are the dangers that only a new, radical approach to social science (and thus to society itself), Angus informs us—one that takes seriously Carson’s warning that if we undermine the living processes of Earth this will “return in time” to haunt us—can provide us with the answers that we need in the Anthropocene epoch. Where such urgent change is concerned “tomorrow is too late.”20
Yet the dominant social science, which serves the dominant social order and its ruling strata, has thus far served to obscure these issues, putting its weight behind ameliorative measures together with mechanistic solutions such as carbon markets and geoengineering—as if the answer to the Anthropocene crisis were a narrowly economic and technological one consistent with the further expansion of the hegemony of capital over Earth and its inhabitants; this despite the fact that the present system of capital accumulation is at the root of the crisis. The result is to propel the world into still greater danger. What is needed, then, is to recognize that it is the logic of our current mode of production—capitalism—that stands in the way of creating a world of sustainable human development transcending the spiraling disaster that otherwise awaits humanity. To save ourselves we must create a different socioeconomic logic pointing to different human-environmental ends: an ecosocialist revolution in which the great mass of humanity takes part.
But are there not risks to such radical change? Would not great struggles and sacrifices attend any attempt to overthrow the prevailing system of production and energy use in response to global warming? Is there any surety that we would be able to create a society of sustainable human development, as ecosocialists like Ian Angus envision? Would it not be better to err on the side of denialism than on the side of catastrophism? Should we not hesitate to take action at this level until we know more?
Here it is useful to quote from the great German playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht’s didactic poem, “The Buddha’s Parable of the Burning House”:
The Buddha still sat under the bread-fruit tree and to the others,
To those who had not asked [for guarantees], addressed this parable:
“Lately I saw a house. It was burning. The flame
Licked at its roof. I went up close and observed
That there were people still inside. I entered the doorway and called
Out to them that the roof was ablaze, so exhorting them
To leave at once. But those people
Seemed in no hurry. One of them,
While the heat was already scorching his eyebrows,
Asked me what it was like outside, whether it wasn’t raining,
Whether the wind wasn’t blowing, perhaps, whether there was
Another house for them, and more of this kind. Without answering
I went out again. These people here, I thought,
Must burn to death before they stop asking questions.
And truly, friends,
Whoever does not yet feel such heat in the floor that he’ll gladly
Exchange it for any other, rather than stay, to that man
I have nothing to say.” So Gautama the Buddha.21
It is capitalism and the alienated global environment it has produced that constitutes our “burning house” today. Mainstream environmentalists, faced with this monstrous dilemma, have generally chosen to do little more than contemplate it, watching and making minor adjustments to their interior surroundings while flames lick the roof and the entire structure threatens to collapse around them. The point, rather, is to change it, to rebuild the house of civilization under different architectural principles, creating a more sustainable metabolism of humanity and the earth. The name of the movement to achieve this, rising out of the socialist and radical environmental movements, is ecosocialism, and the book before you is its most up-to-date and eloquent manifesto.
—EUGENE, OREGON
JANUARY 9, 2016
ABBREVIATIONS
| AWG | Anthropocene Working Group |
| BRICS | Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa |
| °C | Celsius degrees |
| CFC | Chlorofluorocarbon |
| CH4 | Methane |
| CIO | Congress of Industrial Organizations |
| CO2 | Carbon Dioxide |
| COP | Conference of the Parties (to the UNFCCC) |
| G20 | Group of 20 |
| GDP | Gross Domestic Product |
| GCF | Green Climate Fund |
| GM | General Motors |
| GNP | Gross National Product |
| ICS | International Commission on Stratigraphy |
| ICSU | International Council of Scientific Unions |
| IGBP | International Geosphere-Biosphere Program |
| IPCC | Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |
| IUGS | International Union of Geological Sciences |
| MEA | Millennium Ecosystem Assessment |
| MECW | Marx-Engels Collected Works |
| NASA | National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
| NOx | Nitrogen Dioxide and Nitrous Oxide |
| O2 | Oxygen |
| O3 | Ozone |
| OECD | Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development |
| PAGES | Past Global Changes project |
| PIK | Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research |
| ppm | Parts per million |
| RCP | Representative Concentration Pathway |
| UN | United Nations |
| UNFCCC |
United Nations Framework Convention on
|
