Since the atomic bomb made its first appearance on the world stage in
1945, it has been clear that we possess the power to destroy our own
planet. What nuclear weapons made possible, global environmental crisis,
marked especially by global warming, has now made inevitable--if
business as usual continues.
The roots of the present ecological crisis, John Bellamy Foster argues
in The Ecological Revolution, lie in capital's rapacious expansion,
which has now achieved unprecedented heights of irrationality across the
globe. Foster compellingly demonstrates that the only possible answer
for humanity is an ecological revolution: a struggle to make peace with
the planet. Foster details the beginnings of such a revolution in human
relations with the environment which can now be found throughout the
globe, especially in the periphery of the world system, where the most
ambitious experiments are taking place.
This bold new work addresses the central issues of the present crisis:
global warming, peak oil, species extinction, world water shortages,
global hunger, alternative energy sources, sustainable development, and
environmental justice. Foster draws on a unique range of thinkers,
including Karl Marx, Thomas Malthus, William Morris, Albert Einstein,
Hannah Arendt, Rachel Carson, Vandana Shiva, and István Mészáros. The
result is a startlingly radical synthesis, which offers new hope for
grappling with the greatest challenge of our age: what must be done to
save the earth for humanity and all living species.
