Surviving Capitalism (Not) : What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, April 5, 2010

What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism

by Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster. This is an 11,000 plus word document that provides the often missing argument and analysis from environmental discussions: that we must replace, not merely reform, the economic system of capitalism if the human race is going to survive. They examine the driving forces of this system that it is driving us to our own extinction.