Our Book Reviews
Falter : Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
by Bill McKibben Wildfire, 2019 review by John Foster
This is an extremely interesting book, at least as much for what it doesn’t manage to say as for what it does. Bill McKibben, long-standing doyen of climate activism, brings together for consideration two routes towards the possibly not-too-distant ending of what he calls “the human game” – otherwise known as civilisation, or perhaps the human world. There is the now widely-recognised threat of the Earth’s becoming humanly uninhabitable through anthropogenic global heating, on which he is still as informative, cogent and incisive as you would expect. But also, and less familiarly, there is the prospective draining of human significance from a world dominated by artificial intelligence and shaped by genetic engineering, about which he is thoughtfully (and again, very informatively) worried. READ MORE
by Bill McKibben Wildfire, 2019 review by John Foster
This is an extremely interesting book, at least as much for what it doesn’t manage to say as for what it does. Bill McKibben, long-standing doyen of climate activism, brings together for consideration two routes towards the possibly not-too-distant ending of what he calls “the human game” – otherwise known as civilisation, or perhaps the human world. There is the now widely-recognised threat of the Earth’s becoming humanly uninhabitable through anthropogenic global heating, on which he is still as informative, cogent and incisive as you would expect. But also, and less familiarly, there is the prospective draining of human significance from a world dominated by artificial intelligence and shaped by genetic engineering, about which he is thoughtfully (and again, very informatively) worried. READ MORE
Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos
edited by Jem Bendell and Rupert Read, Polity, 2021 review by John Foster
There are dangers in the recently fashionable notion of Deep Adaptation, and this book exhibits them very clearly. One danger is that of simply trying to cover too many bases. This is apparent from early in the Introduction, where the joint editors describe their concept as “an agenda and framework for responding to the potential, probable or inevitable collapse of industrial consumer societies due to the direct and indirect impacts of human-caused climate change and environmental degradation” (p.2). But responses to potential and to inevitable collapse are surely going to be so different that any such ‘framework’ must suggest nothing so much as those impossible Escher staircases up which one can ascend downwards. READ MORE
edited by Jem Bendell and Rupert Read, Polity, 2021 review by John Foster
There are dangers in the recently fashionable notion of Deep Adaptation, and this book exhibits them very clearly. One danger is that of simply trying to cover too many bases. This is apparent from early in the Introduction, where the joint editors describe their concept as “an agenda and framework for responding to the potential, probable or inevitable collapse of industrial consumer societies due to the direct and indirect impacts of human-caused climate change and environmental degradation” (p.2). But responses to potential and to inevitable collapse are surely going to be so different that any such ‘framework’ must suggest nothing so much as those impossible Escher staircases up which one can ascend downwards. READ MORE
Parents For A Future
Rupert Read, UEA Publishing Project, 2021 review by Anne Chapman
I was rather reluctant to read this book as I feared being told that as a parent I had a particular responsibility to address climate change. Parents these days have enough to cope with without having this put on their shoulders as well. However Read does not do this, or at least not until right at the end when he suggests that parents need to lead a ‘Parents for a Future’ movement, as children and young people have led ‘Fridays for a Future’.
Much of the book addresses a problem much discussed in environmental philosophy, which is why we should care about what happens in the future, particularly the distant future when we will be long dead. Read’s answer is simply that the future matters to us because we love our children. READ MORE
Rupert Read, UEA Publishing Project, 2021 review by Anne Chapman
I was rather reluctant to read this book as I feared being told that as a parent I had a particular responsibility to address climate change. Parents these days have enough to cope with without having this put on their shoulders as well. However Read does not do this, or at least not until right at the end when he suggests that parents need to lead a ‘Parents for a Future’ movement, as children and young people have led ‘Fridays for a Future’.
Much of the book addresses a problem much discussed in environmental philosophy, which is why we should care about what happens in the future, particularly the distant future when we will be long dead. Read’s answer is simply that the future matters to us because we love our children. READ MORE
Post Growth: Life After Capitalism
Tim Jackson, Polity, 2021 review by Prashant Vaze
This is a short book that answers the question: what should be society’s focus, if we shake off our obsession with GDP growth? It draws on Jackson’s recent role as director of the inter-disciplinary Centre for the Understanding Sustainable Prosperity and playfully plucks ideas from philosophy, literature, biology, spirituality and politics.
Life After Capitalism is Jackson’s first major book since his influential, Prosperity Without Growth published in 2009. It is more prequel than a sequel to that book and does not address the criticism that without growth, how do we ensure full employment or adequate incomes? Instead, Life After Capitalism addresses the prior question: what should society aim for if people jump off the treadmill of production? It illustrates this by dipping into the lives and ideas of an idiosyncratic collection of people that guided Jackson in his quest for a good life. READ MORE
Tim Jackson, Polity, 2021 review by Prashant Vaze
This is a short book that answers the question: what should be society’s focus, if we shake off our obsession with GDP growth? It draws on Jackson’s recent role as director of the inter-disciplinary Centre for the Understanding Sustainable Prosperity and playfully plucks ideas from philosophy, literature, biology, spirituality and politics.
