Global Capitalism and Climate Change: The Need for an Alternative World System

by Hans A. Baer

Overview

Many progressive scholars, particularly in the social sciences, have increasingly come to acknowledge that anthropogenic climate change constitutes yet another contradiction of global capitalism. This book constitutes an effort to develop a critical social science of climate change, one that posits its roots in global capitalism with its emphasis on profit-making, a treadmill of production and consumption, heavy reliance on fossil fuels, and commitment to ongoing economic expansion. It explores the systemic changes necessary to create a more socially just and sustainable world system that would possibly start to move humanity toward a safer climate and discusses the role of a burgeoning climate movement in this effort.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666901788
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	10/01/2021
Series:	Environment and Society
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	6.26(w) x 9.03(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Hans A. Baer is senior lecturer in the School of Social and Political Sciences and the Centre for Health and Society at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Impact of Climate Change on the Environment and Human Societies
Chapter 2: The Capitalist World System and its Contradictions
Chapter 3: The Capitalist Treadmill of Production and Consumption as a Generator of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Chapter 4: The Inadequacies of Existing Climate Regimes for Mitigating Climate Change
Chapter 5: Why Green Capitalism is Insufficient to Mitigate Climate Change
Chapter 6: A Vision of an Alternative World System: Toward Global Democracy Based on Social Justice and Environmental Sustainability
Chapter 7: Toward an Ecological Revolution: Progressive Transitional Reforms
Chapter 8: Grass-roots Responses to the Climate Change: Internationally, Nationally, and Locally
Chapter 9: Conclusion
Resource Guide
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

System change has been an increasingly strong rallying call within climate action movements. But what does it really mean? In this second edition of Global Capitalism and Climate Change: The Need for an Alternative World System, nearly a decade since its original publication, Hans A. Baer details the massive implications of system change for the climate emergency that we are now experiencing globally.

Anitra Nelson

Hans A. Baer has for years produced critical and original work on the climate crisis, and this book, now in its second edition, may well be his masterpiece—passionately written, filled with facts and critical analysis, and crystal clear in its radical message. You can read it as a manual, a clarion call, an encyclopedia, or a guidebook. It has everything you need to understand why fundamental changes are necessary and how we can make them happen. Indeed, Baer makes it possible to imagine the end of capitalism rather than the end of the world. That is no mean achievement.

Thomas Hylland Eriksen

The virtue of Hans Baer's Global Capitalism and Climate Change is its realism—not the crackpot realism that is simply another form of denial, but the realist search for an alternative beyond today's capitalist climate catastrophe. In his concrete and relentless examination of the social aspects of the climate problem, Baer has few, if any, equals.

John Bellamy Foster

This book should be read by every student and teacher, unionist and business leader, and grassroots activist and politician. It will convince even the most hardened climate denialist. Baer's vigorous transdisciplinary analysis of global warming spells out the science, amplifies our political options for the future, and makes it very clear that ‘green capitalism’ trading in credits for ‘hot air’ will certainly not be enough.

Ariel Salleh

Global Capitalism and Climate Change is an impressive work of scholarship, which draws on the work of a huge array of ecological writers and theorists. But the book also includes a meticulous analysis of the climate justice movement, in Australia and globally. Baer says this movement must develop into a much stronger global force if we are to have any hope of overcoming capitalism and solving the climate crisis. Compared to most books published about climate change, Baer’s book is striking for its analytic rigour and its political commitment. It is easy to agree with Monthly Review editor John Bellamy Foster, who said of the book: ‘In his concrete and relentless examination of the social aspects of the climate problem, Baer has few, if any, equals.

Climate & Capitalism