Capitalism in adaptation to climate change (open access)

[HARRIS, Paul [SSPS]]

[Apologies for cross-posts.]

Dear GEP-Ed Colleagues,

If you and/or your colleagues or student are interested in the role of capitalism in adaptation to climate change, you may want to consider this new open-access article:

John Barkdull and Paul G. Harris, “Adapting to Climate Change: From Capitalism to Democratic Eco-Socialism,” Capitalism Nature Socialism (12 August 2024), DOI: 

https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2024.2389053

Abstract: The climate crisis is growing worse. Efforts to mitigate climate change have failed to stem the growing production of the greenhouse gas pollution that has created and exacerbated it. This failure is largely attributable to capitalism, including its current neoliberal form, and its continued addiction to fossil fuels. Consequently, there have been growing calls to ramp up efforts to help communities and countries, especially the world’s poorest, adapt to the inevitably worsening impacts of climate change. It is unlikely that adaptation policies premised on capitalism will be any more effective than capitalist-oriented mitigation policies. Instead, what is required is “transformational change” premised on alternative socio-economic assumptions that put environmental sustainability, social justice and economic equity before material growth and profit-seeking. Mainstream analyses of transformation rarely move beyond recommendations for changing prevailing ideas regarding nature, coupled with upscaling renewable energy, while slow-rolling the transition away from fossil fuels. This leaves untouched the prevailing institutions of national and global societies that are blocking a rapid path to sustainability and an effective response to climate change. In contrast, democratic eco-socialism offers a transformative alternative with much greater potential to enable fair and effective adaptation to the future impacts of climate change.

While I have your attention, please consider submitting your work to the Politics & Justice Section of PLOS Climate. For more information on the Section, please see this summary:

https://latitude.plos.org/2021/10/at-its-core-the-climate-crisis-is-a-crisis-of-politics-and-justice/

Many thanks,

PAUL G. ​HARRIS

Chair Professor of Global and Environmental​ Studies

Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies

EdUHK 

www.paulgharris.net

Author, Pathologies of Climate Governance: International Relations, National Politics and Human Nature (Cambridge University Press). Details here.

​25+ more books on global environmental politics, policy and justice here. 

100+ journal articles and book chapters here.

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