Life After Capitalism is Jackson’s first major book since his influential, Prosperity Without Growth published in 2009. It is more prequel than a sequel to that book and does not address the criticism that without growth, how do we ensure full employment or adequate incomes? Instead, Life After Capitalism addresses the prior question: what should society aim for if people jump off the treadmill of production? It illustrates this by dipping into the lives and ideas of an idiosyncratic collection of people that guided Jackson in his quest for a good life. READ MORE
Food in a Changing Climate,
Alana Mann, Emerald Publishing, 2021 revew by Anne Chapman
Food in a Changing Climate is part of a series called SocietyNow, intended to be ‘short, informed books, explaining why our world is the way it is, now’ and that make ‘the best of academic expertise accessible to wider audience’. Though short, this book does not quite live up to the accessibility aim. The writing contains too much sociological terminology and the author has an annoying tendency to write through quoting other people, which often does not result in clarity. What is good about Food in a Changing Climate is the way it sets current food issues in the historical context of colonialism and its legacy where, contrary to Anthropocene narratives, there is no universal ‘we’ responsible for the crises of climate change and biodiversity loss that we now face. Mann says that her book is a “response to prevalent discourses that technological solutions and our personal ‘purity politics’ are going to fix our food systems” (p.30). She says “If we can afford to eat outside the cruel and corrupt global supply chains that generate billions of dollars for Big Food, we should” (p.21) but this will not be enough to change the food system: eating according to our ethics is insufficient. We need to address injustice, rather than see the solution as a matter of personal responsibility and individual food ethics. READ MORE
Alana Mann, Emerald Publishing, 2021 revew by Anne Chapman
Food in a Changing Climate is part of a series called SocietyNow, intended to be ‘short, informed books, explaining why our world is the way it is, now’ and that make ‘the best of academic expertise accessible to wider audience’. Though short, this book does not quite live up to the accessibility aim. The writing contains too much sociological terminology and the author has an annoying tendency to write through quoting other people, which often does not result in clarity. What is good about Food in a Changing Climate is the way it sets current food issues in the historical context of colonialism and its legacy where, contrary to Anthropocene narratives, there is no universal ‘we’ responsible for the crises of climate change and biodiversity loss that we now face. Mann says that her book is a “response to prevalent discourses that technological solutions and our personal ‘purity politics’ are going to fix our food systems” (p.30). She says “If we can afford to eat outside the cruel and corrupt global supply chains that generate billions of dollars for Big Food, we should” (p.21) but this will not be enough to change the food system: eating according to our ethics is insufficient. We need to address injustice, rather than see the solution as a matter of personal responsibility and individual food ethics. READ MORE
English Pastoral; An Inheritance
James Rebanks, Allen Lane, 2020 review by Anne Chapman
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in farming and the countryside. Unlike Rebanks' previous book, The Shepherd’s Life, it recognises that modern farming is a break from traditions of the past and has had a destructive impact on the landscape and the wild creatures that inhabit it, as well as on farming communities. Like The Shepherd’s Life it is a beautifully written personal memoir, full of vignettes that make the points he is trying to get across. It does not have the paraphernalia of an academic text; of notes, references and an index but you will learn a lot about the huge changes that have taken place in farming over the last forty years, their impacts, and what at least some farmers (including Rebanks) are now doing to try to put things right. READ MORE
James Rebanks, Allen Lane, 2020 review by Anne Chapman
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in farming and the countryside. Unlike Rebanks' previous book, The Shepherd’s Life, it recognises that modern farming is a break from traditions of the past and has had a destructive impact on the landscape and the wild creatures that inhabit it, as well as on farming communities. Like The Shepherd’s Life it is a beautifully written personal memoir, full of vignettes that make the points he is trying to get across. It does not have the paraphernalia of an academic text; of notes, references and an index but you will learn a lot about the huge changes that have taken place in farming over the last forty years, their impacts, and what at least some farmers (including Rebanks) are now doing to try to put things right. READ MORE
Preparing for the Improbable
An extended review by John Foster of
Extinction Rebellion: Insights from the Inside, Rupert Read and Samuel Alexander (Simplicity Institute, 2020).
Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency: War Communism in the Twenty-First Century, Andreas Malm (Verso, 2020)
Extinction Rebellion (XR) continues so to identify itself – pulling, one might think, its crucial punch, since a rebellion, unlike a revolution, can take place within an otherwise unchallenged political framework. Historically, indeed, rebellion is what revolutions tend to get called by people who don’t support them. For all that, XR is much the nearest thing to a revolution that the climate and ecological emergency has yet produced. But is it near enough? Considering these two recent books together may help us to grapple with that very urgent question. READ MORE
An extended review by John Foster of
Extinction Rebellion: Insights from the Inside, Rupert Read and Samuel Alexander (Simplicity Institute, 2020).
Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency: War Communism in the Twenty-First Century, Andreas Malm (Verso, 2020)
Extinction Rebellion (XR) continues so to identify itself – pulling, one might think, its crucial punch, since a rebellion, unlike a revolution, can take place within an otherwise unchallenged political framework. Historically, indeed, rebellion is what revolutions tend to get called by people who don’t support them. For all that, XR is much the nearest thing to a revolution that the climate and ecological emergency has yet produced. But is it near enough? Considering these two recent books together may help us to grapple with that very urgent question. READ MORE
Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
Jason Hickel, Cornerstone, 2020 review by Bram van de Glind
According to the degrowth movement, a global economy that uses less raw materials and energy, respects ecological boundaries and yet thrives, is possible. Anthropologist Jason Hickel, argues that we must share what we have with each other fairly, organise our economy not against but in balance with nature, and above all, abolish our obsession with economic growth. READ MORE
Jason Hickel, Cornerstone, 2020 review by Bram van de Glind
According to the degrowth movement, a global economy that uses less raw materials and energy, respects ecological boundaries and yet thrives, is possible. Anthropologist Jason Hickel, argues that we must share what we have with each other fairly, organise our economy not against but in balance with nature, and above all, abolish our obsession with economic growth. READ MORE
Basic Income and Sovereign Money: The Alternative to Economic Crisis and Austerity Policy
Geoff Crocker, Palgrave Pivot, 2020 review by Emma Dawnay
The amount of goods and services that workers can afford to buy from their wages has been an ever decreasing proportion of the total goods and services produced over the last 40 years. This, argues Geoff Crocker, is a problem. At the same time the proportion of unearned income from investments - which tends to flow to rich people - has been increasing. The result is that the vast majority of workers have to get hold of unearned income to supplement their present consumption, in the form of benefits and pensions but also, increasingly, by taking out loans. Whether it be due to increasing automation reducing the need for workers, or the owners of firms having more power and thus being able to withhold higher and higher proportions of a firm’s profits, Crocker argues the current system is not sustainable. It will fail, or at least drastically reduce future potential consumption for most people. He proposes a simple solution: the state should create the money needed to bridge this gap – debt free – and simply give it to all citizens (this ‘debt-free’ money being known as sovereign money). READ MORE
Geoff Crocker, Palgrave Pivot, 2020 review by Emma Dawnay
The amount of goods and services that workers can afford to buy from their wages has been an ever decreasing proportion of the total goods and services produced over the last 40 years. This, argues Geoff Crocker, is a problem. At the same time the proportion of unearned income from investments - which tends to flow to rich people - has been increasing. The result is that the vast majority of workers have to get hold of unearned income to supplement their present consumption, in the form of benefits and pensions but also, increasingly, by taking out loans. Whether it be due to increasing automation reducing the need for workers, or the owners of firms having more power and thus being able to withhold higher and higher proportions of a firm’s profits, Crocker argues the current system is not sustainable. It will fail, or at least drastically reduce future potential consumption for most people. He proposes a simple solution: the state should create the money needed to bridge this gap – debt free – and simply give it to all citizens (this ‘debt-free’ money being known as sovereign money). READ MORE
Bringing Back the Beaver; The Story of one Man's Quest to Rewild Britain's Waterways
Derek Gow, Chelsea Green, 2020 review by Anne Chapman
Of all the animals that once roamed these isles but have now disappeared many think that the beaver is the most important one to bring back. This is certainly Derek Gow’s view. He has a practical background in conservation and in looking after captive wild animals. This book is part his life story and part history of our relationship with beavers and the long saga of attempts over the past few decades to reintroduce them in England and Scotland. Gow is a larger than life character, forthright in his views and an entertaining speaker. This comes across in his book. READ MORE.
