System Change Not Climate Change

A Redder Shade of Green – Intersections of Science and Socialism,” by Ian Angus, 2017

This is a polemic against several mistaken ostensibly ‘leftist’ views on the issue of global warming and resulting climate change.  Angus edits an online journal, “Climate and Capitalism.”  His definition of eco-socialism is that the environmental issue is the key thing for socialists to tackle – a definition unlike others who call themselves eco-socialists and who don’t choose only one angle to pursue.
 

Angus takes on the argument around ‘catastrophism’ discussed in the book “Catastrophism – the Apocalyptic Politics of Collapse & Rebirth,” and especially the views of Eddie Yuen that counsel against telling the truth about global warming, basing itself on no evidence.  (Book reviewed below)  He also refutes the main argument in "Anthropocene or Capitalocene? – Nature, History and the Crisis of Capitalism,” arguing that this historic period did not start with capital, but with the ‘great acceleration’ after World War II.  (Book reviewed below.) He also takes some swipes at Jared Diamond’s “Collapse - How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” (book reviewed below) which was refuted by a whole book, “Questioning Collapse.”

Like John Bellamy Foster, Angus supports the idea that Marx and Engels carefully studied developments in modern science, as their idea of dialectical materialism involved not just class struggle, but the whole realm of life. He highlights their close personal relationship with ‘the Red Chemist,” Carl Schorlemmer, a leading chemist and communist, who became their life-long friend and advisor on some things scientific.  He tracks their embrace of Darwin, who unknown to himself, extended dialectics and materialism into the realm of biological development.  Angus also pokes fun at those humanities academics who have no grasp of science, and those scientists who have no clue about politics.

Of most value here is Angus’ attack on neo-Malthusianism, which he identifies as one of the ways the bourgeoisie side-tracked the environmental movement in the 1970s after Paul Ehrlich’s “The Population Bomb.”  Populationist analyses which ignore everything but ‘poor people having too many babies’ leave the role of capitalism untouched – which is the point.  Of course women have the right not to be forced to have babies either, which Angus does support. The roles of environmental climate change, poverty, exported food production, war and imperialism are of far greater import.

The Book That Bombed

In his attack on the ‘capitalocene’ concept, he confronts Jason Moore, who argues that the term ‘anthropocene’ blames all humans, not capital, for global warming.  Angus contends that to build a bridge to present scientists, it makes more sense to stay with Anthropocene and that this concept has not ignored capital.  But the real issue is dating, as Moore claims global warming started with capital’s industrial revolution, while statistics (and most scientists) actually point to the huge increase of carbon in the atmosphere after 1945 during ‘the Great Acceleration.’  I have previously suggested the crucial importance of this date - the last before automobile and plastics technologies began to skyrocket, as well as the heating effect of imperialist World War II.

Angus endorses non-monocrop, biologically diverse organic agriculture (agro-ecology) though he does not discuss the issue of animal agriculture.  He points out that Cuba was the only country in the world to change their economy and agriculture after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, while every capitalist country talked and did less or nothing, relying on ‘the market’ or carbon credits to sort things out.  Many years later, nothing has changed though there have been developments in China, Latin America and a group of countries in Europe.

Angus is inspired by Barry Commoner, a socialist who wrote “The Closing Circle” in the 1970s.  Angus bases many of his arguments on the lack or weakness of the empirical proof used by his opponents – which only makes sense for a scientist and a Marxist.  This is part of his refutation of Alexander Coburn, who considered environmentalism to be a huge capitalist plot.  Or Yuen’s consumerist and green enclaves’ solutions to climate change: the ‘slow food’ movement, intentional communities, resisting consumerism, permaculture and urban farming… all falling far short of what is really necessary to shut down carbon completely, as soon as possible.  Or Leo Panitch, who also argued that ‘the truth’ would lead to passivity.  Actually ‘the truth’ – whether personally learned or through the constant facts coming across in the news - is leading more and more people to action on the climate, especially the young. 

Other reviews on this subject, below, use blog search box, upper left:  “Marx and the Earth:  An Anti-Critique,” “Ecological Revolution,” Marx’s Ecology,” (all by Foster); “Collapse” (Diamond); “Catastrophism,” “Anthropocene or Capitalocene?” “This Changes Everything,” (Klein); “The Sixth Extinction,” “Green is the New Red,” “The Vanishing Face of Gaia,” “Stop Tar Sands Oil,” “Tar Sands.”

And I bought it at May Day Books!

Red Frog

September 13, 2019

Commune di Cortona, Italia