The Value of a Whale

Public understanding of, and outcry over, the dire state of the climate and environment is greater than ever before. Parties across the political spectrum claim to be climate leaders, and overt denial is on the way out. Yet when it comes to slowing the course of the climate and nature crises, despite a growing number of pledges, policies and summits, little ever seems to change. Nature is being destroyed at an unprecedented rate. We remain on course for a catastrophic 3C of warming. What's holding us back?

In this searing and insightful critique, Adrienne Buller examines the fatal biases that have shaped the response of our governing institutions to climate and environmental breakdown, and asks: are the 'solutions' being proposed really solutions? Tracing the intricate connections between financial power, economic injustice and ecological crisis, she exposes the myopic economism and market-centric thinking presently undermining a future where all life can flourish. The book examines what is wrong with mainstream climate and environmental governance, from carbon pricing and offset markets to 'green growth', the commodification of nature, and the growing influence of the finance industry on environmental policy. In doing so, it exposes the self-defeating logic of a response to these challenges based on creating new opportunities for profit and a refusal to grapple with the inequalities and injustices that have created them. Both honest and optimistic, The Value of a Whale asks us—in the face of crisis—what we really value.

This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11, Sustainable cities and communities.

'Why do so many of the alleged solutions to climate crisis fail to deliver? In this tightly-argued, precise and deeply-researched book, Adrienne Buller looks inside the heads of 'green' capitalists, exposing how non-solutions proliferate. Read this brilliant expose if you want to understand not only how some of the world's most powerful people think and act, but also how their solutions differ from what is really needed to secure a safe and abundant future for everyone.' - Amelia Horgan, author of Lost in Work

'This is a witty, lucid and beautifully written critique of that contradiction-in-terms, 'green capitalism'. It explains why, despite the farcical diminuendo of climate denialism, so little has changed. Its searching inquiry into the puritanical reduction of all living matter to economic value, which underpins most government responses to ecological catastrophe, incisively debunks one of the most dangerous illusions going. This is the book we have long needed.' - Richard Seymour, author of The Twittering Machine

'A wonderfully readable attack on the worldview that argues for adding a dollar value to nature in order to save it. An accessible account of a new phase of capitalism that we all need to understand.' - Professor Simon Lewis, author of The Human Planet

'At last! A wonderfully refreshing antidote to the notion that market forces can solve the climate and nature crises, and the deadly assumption that every idea must be evaluated in terms of markets, finance, property or profit. Elegant, incisive and fierce, Buller systematically takes apart the false solutions that dominate mainstream analysis, from carbon offsets to the commodification of nature, and gives us the tools to challenge their dominance and to broaden our understanding of what's both possible and necessary.' - Caroline Lucas MP