This piece is a response to “We Don’t Have Time to End Capitalism—But Growth Can Still Be Green.” While the question of whether we should address capitalism first or climate change first is often posed in sequential terms, it is a false...
It’s not hyperbole to say that the accelerating climate emergency, which is getting closer to spiraling out of control, is the most serious crisis that humanity has faced in its entire history. Two reports came out at the end of 2018 that ought to...
An emergency plan to meet the climate emergency and “do what the science demands before it’s too late.” This is an abridged version of a paper that appeared in a special issue of the Real-World Economics Review. I. The IPCC...
Let me tell you about why I woke up crying today. It has to do with just how close we are to full-blown climate disaster. I was thinking about children who are already experiencing the horrible consequences of global warming, and I was thinking...
“Deindustrialization.” That’s a word you virtually never hear in the debate around global warming. Not surprising. It’s a word that’s loaded with negative implications: economic collapse, mass layoffs, falling living standards. Who wants to think...
I agonized on what to title this short piece, designed to highlight the grave problems facing humanity. Is it too late to reverse the direction of global warming and the inevitable catastrophic effects of climate change, and all the other...
Responding to the NY Times Magazine epic issue on climate politics, Naomi Klein places the blame for climate inaction on capitalism and calls for “democratic eco-socialism.” This Sunday, the entire New York Times Magazine will be...
Capitalism is front and center in this forthcoming book about the effects humans have had on the planet they inhabit. The authors, a geographer and a climate scientist, are not radicals, but their ambitious analysis of all of human history in these...
China’s rapid economic expansion is based on massive state investment, low pay and manufacturing for export to the Western economies at the same time as the promotion of domestic consumerism. Global competition for resources and markets means China...
On Tuesday, Elon Musk launched some stuff into space. The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket was shot into the Solar System, tailed by a Tesla Roadster blasting David Bowie songs, reportedly the fastest car ever to be released into orbit. Each Falcon launch...