Derek Gow, Chelsea Green, 2020 review by Anne Chapman
Of all the animals that once roamed these isles but have now disappeared many think that the beaver is the most important one to bring back. This is certainly Derek Gow’s view. He has a practical background in conservation and in looking after captive wild animals. This book is part his life story and part history of our relationship with beavers and the long saga of attempts over the past few decades to reintroduce them in England and Scotland. Gow is a larger than life character, forthright in his views and an entertaining speaker. This comes across in his book. READ MORE.
Food and Climate Change without the hot air
Sarah Bridle, UIT Cambridge, 2020 review by Anne Chapman
This book is modelled on David MacKay’s Sustainable Energy without the hot air, first published in 2008. That book had a resolute focus on the numbers in energy debates: how much energy we consumed and how much could be produced by the different forms of renewable generation. Bridle tries to do the same sort of thing with food, illustrating the text with ‘stacks’ showing the greenhouse gas emissions from the various components of the meals she discusses just as Mackay used bar charts to illustrate the energy consumed by alternative options. The book takes us through a day and gives different options for things we might perhaps eat and drink for breakfast, lunch and evening meal, plus snacks in between. Unfortunately though, I think that food is much too complex an area to be treated in the same, strictly quantitative way as energy. READ MORE
Sarah Bridle, UIT Cambridge, 2020 review by Anne Chapman
This book is modelled on David MacKay’s Sustainable Energy without the hot air, first published in 2008. That book had a resolute focus on the numbers in energy debates: how much energy we consumed and how much could be produced by the different forms of renewable generation. Bridle tries to do the same sort of thing with food, illustrating the text with ‘stacks’ showing the greenhouse gas emissions from the various components of the meals she discusses just as Mackay used bar charts to illustrate the energy consumed by alternative options. The book takes us through a day and gives different options for things we might perhaps eat and drink for breakfast, lunch and evening meal, plus snacks in between. Unfortunately though, I think that food is much too complex an area to be treated in the same, strictly quantitative way as energy. READ MORE
Absolute Zero Carbon Britain
Zero Carbon Britain: Rising to the Climate Emergency
Paul Allen, et al. (Centre for Alternative Technology, 2019)
Absolute Zero: Delivering the UK’s Climate Change Commitment with Incremental Changes to Today’s Technologies , Allwood, J, Dunant, CF, Lupton, RC et al. (UK Fires. 2019)
review by Jonathan Essex
What is the best plan for how we can transition to a Zero Carbon Britain that faces up to the climate emergency? In researching what a climate emergency plan for the UK might look like I drew on many reports, but two in particular, both published since the UK government committed to its net zero by 2050 target: Zero Carbon Britain and Absolute Zero. This review contrasts these two zero carbon plans: both are required reading, as guides to just how wide and deep our response to the climate emergency needs to be. READ MORE.
Zero Carbon Britain: Rising to the Climate Emergency
Paul Allen, et al. (Centre for Alternative Technology, 2019)
Absolute Zero: Delivering the UK’s Climate Change Commitment with Incremental Changes to Today’s Technologies , Allwood, J, Dunant, CF, Lupton, RC et al. (UK Fires. 2019)
review by Jonathan Essex
What is the best plan for how we can transition to a Zero Carbon Britain that faces up to the climate emergency? In researching what a climate emergency plan for the UK might look like I drew on many reports, but two in particular, both published since the UK government committed to its net zero by 2050 target: Zero Carbon Britain and Absolute Zero. This review contrasts these two zero carbon plans: both are required reading, as guides to just how wide and deep our response to the climate emergency needs to be. READ MORE.
