Climate and Capitalism editor Ian Angus takes a look at five new releases for an ecosocialist bookshelf. Inclusion doesn鈥檛 necessarily imply agreement with a book鈥檚 contents.
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Written by Ross DE MacPhee & illustrated by Peter Schouten
WW Norton, 2019
Until a few thousand years ago, gorilla-sized lemurs, 500-pound birds, and 2000-pound crocodiles lived on every habitable continent and on many islands. Many scientists blame human overhunting or climate change for their disappearance, but those theories don鈥檛 explain critical features of these extinctions.
Combining beautiful illustrations with clear scientific analysis,聽End of the Megafauna聽shows how the prehistoric behemoths lived, and proposes new ways of understanding what happened to the megabeasts.
By Mark C Serreze
Princeton University Press, 2018
In the 1990s, researchers in the Arctic realized that floating summer sea ice had begun receding. The director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center shows how scientists from around the globe came together to discover what was happening, and argues that the Arctic鈥檚 extraordinary transformation is a harbinger of things to come if we fail to meet the challenge posed by a warming Earth.
By Jeffrey St Clair & Joshua Frank
AK Press, 2018
The Earth has been brought to the brink by a greed-based predatory economic system that chews up anything in its path and spits it out to the bitter end. In this unflinching chronicle of the last fight that really matters, the editors of聽颁辞耻苍迟别谤辫耻苍肠丑听chart the battle lines for the future of the planet, from corporate villains to corrupt politicians to environmentalist activists.
By Dahr Jamail
The New Press, 2019
Travelling the world brought famed war reporter Dahr Jamail to the conclusion that the Earth is in 鈥渁 hospice situation鈥. A first-hand chronicle, including photographs throughout of Jamail鈥檚 journeys across the world, of the catastrophic reality of our situation and the incalculable necessity of relishing this vulnerable, fragile planet while we still can.
Edited by Leo Panitch & Gregory Albo
Monthly Review Press and Merlin Press, 2019
For 55 years, the annual聽Socialist Register聽has been an essential source of insightful radical analysis of the key issues facing the left. This year, in 17 challenging essays, socialist academics attempt to make sense of a political conjunction defined by Donald Trump鈥檚 presidency, the continuing rise of China, and the growth of right-wing nationalism around the world.