Fossil Capital

* Book: Andreas Malm. Fossil Capital,

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winner of the 2016 prestigious Isaac Deutscher prize.

Description

Andreas Malm's brilliant book Fossil Capital suggests that the origin of the current climate crisis can be found in the coupling of fossil fuels with capitalism in 19th century industrial Britain. More provocatively he argues that the choice of coal to power early industrial capitalism was a conscious, rather than inevitable decision. This choice and the resultant consequence of global warming, were made in order to undermine and challenge working class resistance to early 19th century capitalism. In the 21st century with temperatures continuing to rise and 2016 once again the hottest year on record by some margin, the issue of an alternative to Fossil Capital is more urgent than ever." (email)