12 Climate Justice Books For The Year Ahead
By Harry Smith
December 2020
Quarantines and lockdowns this year have given me ample time for reading, yet this year is also marked by a profound urgency, not only for vaccines but for the climate crisis, giving any downtime a strange duality. Despite early evidence of a drop-off in greenhouse gas emissions from nation-wide lockdowns, the World Meteorological Organization data published at the end of November showed next to zero effect on atmospheric measurements.
The pandemic, despite the gravity in which its been felt, has barely registered on a planetary scale, a blip in a much larger crisis. Our work in 2021, therefore, carries a weighty challenge. How we ‘build back better’ is critical to this ‘climate decade’, so allow me to introduce 12 reads for 2021, that lay the groundwork for radical change.
1. ‘Less is More’ – Jason Hickel
A thorough introduction to the concept of ‘degrowth’, a political project aimed at reducing economic throughput while enhancing wellbeing, averting climate catastrophe. In this sense Hickel describes degrowth as the antithesis of ‘green growth’, the idea pervasive in nearly all policy circles that economic growth can be ‘de-coupled’ from material use and therefore emissions. Degrowth dares to question this hegemony and argues that we can secure better livelihoods for more people by abandoning growth and living within ecological boundaries.
2. ‘Frontlines’ – Nick Meynen
Part journalistic journey and part manifesto, Meynen’s Frontlines makes for a sweeping overview of planetary problems, modern political myths, and the pioneers of our current moment. From uranium mining, to soil loss, to banks, to the pope, Meynen’s work is remarkable in scope and provides a sound introduction into the global movement for environmental justice.
3. ‘Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal: The Political Economy of Saving the Planet’ – Robert Pollin & Noam Chomsky
Adding to the growing list of books on the Green New Deal, Chomsky and Pollin explore what a global Green New Deal may look like, alongside it’s political ramifications. Written in the style of a conversation between the authors and questions posed by the host of the book, CJ Polychroniou, the book makes for a timely contribution to the current debate on what the climate decade may hold. A must for bringing anyone up to date.
4. ‘Net Zero’ – Dieter Helm
In contrast to Hickel’s work, Helm, and economist from the University of Oxford, sets out a Net Zero strategy that embraces ‘sustainable economic growth’, in a searching attempt to steer the UK’s climate policy in a more meaningful direction. Throughout, Helm refuses to mince his words, and is blistering at times towards our past climate failures. Though it may be easier to critique in reflection, the first few chapters are worthwhile for this reason alone.
5. ‘Fossil Capital’ – Andreas Malm
Malm turns the narrative of the industrial revolution on its head. Whilst some earth system scientists point to an earlier date, there is good consensus that the root of our climate crisis can be readily traced to the invention and uptake of James Watt’s steam engine among the capitalist class. The narrative of its near ubiquity has long been one of the genius of innovation and technology. Malm shows this to be untrue, with water wheels at the time being more cost efficient and abundant throughout the steam engine’s rise to industrial fame. It was rather the mobility of the engines that ensured their uptake, able to supress and exploit the larger labour pool within industrial hubs, the engines were unanimous with the capitalist desire to crush the working class into servility. The roots of the climate crisis were therefore not founded in benign innovation, but capitalist exploitation, a thread that can still be traced to the current day. At nearly 500 pages, Fossil Capital isn’t for the light reader, but is well worth the effort.
6. ‘The Shock of the Anthropocene’ – Christophe Bonneuil & Jean-Baptiste Fressoz
A far-reaching book, The Shock of the Anthropocene is a political history of the Anthropocene concept, the name given by geologists to our new epoch as humanity took over from nature as a geological force. The book details some of the Anthropocene positions through a social and political lens, tracing the histories of imperialism, capitalism, war and consumerism. The chapter ‘Who is Anthropos?’ is worth a book alone, providing a scathing critique of the common Anthropocene narrative that blames an ‘undifferentiated humanity’ for the climate crisis, coming to a recent realisation of its own ecological faults. The authors lament that ‘whole books can now be written on the ecological crisis, on the politics of nature, on the Anthropocene and the situation of Gaia without so much as mentioning capitalism, war or the United States, even the name of one big corporation.’ Though dense and academic at times, the book does lives up to the shock in described in its title.