Dirt to Soil; one family's journey into regenerative agriculture
Gabe Brown (Chelsea Green, 2018) review by Anne Chapman
One of my favourite hymns is the harvest festival one which starts “We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land...” But giving up ploughing is one of the key things recommended by Gabe Brown if we want to improve soils and farm sustainably. That we need to stop this millennia old practice (though no doubt the modern form, using big machinery, is particularly destructive) is an indication of the scale of the changes we need to make in how we use land to produce food. READ MORE
Gabe Brown (Chelsea Green, 2018) review by Anne Chapman
One of my favourite hymns is the harvest festival one which starts “We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land...” But giving up ploughing is one of the key things recommended by Gabe Brown if we want to improve soils and farm sustainably. That we need to stop this millennia old practice (though no doubt the modern form, using big machinery, is particularly destructive) is an indication of the scale of the changes we need to make in how we use land to produce food. READ MORE
Global Green Politics
Peter Newell (Cambridge University Press, 2019) review by Robert Magowan
Peter Newell’s first goal in this book is to guide the field of International Relations (IR) towards the simple fact that,
As Kate Aronoff and co write in A Planet to Win, “In the 21st Century, all politics are climate politics”. This is an endeavour long overdue: as Newell sets out in his first chapter, IR of all disciplines is one you would expect to have some appreciation of ecology and the biosphere as the basis for wellbeing and security and yet, notable interventions aside, mainstream scholars and practitioners continue to fail to treat the environment as much more than just another ‘issue area’, and one easily marginalised at that. Newell’s second goal is in the other direction: this neglect is mutual, he argues. Greens’ localising tendencies can lead to a lack of confidence operating in an international field that by rights should be second nature, but too often is reduced to the same platitudes (‘small is beautiful’ etc.) that were the target of Barry’s critique 20 years earlier. These goals are set not out of concern for the field of IR itself, nor its future. Rather the case is for the scale and urgency of the contribution that Green politics has to offer. READ MORE
Peter Newell (Cambridge University Press, 2019) review by Robert Magowan
Peter Newell’s first goal in this book is to guide the field of International Relations (IR) towards the simple fact that,
As Kate Aronoff and co write in A Planet to Win, “In the 21st Century, all politics are climate politics”. This is an endeavour long overdue: as Newell sets out in his first chapter, IR of all disciplines is one you would expect to have some appreciation of ecology and the biosphere as the basis for wellbeing and security and yet, notable interventions aside, mainstream scholars and practitioners continue to fail to treat the environment as much more than just another ‘issue area’, and one easily marginalised at that. Newell’s second goal is in the other direction: this neglect is mutual, he argues. Greens’ localising tendencies can lead to a lack of confidence operating in an international field that by rights should be second nature, but too often is reduced to the same platitudes (‘small is beautiful’ etc.) that were the target of Barry’s critique 20 years earlier. These goals are set not out of concern for the field of IR itself, nor its future. Rather the case is for the scale and urgency of the contribution that Green politics has to offer. READ MORE
Managing without Growth; Slower by Design not Disaster
Peter Victor (Edward Elgar, Second edition 2019) review by Prashant Vaze
Victor’s book was pushed through my letter-box in the middle of UK’s coronavirus lockdown. The book’s subtitle seemed particularly apropos given the lockdowns many of us are experiencing. These establish an enforced slowdown on the world economy - an unfortunate natural experiment to test out some of the book’s ideas.
The book’s early chapters will be fairly familiar to people that have read ecological economics books by Robert Costanza, Herman Daly or one of the founder members of Green House, Molly Scott Cato. Victor does incorporate some newer material particularly in chapter 4 which includes recent thinking on natural capital which has arisen since the landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and also draws on Piketty’s treatise on wealth inequality Capital in the 21st Century. READ MORE
Peter Victor (Edward Elgar, Second edition 2019) review by Prashant Vaze
Victor’s book was pushed through my letter-box in the middle of UK’s coronavirus lockdown. The book’s subtitle seemed particularly apropos given the lockdowns many of us are experiencing. These establish an enforced slowdown on the world economy - an unfortunate natural experiment to test out some of the book’s ideas.
The book’s early chapters will be fairly familiar to people that have read ecological economics books by Robert Costanza, Herman Daly or one of the founder members of Green House, Molly Scott Cato. Victor does incorporate some newer material particularly in chapter 4 which includes recent thinking on natural capital which has arisen since the landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and also draws on Piketty’s treatise on wealth inequality Capital in the 21st Century. READ MORE
Wilding; the Return of Nature to a British Farm
Isabella Tree (Picador, 2018) review by Anne Chapman
Everyone I know who is involved in managing land for nature conservation has been enthused by this book. An author and travel writer, Isabella Tree is married to Charlie Burrell who, in 1987 inherited the Knepp Estate in West Sussex from his grandparents. The estate was losing money and Charlie Burrell set about trying to turn it around by becoming the best conventional farmer he could be, amalgamating dairy herds, investing in new machinery, intensifying production and diversifying into ice cream production. However, by 1999 the farm was again in financial crisis when a visit by an expert to advise them what to do about an ailing ancient oak tree catalysed a rethink that eventually led to the creation of the Knepp Wildland Project. Wilding is an engaging account of this process and contains some great nature writing. For me it raises two key issues. One is the challenge it poses to the established UK approach to nature conservation, and perhaps our approach to nature more generally. The other is whether we have more than enough food and should instead of producing food give land such as that at Knepp over to Nature. READ MORE
Isabella Tree (Picador, 2018) review by Anne Chapman
Everyone I know who is involved in managing land for nature conservation has been enthused by this book. An author and travel writer, Isabella Tree is married to Charlie Burrell who, in 1987 inherited the Knepp Estate in West Sussex from his grandparents. The estate was losing money and Charlie Burrell set about trying to turn it around by becoming the best conventional farmer he could be, amalgamating dairy herds, investing in new machinery, intensifying production and diversifying into ice cream production. However, by 1999 the farm was again in financial crisis when a visit by an expert to advise them what to do about an ailing ancient oak tree catalysed a rethink that eventually led to the creation of the Knepp Wildland Project. Wilding is an engaging account of this process and contains some great nature writing. For me it raises two key issues. One is the challenge it poses to the established UK approach to nature conservation, and perhaps our approach to nature more generally. The other is whether we have more than enough food and should instead of producing food give land such as that at Knepp over to Nature. READ MORE
The Invention of Sustainability; Nature and Destiny, c.1500-1870
Paul Warde (Cambridge University Press, 2018) review by Ray Cunningham
The sub-title of this book with its two grand terms, Nature, and Destiny, suggests almost infinite scope and ambition, but the dates voluntarily constrain its historical scope in a manner for which the rationale is not immediately obvious. The book’s Introduction fails to directly address the rationale for the sub-title, although it makes it clear that Warde’s principal concern is with ‘early modern Europe and some of its colonial offshoots’, so it seems fair to assume that the historical boundaries are meant to delineate the early modern period, or more accurately perhaps the early modern period plus...a little bit more. In other respects, though, the Introduction makes it clear that Warde is keen to place his work in (modern) historical – or historiographical – context, and to situate it in terms of an ongoing ‘argument’ about sustainability, and even to draw ‘lessons’. READ MORE
