Dolack once again exposes the latest capitalist thinking to the light of reality to reveal all the disasters that lie ahead not only for the self-serving masters of this system but all of us as well. Much like addicted alcoholics our masters continue to make all kinds of promises to avert these disasters (think Paris Agreement 2015 and the followup session now convening in Marrakech, Morocco), but continue the obsession with growth by clearing forests, constructing oil pipelines (Standing Rock), tearing up the earth to secure more materials for this growth, etc, all to secure their drugs of profit and power.
The only statement I don't like about this essay is contained in the opening sentence which declares that an abstract "we" simply don't know how to design another economic system so that we can live sustainably on our planet-home.
We’re in a world of trouble if we are unable to conceive of alternative economic models. We need not linger on the details of rising inequality, political instability, tightening corporate control of governments, looming environmental crisis, increasingly precarious employment (if even available) and the inability to meet the basic needs of billions of people around the world to see that capitalism is failing humanity.Thus he completely ignores the reality of a tiny group of people who have imposed an economic system on the mass of humanity through their control of every means of coercion and indoctrination in order to satisfy their addictions to profits and power. It is not that "we" don't know any better, it is because "we" are forced ultimately at gun-point to continue this deadly business-as-usual. What we don't know so far is how to overthrow the rule of these megalomaniac capitalist addicts. This is the stark political reality that is likely to cause humans and many other species to disappear from the Earth.