
Verso, 2021
An urgent manifesto for a new politics capable of tackling environmental breakdown and for a future that is democratic and sustainable by design.
The authors argue that it is not enough merely to spend our way out of the crisis; we must also rapidly reshape the economy to create a new way of life that can foster a healthy and flourishing environment for all.
Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet and How We Fight Back
By Kate Aranoff
Bold Type Books, 2021
A new denialism is taking root in the halls of power. Policymakers have given oil and gas executives a seat at the table designing policies that should euthanize their business model. Aronoff argues that democratic majorities must curb polluters’ power, create well-paid, union jobs, enact climate reparations, and transform the economy.
[Inclusion of a book does not imply endorsement. Republished from Climate & Capitalism, which Ian Angus edits.]