Half-Earth Socialism

Over the next generation, humanity will confront a dystopian future of climate disaster and mass extinction. Yet the only solutions on offer are toothless cap-and-trade programs, catastrophic geoengineering schemes, and privatised conservation, which will do nothing to reverse the damage suffered by the biosphere. Indeed, these mainstream approaches assume that consumption in the Global North can continue unabated. It cannot.

What we can do, environmental scholars Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass argue, is strive for a society able to provide a comfortable standard of living while stabilising the environment: Half-Earth Socialism. This means:

• Rewilding half the Earth to absorb carbon emissions and restore biodiversity.
• A rapid transition to renewable energy, paired with drastic cuts in consumption by the world’s wealthiest.
• Global veganism to cut down on energy and land use.
• Worldwide socialist planning to efficiently and equitably manage production.
• The involvement of everyone - even you!

As this thrilling and provocative book makes clear, we must humbly accept that we cannot fully understand or control the Earth - but we can control our economic system, and we can regulate energy and land use for the common good.