Paul Warde (Cambridge University Press, 2018) review by Ray Cunningham
The sub-title of this book with its two grand terms, Nature, and Destiny, suggests almost infinite scope and ambition, but the dates voluntarily constrain its historical scope in a manner for which the rationale is not immediately obvious. The book’s Introduction fails to directly address the rationale for the sub-title, although it makes it clear that Warde’s principal concern is with ‘early modern Europe and some of its colonial offshoots’, so it seems fair to assume that the historical boundaries are meant to delineate the early modern period, or more accurately perhaps the early modern period plus...a little bit more. In other respects, though, the Introduction makes it clear that Warde is keen to place his work in (modern) historical – or historiographical – context, and to situate it in terms of an ongoing ‘argument’ about sustainability, and even to draw ‘lessons’. READ MORE
Extinction, rebellion and Extinction Rebellion,
An extended review by John Foster of:
This Civilisation is Finished: Conversations on the end of Empire – and what lies beyond
Rupert Read and Samuel Alexander, (Melbourne: Simplicity Institute, 2019)
Truth and its consequences: A pamphlet, addressed to fellow rebels, on strategy, and on soul
Rupert Read, 2019, available here
Common Sense for the 21st Century: Only non-violent rebellion can now stop climate breakdown and social collapse, Roger Hallam )Chelsea Green Publishing, 2019)
We need to recognise the immediate political context of these urgently timely publications for what it is. Last December’s UK general election was a national tragedy unparalleled in peacetime. This was not, or not principally, because of Brexit – although even that is no longer simply the black comedy of errors to which we had perhaps become resigned. Millions who, out of a confused but genuine craving to re-establish their own country in what they took to be their own image, helped to vote a malign populist charlatan into unrestrained office, will now be foremost in paying the economic and social price of the havoc which he and his blundering government will wreak. Such driven self-damage clearly has its tragic dimension. READ MORE
An extended review by John Foster of:
This Civilisation is Finished: Conversations on the end of Empire – and what lies beyond
Rupert Read and Samuel Alexander, (Melbourne: Simplicity Institute, 2019)
Truth and its consequences: A pamphlet, addressed to fellow rebels, on strategy, and on soul
Rupert Read, 2019, available here
Common Sense for the 21st Century: Only non-violent rebellion can now stop climate breakdown and social collapse, Roger Hallam )Chelsea Green Publishing, 2019)
We need to recognise the immediate political context of these urgently timely publications for what it is. Last December’s UK general election was a national tragedy unparalleled in peacetime. This was not, or not principally, because of Brexit – although even that is no longer simply the black comedy of errors to which we had perhaps become resigned. Millions who, out of a confused but genuine craving to re-establish their own country in what they took to be their own image, helped to vote a malign populist charlatan into unrestrained office, will now be foremost in paying the economic and social price of the havoc which he and his blundering government will wreak. Such driven self-damage clearly has its tragic dimension. READ MORE
Optimism Over Despair; on capitalism, empire and social change
Noam Chomsky (and CJ Polychroniou) (Penguin, 2017)
Hope Without Optimism
Terry Eagleton, (Yale University Press, 2017)
review by Andrew Mearman
This Green Read considers two books. Two things drew me to them. First, I was seduced by a pair of clever pieces of marketing: one, a title which proves a little misleading; and two, their co-location on an art gallery bookshop shelf. Ever the dutiful consumer, I bought both books. Second, having re-read John Foster’s thoughtful chapter, arguably the most crucial piece in Green House’s plea that we must face up to climate reality, I wanted to explore its topic, hope, in greater depth. READ MORE
Noam Chomsky (and CJ Polychroniou) (Penguin, 2017)
Hope Without Optimism
Terry Eagleton, (Yale University Press, 2017)
review by Andrew Mearman
This Green Read considers two books. Two things drew me to them. First, I was seduced by a pair of clever pieces of marketing: one, a title which proves a little misleading; and two, their co-location on an art gallery bookshop shelf. Ever the dutiful consumer, I bought both books. Second, having re-read John Foster’s thoughtful chapter, arguably the most crucial piece in Green House’s plea that we must face up to climate reality, I wanted to explore its topic, hope, in greater depth. READ MORE
Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari (Vintage, 2011) review by Ann Pfeiffer
This book might seem a strange choice for a Green Read, as its central theme is the Homo sapiens of the title rather than the environment, but it could also be argued that it is precisely this that makes it an ideal Green Read for the Anthropocene. The book focuses on the development of human society through the millennia, rather than what we might think of as traditionally “green” topics, but in the Anthropocene how humans decide to organise themselves has implications for the whole planet. If we want to rebalance our impact on the earth it would probably help to understand how we have come to design the systems - society, the economy - that interact with it. READ MORE
Yuval Noah Harari (Vintage, 2011) review by Ann Pfeiffer
This book might seem a strange choice for a Green Read, as its central theme is the Homo sapiens of the title rather than the environment, but it could also be argued that it is precisely this that makes it an ideal Green Read for the Anthropocene. The book focuses on the development of human society through the millennia, rather than what we might think of as traditionally “green” topics, but in the Anthropocene how humans decide to organise themselves has implications for the whole planet. If we want to rebalance our impact on the earth it would probably help to understand how we have come to design the systems - society, the economy - that interact with it. READ MORE
The Water Will Come; Rising Seas, Sinking Cities and the Remaking of the Civilized World
Jeff Goodell (Black Inc. 2018), review by Anne Chapman
During the last interglacial 120,000 years ago, when the global temperature was similar to what it is today, sea levels were six to nine meters higher than they are now (p.10). This is just one of the bits of information in this book which made me realise that rising sea levels could well turn out to be the most devastating impact of climate change. But Goodell also holds out the possibility that perhaps we could learn to live with water. READ MORE
Jeff Goodell (Black Inc. 2018), review by Anne Chapman
During the last interglacial 120,000 years ago, when the global temperature was similar to what it is today, sea levels were six to nine meters higher than they are now (p.10). This is just one of the bits of information in this book which made me realise that rising sea levels could well turn out to be the most devastating impact of climate change. But Goodell also holds out the possibility that perhaps we could learn to live with water. READ MORE
Burning Up, A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption
Simon Pirani (Pluto Press, 2018) review by Anne Chapman
This is not a particularly easy book to read. In places it is rather pedestrian in style and a bit over packed with information. However, the main message can be summed up in what Pirani says in the conclusion (p. 193): “People consume fossil fuels through technological systems that are embedded in economic and social systems.” It is misleading to think of our use of fossil fuels in isolation from these systems, or of their consumption in isolation from their production. The book is worth reading as a counter to widely-held views that the roots of our problems lie in people’s values, that we are just too greedy, or that there are too many of us. Changing our individual mindsets will not by itself achieve a move away from fossil fuels; we also need to change the system that we live in. Read more.
