Creating an Ecological Society. Chris Williams

      

      PRAISE FOR

       CREATING AN ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY

      “Pushing back against pervasive and debilitating pessimism, Magdoff and Williams have revived the hard work of imagining what an eco-socialist future might actually involve.”—CHRISTIAN PARENTI, author, Tropic of Chaos Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence

      “Makes a convincing urgent call for a decisive choice to revolt and to transform our lives and replenish our planet … through … social and environmental justice.”—DANNY GLOVER, Citizen-Artist

      “A comprehensive, systematic map of the dire straits we’re in and the way out. Dispels the myth that human nature is to blame and puts the necessary confrontation with capitalism front and center.”—ANDREAS MALM, author, Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming

      “With a remarkable command of the science on why our planet is dying and inequality is growing, the authors also provide ample hope about how to radically transform our toxic political, economic and social systems. By borrowing from the beautiful intelligence of other species and building profoundly new relationships with nature, our food, our cities, our governments and each other, we’re shown in these pages that a revolution is not just possible, but it might actually bring us great happiness.”—JOANNA KERR, Executive Director, Greenpeace (Canada)

      “This book offers building blocks for a socio-ecological revolution and human salvation. Read it and join in imagining and creating a vibrant, just, and ecologically nourishing world.”—JAMES EARLY, former Director, Cultural Heritage Policy, Smithsonian Institution

      “A clear and comprehensive diagnosis of the climate crisis, the role of capitalism, and a revolutionary alternative. Creating an Ecological Society is a road map to a sustainable future.”—DAVID BARSAMIAN, host, Alternative Radio

      “A brilliant resource for green-lefts and left-greens! Magdoff and Williams don’t just describe the global environmental crisis, they identify its root causes, and lay out a program for building a truly ecological society.”—Ian Angus, author, Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System

      “Gives us a socialist vision of a socially just and ecologically sustainable world, and offer some arguments as to how we might get there.”—MARTIN EMPSON, author, Land and Labour: Marxism, Ecology and Human History

      “… an eloquent encyclopedia of eco-social rebellion.”—JOHN RIDDELL, author, To the Masses: Proceedings of the Third Congress of the Communist International, 1921

      “Boldly confronts the grave risks capitalism poses to humanity and the planet and argues with passion and conviction as to how we can find solutions in the society and nature already around us and not in some futuristic technology or political savior.”—ARUN GUPTA, founder of The Occupied Wall Street Journal and contributor to The Guardian, Salon, Al Jazeera America, and The Nation

      “The impressive blending of biological with social, of elegiac narrative with practical instructions, will surely make Creating an Ecological Society a memorable and indispensable companion in the ecosocial revolution already underway.”—Subhankar Banerjee, Lannan Chair and Professor of Art & Ecology, University of New Mexico

      “To heal the rifts between society and nature, and create a system of co-evolutionary human development, we need a materialist social ecology that can serve as an instrument of worker-community struggles in and against capitalism. Magdoff and Williams pursue this project forthrightly and relentlessly.”—PAUL BURKETT, professor of economics, Indiana State University, Terre Haute; author of Marx and Nature: A Red and Green Perspective

      “Remarkably clear, wise, balanced, well written, and at times poetic, this important book takes on one of the great questions of our time.”—JONATHAN NEALE, author, Stop Global Warming, Change the World

      CREATING AN ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY

       Toward a Revolutionary Transformation

      by FRED MAGDOFF and CHRIS WILLIAMS

      MONTHLY REVIEW PRESS

       New York

      Copyright © 2017 by Fred Magdoff and Chris Williams

      All Rights Reserved

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available on request.

      Typeset in Minion Pro

      MONTHLY REVIEW PRESS, NEW YORK

       monthlyreview.org

      5 4 3 2 1

       Contents

      Foreword by John Bellamy Foster

       Preface

       PART ONE: Why an Alternative Is Essential

       1. The Social and Ecological Planetary Emergency

       2. The Root of the Social-Ecological Crisis

       3. Capitalism versus the Biosphere

       4. Capitalism’s Effects on People

       PART TWO: Is an Ecological Society Possible?

       5. Humans as Part of Nature

       6. Does “Human Nature” Prevent System Change?

       7. Equality as Biological Fact

       PART THREE: Learning from Nature

       8. The Biosphere: Cycles of Life

       9. Developing Resilient Social-Ecological Systems

       10. Ecological Approaches to Fulfilling Human Needs

       PART FOUR: Toward a New Society

       11. Living in an Ecological Society

       12. Revolution: Creating an Ecological Society

       Notes

       Index