Author’s presentation at book launch meeting for ‘Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System,’ at the Socialism for the 21st Century conference in Sydney, Australia, May 13, 2013.Angus makes this very accurate comment of what is at stake: "If we fight we might lose. If we don't fight we will lose, and my [all of our] grandchildren will pay the price."
The meeting was sponsored by Socialist Alliance, Green Left Weekly, and Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal. It was chaired by Simon Butler, and the first speaker was Christopher Wright, co-author ‘Climate Change, Capitalism and Corporations.’ Wright has posted the text of his talk on his blog, Climate, People and Organizations.
Video by GreenLeftTV.
in the time remaining, to help us understand how the man-made system of capitalism will lead to the extinction of our human species, and so many others.
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