Sources: politics

Useful summary of Noam Chomsky’s political writing in 10 points. Obviously a very long story made very short but a helpful reminder of the scope and humanity of his intellectual fight for reason and justice.

A really good essay reviewing two new books on climate change and looming catastrophe, along with some helpful history and context.

The first part of the essay is a very good summary of the seminal book, Limits to Growth: A Report on the Predicament of Mankind, which, along with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, stands at the origin our current conception of climate crisis, its future, and what we should be doing about it. Limits to Growth was the first important product of The Club of Rome, was a best-seller in 1972 when published, and inspired the first round of pro-capitalist/pro-growth climate denial. The book was produced by a team of people at MIT doing the first work in computer modeling of complex systems to make predictions about the living world and human activity. It was prescient, so far accurate, and alarming in its predictions.

The central focus of the essay is a critique of the Club of Rome’s 40th anniversary follow-up, Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity. Venzke argues the book is disappointing and fails to respect its debt to Limits to Growth, characterizing it as a sad attempt to present a case for optimism that fails to challenge the political and economic levers that continue to exacerbate the problem as predicted.

In the second book reviewed, Half-Earth Socialism: A Plan to Save the Future from Extinction, Climate Change, and Pandemics, Venzke finds what one should have hoped to find in Earth for All: respect for its origin in Limits to Growth and a clear identification of the critical challenge to altering the course of catastrophe in capitalism and the economic commitment to growth.

This is quite a long essay with real depth of thinking on a range of issues, and perspective on the problems of optimism, pessimism, action, and paralysis associated with the debate. An excellent basis from which to organize thinking on the big problem and sources to look at for deeper thinking.

More a sympathetic narrative account of the path down the rabbit-hole of conspiracy theory devotion than an argument about its nature; almost reads like a very well written-short story. Ultimately a plea for liberal forebearance and open-minded empathy.