Simon Pirani (Pluto Press, 2018) review by Anne Chapman
This is not a particularly easy book to read. In places it is rather pedestrian in style and a bit over packed with information. However, the main message can be summed up in what Pirani says in the conclusion (p. 193): “People consume fossil fuels through technological systems that are embedded in economic and social systems.” It is misleading to think of our use of fossil fuels in isolation from these systems, or of their consumption in isolation from their production. The book is worth reading as a counter to widely-held views that the roots of our problems lie in people’s values, that we are just too greedy, or that there are too many of us. Changing our individual mindsets will not by itself achieve a move away from fossil fuels; we also need to change the system that we live in. Read more.
There Is No Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years
Mike Berners-Lee (Cambridge University Press, 2019), review by Anne Chapman
This book is more than about climate change. Berners-Lee also discusses the biodiversity crisis, ocean acidification and plastics, to which I would add the global dispersal of man-made synthetic chemicals – the invisible counterpart of the plastics issue. He also discusses the human social structures and institutions that have led to these crises, including economics, inequality, business, work, prisons, technology, values, truth and thinking skills. Read more
Mike Berners-Lee (Cambridge University Press, 2019), review by Anne Chapman
This book is more than about climate change. Berners-Lee also discusses the biodiversity crisis, ocean acidification and plastics, to which I would add the global dispersal of man-made synthetic chemicals – the invisible counterpart of the plastics issue. He also discusses the human social structures and institutions that have led to these crises, including economics, inequality, business, work, prisons, technology, values, truth and thinking skills. Read more
Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, MaddAddam
Margaret Atwood (Bloomsbury, 2003, 2009 and 2013) review by Anne Chapman
This trilogy of novels are set in the future after climate change has really hit us. It is not a far distant future: at one point we learn that it is the twenty-first century. Atwood has thought through what life in a world with a changed climate change might be like, and we can perhaps learn from this. She has described these novels as ‘speculative fiction’: the technologies described either already exist, are under construction or possible in theory. About the The Year of the Flood, she has said: ‘the general tendencies and many of the details in it are alarmingly close to fact’. Read more
Margaret Atwood (Bloomsbury, 2003, 2009 and 2013) review by Anne Chapman
This trilogy of novels are set in the future after climate change has really hit us. It is not a far distant future: at one point we learn that it is the twenty-first century. Atwood has thought through what life in a world with a changed climate change might be like, and we can perhaps learn from this. She has described these novels as ‘speculative fiction’: the technologies described either already exist, are under construction or possible in theory. About the The Year of the Flood, she has said: ‘the general tendencies and many of the details in it are alarmingly close to fact’. Read more
The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future
David Wallace-Wells (Allen Lane, 2019) review by John Foster
This is a remarkable book, and nothing that I say subsequently is meant to dissuade you from going right out and buying it – for yourself, as a compellingly lucid account of our climate plight in all its ramifications, or as the ideal gift for anyone you know who still needs convincing. Its first three parts comprise the starkest demonstration of climate honesty that we have had to date. Yet Wallace-Wells both gets it and doesn’t get it. Read more.
David Wallace-Wells (Allen Lane, 2019) review by John Foster
This is a remarkable book, and nothing that I say subsequently is meant to dissuade you from going right out and buying it – for yourself, as a compellingly lucid account of our climate plight in all its ramifications, or as the ideal gift for anyone you know who still needs convincing. Its first three parts comprise the starkest demonstration of climate honesty that we have had to date. Yet Wallace-Wells both gets it and doesn’t get it. Read more.
The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocene
Simon L Lewis and Mark A Maslin (Penguin, 2018) review by Victor Anderson
This excellent book sets out how human history has entered a new period: the Anthropocene, in which humans are a key factor shaping the planet. This is not just a new period in human history, but a new period in the Earth’s history. Our species is changing our planet in such a major way that what we are doing deserves to be placed on the big-picture geological timescale. Much of this analysis will be familiar to readers of this website, but The Human Planet stands out from the ever-growing literature on the Anthropocene and the debates it has sparked. It includes with many historical and ecological details which are not only interesting in their own right but also bring the story to life in a vivid way. It argues for 1610 as the start of the Anthropocene. Read more.
Simon L Lewis and Mark A Maslin (Penguin, 2018) review by Victor Anderson
This excellent book sets out how human history has entered a new period: the Anthropocene, in which humans are a key factor shaping the planet. This is not just a new period in human history, but a new period in the Earth’s history. Our species is changing our planet in such a major way that what we are doing deserves to be placed on the big-picture geological timescale. Much of this analysis will be familiar to readers of this website, but The Human Planet stands out from the ever-growing literature on the Anthropocene and the debates it has sparked. It includes with many historical and ecological details which are not only interesting in their own right but also bring the story to life in a vivid way. It argues for 1610 as the start of the Anthropocene. Read more.
Will Big Business Destroy our Planet
Peter Dauvergne (Polity Press, 2018) review by John Foster
If books take for their titles questions admitting of one-word answers, they give hostages to fortune. Either they plump clearly for one of the possible single words, and stand in danger of being charged with gross simplification. Or they don’t, and get accused of not doing what it says on the tin. This book tries to dodge the problem by delivering a firm “No but yes but no but…”, which turns out to have its own drawbacks.
Dauvergne has in his sights the sustainability-spin increasingly offered by big transnational corporations – Monsanto, for instance, claiming to be a “leader in sustainable agriculture” – and, more dangerously, the tendency of governments in thrall to free-market ideology (and even of large NGOs wishing to consort with governments), to take such claims not as further evidence for the long-threatened death of irony, but at face value. Read more.
Peter Dauvergne (Polity Press, 2018) review by John Foster
If books take for their titles questions admitting of one-word answers, they give hostages to fortune. Either they plump clearly for one of the possible single words, and stand in danger of being charged with gross simplification. Or they don’t, and get accused of not doing what it says on the tin. This book tries to dodge the problem by delivering a firm “No but yes but no but…”, which turns out to have its own drawbacks.
Dauvergne has in his sights the sustainability-spin increasingly offered by big transnational corporations – Monsanto, for instance, claiming to be a “leader in sustainable agriculture” – and, more dangerously, the tendency of governments in thrall to free-market ideology (and even of large NGOs wishing to consort with governments), to take such claims not as further evidence for the long-threatened death of irony, but at face value. Read more.
