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What’s Left
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What’s Left

Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis

Malcolm Harris
Little, Brown US, 2025
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8

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Many climate books focus on emissions and energy — but progressive journalist Malcolm Harris goes deeper, charging that capitalism is the root cause of ecological collapse. Drawing on history, political theory, and global resistance movements, Harris traces how profit-driven systems have created a “social metabolism” that devours workers, nature, and life itself. His radical ecosocialist vision reimagines how the world uses energy and how humans live together, and argues for urgent structural changes through marketcraft, public power, and communist principles.

Summary

Climate goals and capitalism are fundamentally in conflict.

Capitalism is fundamentally at odds with climate action. A Shell analyst revealed this conflict in plain terms when he said, “We don’t plan to lose money.” Under capitalism, the overriding goal of any business endeavor is profit, not sustainability. As a result, oil companies continue to invest in new reserves, even though scientists agree that most known oil reserves must remain underground to avoid catastrophic climate change. If regulations block oil companies from extracting these reserves themselves, they sell the rights to other entities that can operate with fewer environmental restrictions. These actions aren’t aberrations. Fossil fuel companies’ survival depends on extracting oil. And they intend to survive.

Capitalism creates an “Oil-Value-Life” chain: Oil is required for the production of value, including industrial and construction materials, consumer goods, transportation, heating, and the tools of the military. Because oil is essential to creating value, it becomes necessary for life itself. Thus, climate change isn’t just an environmental problem, but a systemic one, ...

About the Author

Malcolm Harris is an American journalist and progressive social critic. He’s an editor at the online magazine The New Inquiry and author of five books, including the bestseller Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World.

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