Book review: What every environmentalist needs to know about capitalism
Author Fred Magdoff, John Bellamy Foster Subject Environmental economics Publisher New York: Monthly Review Press Year 2011 ISBN 9781583672419 Another thought-provoking book criticizing capitalism as the core of the current environmental disaster. It argues that the very notion of unlimited growth, as dictated by the doctrine of capitalism, is causing relentless exploitation and pollution of the planet, leading to climate change and all other environmental disasters. In short, the writer is skeptical about all sorts of technological solutions, thinking they either entail other negative effects, are not sufficient to tackle the scale of the problem, or even if successful at improving efficiency, these solutions will simply increase resource consumption as spellbound by the underlying logic of capitalism. Hence the only road to salvation is to adopt a socialist system coupled with a democratic society where local people decide the use of re