Rethinking the Economics of Land and Housing
Josh Ryan-Collins, Toby Lloyd and Laurie Macfarlane (Zed Books and New Economics Foundation, 2017) review by Anne Chapman
A house is not just a home, it is a financial asset. It may not even be a home at all, simply ‘a vehicle for accumulating wealth’ (p.92). This role of housing and property as investment and a store of wealth is clearly in conflict with its role in providing people with places to live, with homes. This is a point we made in our 2015 report about the housing crisis: the problem is not the number of people compared with the number of homes, but the enormous increase in the amount of money available to buy property which has driven prices beyond the reach of many people. This book is therefore a very welcome analysis of the situation. It examines the role of housing in the contemporary economy – one that it characterizes as ‘residential capitalism’ (p.86). Read more.
Josh Ryan-Collins, Toby Lloyd and Laurie Macfarlane (Zed Books and New Economics Foundation, 2017) review by Anne Chapman
A house is not just a home, it is a financial asset. It may not even be a home at all, simply ‘a vehicle for accumulating wealth’ (p.92). This role of housing and property as investment and a store of wealth is clearly in conflict with its role in providing people with places to live, with homes. This is a point we made in our 2015 report about the housing crisis: the problem is not the number of people compared with the number of homes, but the enormous increase in the amount of money available to buy property which has driven prices beyond the reach of many people. This book is therefore a very welcome analysis of the situation. It examines the role of housing in the contemporary economy – one that it characterizes as ‘residential capitalism’ (p.86). Read more.
Why Women Will Save the Planet
Friends of the Earth and C40 (Zed Books, 2018) review by Ann Pfeiffer
This is an updated edition of the 2015 publication with the same title. This new edition is a collaboration between Friends of the Earth - who were behind the 2015 version - and C40, who describe themselves as “a network of the world's most important cities committed to tackling climate change”. The book is a collection of submissions by 32 women (including Lyla Mehta, a member of Green House’s Advisory Group) and one man, who presumably, in view of the title, have all been asked for their thoughts on why women will save the planet. However, having read the book, in my view that's not always the question their submissions have answered. Read more.
Friends of the Earth and C40 (Zed Books, 2018) review by Ann Pfeiffer
This is an updated edition of the 2015 publication with the same title. This new edition is a collaboration between Friends of the Earth - who were behind the 2015 version - and C40, who describe themselves as “a network of the world's most important cities committed to tackling climate change”. The book is a collection of submissions by 32 women (including Lyla Mehta, a member of Green House’s Advisory Group) and one man, who presumably, in view of the title, have all been asked for their thoughts on why women will save the planet. However, having read the book, in my view that's not always the question their submissions have answered. Read more.
Escaping Growth Dependency
Positive Money, 2018, review by Anne Chapman
This report from Positive Money is a very clear exposition of the factors which drive governments to pursue economic growth despite this being ecologically unsustainable. Positive Money is an organisation that campaigns for reform of the monetary system, so the focus of the report is on how the current monetary system creates high levels of public and private debt, which are only manageable if there is economic growth. Read more.
Positive Money, 2018, review by Anne Chapman
This report from Positive Money is a very clear exposition of the factors which drive governments to pursue economic growth despite this being ecologically unsustainable. Positive Money is an organisation that campaigns for reform of the monetary system, so the focus of the report is on how the current monetary system creates high levels of public and private debt, which are only manageable if there is economic growth. Read more.
Viking Economics – How the Scandinavians Got it Right and How We Can, Too
George Lakey, (Melville House, 2016), review by Anne Chapman
Freedom is normally a value claimed by the Right and equality by the Left. Often the two are regarded as trade offs: if you want more freedom you get less equality and vice versa. But George Lakey claims that both are delivered by the ‘Nordic model’. There socialism has been a success. Read more.
George Lakey, (Melville House, 2016), review by Anne Chapman
Freedom is normally a value claimed by the Right and equality by the Left. Often the two are regarded as trade offs: if you want more freedom you get less equality and vice versa. But George Lakey claims that both are delivered by the ‘Nordic model’. There socialism has been a success. Read more.
Meat, a Benign Extravagance
Simon Fairlie (Chealsea Green, 2010) review by Anne Chapman
The increasing popularity and prominence of veganism gives Simon Fairlie’s 2010 book, Meat a Benign Extravagance, a topical relevance. Fairlie brings to this book several decades of practical experience of farming, a critical quantitative approach and whole systems thinking. He does not defend our current industrialised systems of livestock farming and he is clear that, collectively, we need to eat less meat. Meat is an extravagance, but one which from the point of view of the ecology and sustainability of agricultural systems can be benign (whether the killing of animals for meat is morally wrong is question that Fairlie does not address). Read more.
Simon Fairlie (Chealsea Green, 2010) review by Anne Chapman
The increasing popularity and prominence of veganism gives Simon Fairlie’s 2010 book, Meat a Benign Extravagance, a topical relevance. Fairlie brings to this book several decades of practical experience of farming, a critical quantitative approach and whole systems thinking. He does not defend our current industrialised systems of livestock farming and he is clear that, collectively, we need to eat less meat. Meat is an extravagance, but one which from the point of view of the ecology and sustainability of agricultural systems can be benign (whether the killing of animals for meat is morally wrong is question that Fairlie does not address). Read more.
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
Kate Raworth (Random House Business Books, 2017) review by Brian Pettifor
Kate Raworth's Doughnut Economics has a catchy title, appealing diagrams and has attracted some extravagant praise; Georg Monbiot has called her the John Maynard Keynes of the 21st Century. Is Monbiot right?
This is an inspiring and highly readable book, enlivened by its insistence on the centrality of diagrams. The central thesis is that we have to change the objective of economics. We should no longer pursue growth in Gross Domestic Product to the exclusion of all else, but instead construct an economy that respects both the environment and society – environmental and social justice as many Greens have had it for years. Read more.
Kate Raworth (Random House Business Books, 2017) review by Brian Pettifor
Kate Raworth's Doughnut Economics has a catchy title, appealing diagrams and has attracted some extravagant praise; Georg Monbiot has called her the John Maynard Keynes of the 21st Century. Is Monbiot right?
