Today’s environmentalism is as much a victim of the contemporary cult of utility as every other aspect of our lives, from science to education, writes UK environmental writer Paul Kingsnorth. It does not mean defending the non-human world from the ever-expanding empire of homo sapiens, but sustaining human civilisation at the comfort level which the world’s rich feel is their right, without destroying the “natural capital” or the “resource base” that is needed to do so. It is not genuine environmentalism.

Like the word “green,” “sustainable” or “sustainability” has become the buzzword of the millennia. Corporations and governments of the left or right feel compelled to dress up the most ecologically invasive development proposal or economic activity with assurances that it is “sustainable.” Employed as an adjective it coats the unpalatable with the sweet syrup of delectability rendering the bitter pill of upheaval and damage neutral in flavour. Canadian ecocentrist Tim Murray debunks the myth.

Wind turbines are sprouting up like industrial mushrooms in many rural regions. Nina Pierpont, a rural physician living in upstate New York, writes about health impacts suffered by people living close to wind turbines. Although it covers an important topic, the book is essentially about human health and does not discuss the deeper aspects of ecosystem health, write Nova Scotia deep ecologists David Orton and Helga Hoffman-Orton.

The failure of capitalism as an economic system is becoming obvious, write leading European eco-socialists Saral Sarkar and Bruno Kern. Mass unemployment is becoming commonplace in almost all countries, and where the economy is growing, mostly it is jobless growth. Welfare states are being dismantled , and almost everywhere one hears of crises of one or the other kind. In large parts of the world abject poverty prevails, and even establishment economists are at a loss. These two authors outline the core of their analysis and vision of eco-socialism.

Nova Scotia deep ecologist and writer David Orton believes that the work of deceased Canadian deep ecologist John Livingston (1923-2006) deserves to be better known in the activist community. Orton suggests that Livingston’s writing forces the reader to face up to what is required for the Earth’s survival and is thus extremely important for today’s rapidly disintegrating ecological and social world. (This article first appeared in Green Web Bulletin #79 )

With the growing complexity and interdependence of ecosystems in the entire planet, these social organizations pose a grave threat to human beings, to the environment, and to non-human species. Incorrect decisions made at the top of the human power structure can easily propagate, augment their impact, and affect a great number of humans as well as animals of the non-human world. Decentralisation of power and “local” solutions seem to offer the only remedies that can avert us from imminent global destruction.

Have you ever experienced a situation in which you meditate on an idea for some time and, surprisingly, acquire confirmations from various sources? Such coincidences brought Russian writer Victor Postnikov to the idea of ‘lost tactility,’ and the need for us to regain it through poetry and magic.

Botswana-based writer Tom Holzinger suggests that the ultimate social goal for left bio-centrists is the turn or return to voluntary social and ecological communities as our primary form of organisation. Replacing capitalism then becomes a necessary means to this end, an intermediate goal.