7. ‘A Small Farm Future’ – Chris Smaje
Smaje, a sociologist turned organic farmer, sets out his vision for a society framed around the unit of a small farm. Its now common knowledge that the climate crisis and ecological emergency requires the transformation of our current mode of industrial agriculture, but what takes its place is widely debated. Smaje offers his vision of a ‘small farm future’, showing how low-carbon, localised, self-provisioning agrarian communities can successfully confront the challenges facing agriculture and our food systems. A work worth reading for its originality.
8. ‘System Change not Climate Change’
Edited by Martin Epsom No analysis of the political economy, of which the climate crisis is a part, would be complete without addressing the ideas of Marx and the long list of authors who have extended and further elaborated his work on ecology, left unfinished in Volume 3 of Capital. This collection of essays provides a Marxist lens to the climate crisis, exploring what the popular slogan ‘system change not climate change’ practically means. A book alone worth looking into for its ‘further reading’ section, a real goldmine.
9. ‘Climate: A New Story’ – Charles Eisenstein
Eisenstein is a truly wide-ranging author. All his books are well worth reading, from ‘Sacred Economics’ to the ‘The Ascent of Humanity’, but his latest book, ‘Climate: A New Story’ aims to draws the themes of his earlier books into a reflection on the climate crisis. Eisenstein shows how the quantification of the natural world leads to a lack of integration and our fight mentality, a form of ‘carbon reductionism’. Eisenstein argues that cultivating meaningful emotional and psychological connections to the natural world are necessary to move past the current roadblocks in environmentalism. The book is unique in having a whole chapter devoted to climate deniers, lifting the lid on this view that still, even at this late time, proves pervasive.
10. ‘The Wizard and the Prophet’ – Charles C Mann
Many of the books above subscribe or discount certain positions within the environmental movement, namely what can be loosely described as ‘eco-modernism’ and what shows more affinity to ecological economics or Marxist perspectives. Mann’s ‘The Wizard and the Prophet’ is an exploration of both positions through the lived experience of two twentieth century scientists; Norman Borlaug and William Vogt. Borlaug, an agronomist credited as the driving force of the ‘green revolution’ in crop science, represents the eco-modernists, believing that science and technological innovation will transcend our ecological limits. Vogt, an ecologist, represents those fervently concerned with limits and collapse, urging a rethink on the role of consumption and economic growth within society. Vogt’s views on population, pre-empting the resurgence of Malthusian rhetoric in the 50s and 60s, have proven to be badly informed, yet the tension between a techno-utopia and sufficiency orientated modes of living remains, and still defines the major poles in the environmental movement.
11. ‘The Archipelago of Hope’ - Gleb Raygorodetsky
Indigenous groups are no doubt at the frontlines of the climate crisis, already disenfranchised from past brutalities, forced assimilation and pollution. These communities, despite past injustices, continue to represent islands of biological and cultural diversity, with many lessons to be learnt for living in the Anthropocene, hence the book’s title. Travelling from Finland, to Ecuador, to Myanmar, Raygorodetsky explores the challenges faced by indigenous communities and how they represent hope for the future.
12. ‘Timeless Simplicity’ - John Lane
Lane explores creative living in a consumer society, prompting a reflection on what living means in a time of climate catastrophe. A spiritual search on meaning and simplicity, Lane reminds us that a more frugal lifestyle could be both desirable and an ecological imperative. A book for all those feeling burnt out by Eco anxiety.
And one extra to represent our sentiments for the 2021….
The Joyful Environmentalist - Isobel Losada
An optimistic book on how we can each make a positive difference for the prosperity of our planet and its people. A joyful, inclusive, and accessible book on how we can practice without preaching and take individual and collective action for climate action.
© 2020 Climate Just Collective