This is an inspiring and highly readable book, enlivened by its insistence on the centrality of diagrams. The central thesis is that we have to change the objective of economics. We should no longer pursue growth in Gross Domestic Product to the exclusion of all else, but instead construct an economy that respects both the environment and society – environmental and social justice as many Greens have had it for years. Read more.
The Production of Money
Ann Pettifor (Verso, 2017) review by Anne Chapman
I wanted to read this book after I heard Ann Pettifor on the radio saying that the problem with most mainstream economists was that they thought of money as a commodity, of which there was a fixed amount, whereas in fact money represented promises we make to each other and there is no limit on our promising. There is a limited supply of natural resources, human creativity and skills, but not of money. Read more.
Ann Pettifor (Verso, 2017) review by Anne Chapman
I wanted to read this book after I heard Ann Pettifor on the radio saying that the problem with most mainstream economists was that they thought of money as a commodity, of which there was a fixed amount, whereas in fact money represented promises we make to each other and there is no limit on our promising. There is a limited supply of natural resources, human creativity and skills, but not of money. Read more.
Limits revisited - A review of the limits to growth report
Tim Jackson and Robin Webster (2016)
Four and a half decades after the Club of Rome published its landmark report on Limits to Growth, the study remains critical to our understanding of economic prosperity. This new review of the Limits debate has been written to mark the launch of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Limits to Growth.
Tim Jackson and Robin Webster (2016)
Four and a half decades after the Club of Rome published its landmark report on Limits to Growth, the study remains critical to our understanding of economic prosperity. This new review of the Limits debate has been written to mark the launch of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Limits to Growth.
Policies for a post-growth economy
Samuel Alexander (2016)
This paper provides a summary case for why there are, in fact, limits to growth, and outlines a range of bold policy interventions that would be required to produce a stable and flourishing post-growth economy. The analysis draws on and attempts to develop a rich array of thinking from literatures including ecological economics, eco-socialism, degrowth, and sustainable consumption.
Samuel Alexander (2016)
This paper provides a summary case for why there are, in fact, limits to growth, and outlines a range of bold policy interventions that would be required to produce a stable and flourishing post-growth economy. The analysis draws on and attempts to develop a rich array of thinking from literatures including ecological economics, eco-socialism, degrowth, and sustainable consumption.
And The Weak Suffer What They Must? Europe, Austerity and the Threat to Global Stability
Yanis Varoufakis (The Bodley Head, 2016) review by Brian Heatley
Yanis Varoufakis is, as the jacket informs us, the emerging rock star of Europe’s anti-austerity uprising. In early 2015, as the Finance Minister of Greece’s radical Syriza led Government, Varoufakis defied the European Central Bank and the formidable German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He resigned as Finance Minister when Greece voted to accept bailout and austerity in a referendum in July 2015. So I was looking forward to an inside account of that exciting five months, when Greece defied the European establishment, refusing to accept either disastrous alternative, austerity or Greece leaving the Euro. Read more
Yanis Varoufakis (The Bodley Head, 2016) review by Brian Heatley
Yanis Varoufakis is, as the jacket informs us, the emerging rock star of Europe’s anti-austerity uprising. In early 2015, as the Finance Minister of Greece’s radical Syriza led Government, Varoufakis defied the European Central Bank and the formidable German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He resigned as Finance Minister when Greece voted to accept bailout and austerity in a referendum in July 2015. So I was looking forward to an inside account of that exciting five months, when Greece defied the European establishment, refusing to accept either disastrous alternative, austerity or Greece leaving the Euro. Read more
Postcapitalism, A Guide to Our Future
Paul Mason (Allen Lane, 2015) review by Brian Heatley
Paul Mason’s Postcapitalism is an ambitious synthesis of a number of existing arguments that collectively aim to show that ‘capitalism is a complex, adaptive system which has reached the limits of its capacity to adapt,’ and which goes on to sketch a Postcapitalist future. Lost? Mason would have given a better clue as to what he was about if he had called his book Post Capital. For then many would have understood its intellectual heritage in Marx’s Capital.Post Capitalism His aim is to tell us how capitalism will be superseded. Read more
Paul Mason (Allen Lane, 2015) review by Brian Heatley
Paul Mason’s Postcapitalism is an ambitious synthesis of a number of existing arguments that collectively aim to show that ‘capitalism is a complex, adaptive system which has reached the limits of its capacity to adapt,’ and which goes on to sketch a Postcapitalist future. Lost? Mason would have given a better clue as to what he was about if he had called his book Post Capital. For then many would have understood its intellectual heritage in Marx’s Capital.Post Capitalism His aim is to tell us how capitalism will be superseded. Read more
Green economics versus growth economics: The case of Thomas Piketty
Rupert Read (2015)
Green House Chair, Rupert Read takes issue with Thomas Picketty,'s Capital in the twenty-first century (2014) with regard to his assumptions about economic growth and inequality. Rather than growth increasing equality, it enables us to evade the issue of how to share what we have. "A ‘stalling’ of growth and a willingness to see that we simply can’t keep growing the pie now that the ingredients are running out may finally be what force the majority to take back some of the wealth currently being hoarded by the rich. The true condition for redistribution may well now be recognition that we can’t rely any longer on growth."
Rupert Read (2015)
Green House Chair, Rupert Read takes issue with Thomas Picketty,'s Capital in the twenty-first century (2014) with regard to his assumptions about economic growth and inequality. Rather than growth increasing equality, it enables us to evade the issue of how to share what we have. "A ‘stalling’ of growth and a willingness to see that we simply can’t keep growing the pie now that the ingredients are running out may finally be what force the majority to take back some of the wealth currently being hoarded by the rich. The true condition for redistribution may well now be recognition that we can’t rely any longer on growth."
The impossible will take a while - a citizen's guide to hope in a time of fear
Paul Rogat Loeb (Basic Books, 2014)
What keeps us going when times get tough? How do we keep on working for a more humane world, no matter how hard it sometimes seems? In a time when our involvement has never been needed more, this anthology of political hope aims to help readers with the essential work of healing our communities, our nation, our planet—despite all odds.
Paul Rogat Loeb (Basic Books, 2014)
What keeps us going when times get tough? How do we keep on working for a more humane world, no matter how hard it sometimes seems? In a time when our involvement has never been needed more, this anthology of political hope aims to help readers with the essential work of healing our communities, our nation, our planet—despite all odds.