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Rating: 
Summary: An unique vision of a sustainable future
Review: "Eco-Socialism or Eco-Capitalism" by Saral Sarkar offers an unique vision of a sustainable future. Mr. Sarkar was born and educated in India and wrote the book while residing in Germany, where he has been active in the Green Party and related political and environmental movements for many years. The author's education, work and multi-cultural life experiences combine to produce a nuanced, thoughtful and mature work that should intrigue readers interested in political theory and the environment. Mr. Sarkar believes that the ecology movement must recognize that socialism, not capitalism, offers the best hope for society to realize the state of "biocentric equality" that will be needed to secure human rights and stabilize the environment. Central to the author's analysis is the "limits to growth" paradigm espoused by Green Economics thinkers such as Herman Daly, which posits that economic growth achieved through increasing natural resources consumption can not continue indefinitely. But the author goes well beyond Daly and his peers by insisting that a steady state economy (SSE) can not succeed in a free market capitalist system; rather, it can only be viable in the context of socialism. Mr. Sarkar does not toss the word "socialism" around lightly. In fact, he devotes two chapters extensively studying why socialism failed in the USSR. In short, Mr. Sarkar posits that environmental constraints combined with widespread moral degeneration led to a crisis that could not be resolved by the USSR's privileged political/bureaucratic class. While many might argue that the USSR failed on a number of other levels as well, I found the author's analysis credible and well-supported by the evidence. Importantly, the analysis provides several take-aways that are later incorporated into the author's proposed eco-socialist theory, such as the importance of morals to the building and maintenance of a well-functioning society. Mr. Sarkar examines the natural resource base that the present world economy depends upon in order to ascertain if new technologies might be able to offer us hope in overcoming scarcity. The author surveys various energy sources and technologies to provide detailed answers to this question. He also critiques the fashionable view that the contemporary "dematerialized" information society is less environmentally destructive than yesterday's industrial society. Mr. Sarkar's thoughts that follow from this discussion about what must be done in the face of the world's dwindling stock of natural resources might appear to some to be commonsense but are nonetheless well worth reading. Indeed, the author's candor is refreshing and welcome, especially when compared with the media's usual message of consumerism without end. Mr. Sarkar presents his vision of how an eco-socialist society might succeed and discusses the notion of progress in the final two chapters of the book. The author believes that eco-socialism can rightly fuse the moral strengths of socialism with the pragamtism of the ecology movement to create a society that is free from greed, war, exploitation and rascism. This is achieved by embracing policies that are widely acknowledged in Leftist circles, including: full employment, women's rights, pay equity, limits on private enterprise, greater emphasis on the local production of goods and services, increased democratic participation, and so on. But the author also makes a very strong argument for controversial measures such as the rationing of consumer goods, strict controls on population growth, and more. Mr. Sarkar's justification is that the inconveniences created for some will be more than offset by the creation of a harmonious, peaceful and stable planet for all. As wars around the world intensify due to struggles over increasingly scarce resources such as oil, Mr. Sarkar's opinion that humanity must eventually choose "either eco-socialism or barbarism" may well be true. To that end, I highly recommend this outstanding book to those who might be interested in reading thought-provoking ideas from an uniquely visionary, compassionate and intelligent author.
Rating:
Summary: An unique vision of a sustainable future
Review: "Eco-Socialism or Eco-Capitalism" by Saral Sarkar offers an unique vision of a sustainable future. Mr. Sarkar was born and educated in India and wrote the book while residing in Germany, where he has been active in the Green Party and related political and environmental movements for many years. The author's education, work and multi-cultural life experiences combine to produce a nuanced, thoughtful and mature work that should intrigue readers interested in political theory and the environment. Mr. Sarkar believes that the ecology movement must recognize that socialism, not capitalism, offers the best hope for society to realize the state of "biocentric equality" that will be needed to secure human rights and stabilize the environment. Central to the author's analysis is the "limits to growth" paradigm espoused by Green Economics thinkers such as Herman Daly, which posits that economic growth achieved through increasing natural resources consumption can not continue indefinitely. But the author goes well beyond Daly and his peers by insisting that a steady state economy (SSE) can not succeed in a free market capitalist system; rather, it can only be viable in the context of socialism. Mr. Sarkar does not toss the word "socialism" around lightly. In fact, he devotes two chapters extensively studying why socialism failed in the USSR. In short, Mr. Sarkar posits that environmental constraints combined with widespread moral degeneration led to a crisis that could not be resolved by the USSR's privileged political/bureaucratic class. While many might argue that the USSR failed on a number of other levels as well, I found the author's analysis credible and well-supported by the evidence. Importantly, the analysis provides several take-aways that are later incorporated into the author's proposed eco-socialist theory, such as the importance of morals to the building and maintenance of a well-functioning society. Mr. Sarkar examines the natural resource base that the present world economy depends upon in order to ascertain if new technologies might be able to offer us hope in overcoming scarcity. The author surveys various energy sources and technologies to provide detailed answers to this question. He also critiques the fashionable view that the contemporary "dematerialized" information society is less environmentally destructive than yesterday's industrial society. Mr. Sarkar's thoughts that follow from this discussion about what must be done in the face of the world's dwindling stock of natural resources might appear to some to be commonsense but are nonetheless well worth reading. Indeed, the author's candor is refreshing and welcome, especially when compared with the media's usual message of consumerism without end. Mr. Sarkar presents his vision of how an eco-socialist society might succeed and discusses the notion of progress in the final two chapters of the book. The author believes that eco-socialism can rightly fuse the moral strengths of socialism with the pragamtism of the ecology movement to create a society that is free from greed, war, exploitation and rascism. This is achieved by embracing policies that are widely acknowledged in Leftist circles, including: full employment, women's rights, pay equity, limits on private enterprise, greater emphasis on the local production of goods and services, increased democratic participation, and so on. But the author also makes a very strong argument for controversial measures such as the rationing of consumer goods, strict controls on population growth, and more. Mr. Sarkar's justification is that the inconveniences created for some will be more than offset by the creation of a harmonious, peaceful and stable planet for all. As wars around the world intensify due to struggles over increasingly scarce resources such as oil, Mr. Sarkar's opinion that humanity must eventually choose "either eco-socialism or barbarism" may well be true. To that end, I highly recommend this outstanding book to those who might be interested in reading thought-provoking ideas from an uniquely visionary, compassionate and intelligent author.
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