Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System: Ian Angus: 9781583676097: Amazon.com: Books
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Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System Paperback – July 1, 2016
by Ian Angus (Author)
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"A crisp, eloquent and deeply informed call to arms by a leading eco-socialist." -author of Planet of Slums and In Praise of Barbarians: Essays against Empire,Mike Davis
About the Author
Ian Angus is editor of the online ecosocialist journal Climate and Capitalism. He is also the author of Facing the Anthropocene.
Product details
Paperback: 280 pages
Publisher: Monthly Review Press; Reprint edition (July 1, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9781583676097
ISBN-13: 978-1583676097
ASIN: 1583676090
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars 7 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,921 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#243 in Economic Policy
#179 in Environmental Policy
#220 in Communism & Socialism (Books)
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Biography
IAN ANGUS is a socialist educator, historian and activist based in Canada. He speaks frequently at conferences on socialist and ecological issues, and his articles have been published in journals and newspapers around the world.
His most recent book is FACING THE ANTHROPOCENE: DIGITAL CAPITALISM AND THE CRISIS OF THE EARTH SYSTEM, which noted ecosocialist Michaey Lowy describes as "an outstanding contribution, not only for understanding the nature of the Anthropocene and its deadly consequences for human life, but also for explaining its social and economic causes."
In TOO MANY PEOPLE? POPULATION, IMMIGRATION, AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS, co-written with Simon Butler, he provided .a clear, well-documented, and popularly written refutation of the idea that “overpopulation” is a major cause of environmental destruction, arguing that a focus on human numbers not only misunderstands the causes of the crisis, it dangerously weakens the movement for real solutions.
His book CANADIAN BOLSHEVIKS: THE EARLY YEARS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA, has been described by academic reviewers as "an underground classic among historians of the Canadian left" and "required reading for anyone seriously interested in the history of communism in Canada." A second edition was published in 2004.
Ian Angus is Editor of Climate and Capitalism, an online journal focusing on capitalism, climate change, and the ecosocialist alternative which has attracted writers and readers from every continent. http://.climateandcapitalism.com
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Top Reviews
AutonomeusTop Contributor: Classic Rock
5.0 out of 5 starsCrucially important book on climate change and the ecological crisisJanuary 3, 2017
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This short (232-page), accessible book makes a unique contribution among all the books now written on climate change and the ecological crisis. Ian Angus summarizes for a popular audience the developments leading to the designation of our time by leading earth scientists as the "Anthropocene," a new geological epoch shaped by the destructive actions of human society.
Paul Crutzen, the atmospheric chemist who won a Nobel Prize for his work identifying the hole in the ozone layer and its cause, coined the term "Anthropocene" in 2000, and it rapidly spread. It has now been recommended to the International Geological Congress and is pending official adoption.
The work leading to this new scientific periodization was carried out by earth scientists in the IGBP (the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program), formed in 1986 by the International Council of Scientific Unions, and published in 2004 as Global Change and the Earth System, edited by Steffen et al, published by Springer.
The first section of the book, "A No-Analog State," summarizes the earth science in a concise and gripping fashion, making clear that the placid, stable period of the Holocene, which made the growth of the human population and the rise of human "civilization" possible, has now come to an end. There will be no new Ice Age -- the massive CO2 emissions since WWII make that impossible. There will be only global warming and potentially catastrophic climate change unless we reverse course.
The final piece of the analysis of the "Anthropocene" is to date its beginning. Some have argued for an early date corresponding to the start of capitalism, but Angus conveys the earth scientists' conclusion that it was in fact the "Great Acceleration" after World War Two that clearly marks the beginning of the Anthropocene.
The second section of the book, "Fossil Capitalism," documents the Great Acceleration in the U.S. and then elsewhere, the development of an automobile-centered, fossil fuel-driven capitalist society, and a massive, oil-driven military used to assert control of the globe.
The last section of the book, "The Alternative," is inevitably the weakest. Angus argues for ecosocialism, but of course no one knows exactly what that is or how to create it starting from our current doomed society. Angus, along with John Bellamy Foster of Monthly Review Press, advocates a Marxism with an ecological component that was overlooked by most Marxists until recently and that would avoid the ecological disaster of the Soviet Union.
Clearly, based on the alarming conclusions of earth science, radical change is urgently required, and we need to act against the Fossil Fuel Industry and "fossil capitalism" while we debate the contours of the new ecological society!
14 people found this helpful
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Newsrocket
5.0 out of 5 starsOne of the many fire bells on the subject of climate change...September 10, 2016
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
Ought to be required reading for every high school junior in the country before they get slammed by last-century thinking on the street.
7 people found this helpful
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Steve in Long Beach
5.0 out of 5 starsInsightful bookMay 20, 2019
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Very worthwhile read. Lots of important information presented in an engaging way.
One person found this helpful
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Jason
5.0 out of 5 starsCandid and on the nose. Required reading to understand what's coming.September 2, 2018
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Highly recommend this book.
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Bill G
5.0 out of 5 starsUseful bookNovember 20, 2017
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Pretty gritty book - plain spoken and scientific. Gives you the basics but also has more dense material. Incorporates a Marxist analysis of the capitalist system as it has become.
2 people found this helpful
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Stephen J. Shlafer
5.0 out of 5 starsFive StarsAugust 20, 2017
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Excellent
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent critical analysis of the most important we face as a speciesOctober 3, 2016
Format: Paperback
One of the most significant strengths of this book is the way in which it brings together an enormous diversity of insights into a comprehensive synthesis of the Anthropocene. The analysis traverses not only the basic science of climate change and other planetary boundaries such as ocean acidification, the nitrogen cycle, and biodiversity decline, but links this fundamentally to the history of ‘fossil capitalism’ and the complex political economy which enabled the Great Acceleration of post-Second World War economic growth. There is much to learn in reading this book! Essential reading for all those concerned about the climate crisis and what we need to do to limit catastrophe. (You can read my full review of this book here: [...])
7 people found this helpful
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Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System
Ian Angus
Science tells us that a new and dangerous stage in planetary evolution has begun—the Anthropocene, a time of rising temperatures, extreme weather, rising oceans, and mass species extinctions. Humanity faces not just more pollution or warmer weather, but a crisis of the Earth System. If business as usual continues, this century will be marked by rapid deterioration of our physical, social, and economic environment.
Large parts of Earth will become uninhabitable, and civilization itself will be threatened. Facing the Anthropocene shows what has caused this planetary emergency, and what we must do to meet the challenge. Bridging the gap between Earth System science and ecological Marxism, Ian Angus examines not only the latest scientific findings about the physical causes and consequences of the Anthropocene transition, but also the social and economic trends that underlie the crisis.
Cogent and compellingly written, Facing the Anthropocene offers a unique synthesis of natural and social science that illustrates how capitalism's inexorable drive for growth, powered by the rapid burning of fossil fuels that took millions of years to form, has driven our world to the brink of disaster. Survival in the Anthropocene, Angus argues, requires radical social change, replacing fossil capitalism with a new, ecosocialist civilization.
$8.55 (USD)
Publisher: Monthly Review Press
Release date: 2016
Format: EPUB
Size: 1.44 MB
Language: English
Pages: 280
