Capitalism in the Anthropocene: Ecological Ruin or Ecological Revolution
Over the last 11,700 years, during which human civilization developed, the earth has existed within what geologists refer to as the Holocene Epoch. Now science is telling us that the Holocene Epoch in the geological time scale ended, replaced by the onset of a new, more dangerous Anthropocene Epoch, which began around 1950. The Anthropocene Epoch is characterized by an “anthropogenic rift” in the biological cycles of the Earth System, marking a changed reality in which human activities are now the main geological force impacting the earth as a whole, generating at the same time an existential crisis for the world’s population.
What caused this massive shift in the history of the earth? In this comprehensive study, John Bellamy Foster tells us that a globalized system of capital accumulation has induced humanity to foul its own nest. The result is a planetary emergency that threatens all present and future generations, throwing into question the continuation of civilization and ultimately the very survival of humanity itself. Only by addressing the social aspects of the current planetary emergency, exploring the theoretical, historical, and practical dimensions of the capitalism’s alteration of the planetary environment, is it possible to develop the ecological and social resources for a new journey of hope.

1140368529
Capitalism in the Anthropocene: Ecological Ruin or Ecological Revolution
Over the last 11,700 years, during which human civilization developed, the earth has existed within what geologists refer to as the Holocene Epoch. Now science is telling us that the Holocene Epoch in the geological time scale ended, replaced by the onset of a new, more dangerous Anthropocene Epoch, which began around 1950. The Anthropocene Epoch is characterized by an “anthropogenic rift” in the biological cycles of the Earth System, marking a changed reality in which human activities are now the main geological force impacting the earth as a whole, generating at the same time an existential crisis for the world’s population.
What caused this massive shift in the history of the earth? In this comprehensive study, John Bellamy Foster tells us that a globalized system of capital accumulation has induced humanity to foul its own nest. The result is a planetary emergency that threatens all present and future generations, throwing into question the continuation of civilization and ultimately the very survival of humanity itself. Only by addressing the social aspects of the current planetary emergency, exploring the theoretical, historical, and practical dimensions of the capitalism’s alteration of the planetary environment, is it possible to develop the ecological and social resources for a new journey of hope.

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Capitalism in the Anthropocene: Ecological Ruin or Ecological Revolution

Capitalism in the Anthropocene: Ecological Ruin or Ecological Revolution

by John Bellamy Foster
Capitalism in the Anthropocene: Ecological Ruin or Ecological Revolution

Capitalism in the Anthropocene: Ecological Ruin or Ecological Revolution

by John Bellamy Foster

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Overview

Over the last 11,700 years, during which human civilization developed, the earth has existed within what geologists refer to as the Holocene Epoch. Now science is telling us that the Holocene Epoch in the geological time scale ended, replaced by the onset of a new, more dangerous Anthropocene Epoch, which began around 1950. The Anthropocene Epoch is characterized by an “anthropogenic rift” in the biological cycles of the Earth System, marking a changed reality in which human activities are now the main geological force impacting the earth as a whole, generating at the same time an existential crisis for the world’s population.
What caused this massive shift in the history of the earth? In this comprehensive study, John Bellamy Foster tells us that a globalized system of capital accumulation has induced humanity to foul its own nest. The result is a planetary emergency that threatens all present and future generations, throwing into question the continuation of civilization and ultimately the very survival of humanity itself. Only by addressing the social aspects of the current planetary emergency, exploring the theoretical, historical, and practical dimensions of the capitalism’s alteration of the planetary environment, is it possible to develop the ecological and social resources for a new journey of hope.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781583679746
Publisher: Monthly Review Press
Publication date: 08/23/2022
Series: MRP S22
Pages: 576
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

John Bellamy Foster is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Oregon and editor of Monthly Review. He has written many books including The Robbery of Nature (with Brett Clark) and The Return of Nature, which won the Deutscher Memorial Prize.

Table of Contents

Preface 9

Introduction 13

I The Planetary Rift 39

1 Marx and the Rift in the Universal Metabolism of Nature 41

2 The Great Capitalist Climacteric 62

3 The Anthropocene Crisis 82

4 Crossing the River of Fire 91

5 The Fossil Fuels War 111

6 Making War on the Planet 126

II Ecology as Critique 139

7 Nature 141

8 Third Nature 148

9 Weber and the Environment 153

10 The Theory of Unequal Ecological Exchange 201

11 Marxism in the Anthropocene 245

12 Marxism and the Dialectics of Ecology 277

13 Engels's Dialectics of Nature in the Anthropocene 296

14 Late Soviet Ecology 316

15 The Return of Nature and Marx's Ecology 338

III The Future of History 361

16 Capitalism and Degrowth: An Impossibility Theorem 363

17 The Ecology of Marxian Political Economy 373

18 On Fire This Time 390

19 COVID-19 and Catastrophe Capitalism 411

20 Ecological Catastrophe or Ecological Civilization 433

21 The Capitalinian: The First Geological Age of the Anthropocene 457

22 Conclusion: Ecology and the Future of History 475

Notes 493

Name Index 633

Subject Index 655

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