Lehigh Valley Vanguard Collections Volume FOUR: Capitalism & Environment

A major goal among activists over the past several years, the last 3 especially, has been to evaluate the ways capitalism is wreaking havoc on our environment. When trying to imagine something other than capitalism in order to change our trajectory, we might be tempted to adopt the view offered by Fredric Jameson and say: it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism. Indeed, the perpetual "innovation" and "growth" Jameson discusses in "Future City" is tearing down our eco system. The authors in this volume have, first, diagnosed this problem, but also have reached conclusions about how we may get ourselves out of this mess. Solutions-based thinking is so important, as Lehigh Valley Vanguard is not a nihilist project. We begin with Alyssa R hricht's series "Capitalism and Climate Change." In this three part series, R hricht sheds light on the systemic dismantling of our resources through greedy capitalist practices. Next, Ryan Scacci discusses how we should feel about all this in "Environmental Helplessness or Environmental Empowerment." Then, Marilyn Hazelton reports from the front lines of one of the biggest national protests on environmental concerns to date in "Changed by the People's Climate March." In "Morton Biskind: The Connecticut Physician Who Warned the World About DDT," Andy Piascik points out how we tend to push away people who refute any narrative which does not correspond with our notion of empire. After it seems we've been ruined by our own ignorance, Matthew J. Ricketts elucidates some solutions in " Solution to Global Corruption and Inequality." Continuing with that solutions-based thinking are Adam Heidebrink-Bruno and Hal Murray in "Bartering for Justice" and "To Barter or Not to Barter." Finally, Ricketts closes out this volume by bringing sovereignty right to your neighborhood in "The Things Neighbors Could Do." May this volume serve as a useful catalog of history. Hopefully of a time when we decided to turn things around.