Our Book Reviews
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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).
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).
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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
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
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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.