Ecosocialism

The authors of this book have very little to say about the Anthropocene, the crisis of the Earth System, or the new global epoch, and most of what they do say is misleading or wrong.

I submitted my review of Anthropocene or Capitalocene?” to International Socialist Review in July, but publication was unavoidably delayed until now. These are some thoughts I had after I submitted my manuscript. There’s a link to my review at the end.

Introduction to a critique

Ian Angus, Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System (New York: Monthly Review Press)

(Full disclosure: Ian Angus and MR Press sent me a review copy of this book, which isn’t otherwise available in the UK yet, and Angus re-posted a piece from Made Ground at Climate & Capitalism the other day.)

Key conclusion of Anthropocene Working Group report to Geological Congress: the "Great Acceleration" in the second half of the 20th century marked the end of the Holocene and the beginning of a new geological epoch.

The evidence is overwhelming: earth entered a new geological epoch in about 1950.  In an official report to the International Geological Congress, the Anthropocene Working Group made that case, and proposed to move towards official adoption in the next 2-3 years.