1st Edition
Guerrilla Ecologies Green Capital, Nature, and the Politics of Catastrophe
This book intervenes in contemporary debates about climate activism, militancy, and strategy that have been gathering force in radical ecological circles. It responds to some of the urgent questions about utilizing militancy as part of the overall effort to foster an ecosocialist society.
Building upon the crucial work of scholars and activists from the 1970s to the present, such as Carolyn Merchant, Ursula Heise, Raj Patel, Joan Martinez Alier, Neil Smith, and Mark Dowie, this book discusses and regenerates key principles of guerrilla ecology. It presents a significant critique of green capital and its impact on the shape of environmental and climate justice movements. From car manufacturers dedicating profits to reforestation, to big oil conglomerates funneling money into universities that are developing techno-fixes which may stave off ecological disaster, green capital has become the mainstay of contemporary cultural, political, and economic reproduction – aiming to fuse profitability and sustainability.
The book brings together discussion on key topics in a range of contexts including biopiracy and biocolonialism, indigenous resistance, extractivism, anti-imperialism, ecotage, and eco-militancy. It will attract scholarly readers from diverse spaces in the environmental humanities, environmental and climate justice, radical ecology, and philosophy.
Introduction
1. Mushroom Dialectics: Guerrilla Ecology in the Anthropocene
2. Deep Ecology and the Green Capitalist Complex
3. Biopiracy, Environmental Racism, and Anti-Imperialism
4. Eco-militancy in the Global South: The Indian Maoists against Green Extractivism
5. Emancipation through Annihilation: Decolonizing the Politics of Ecotage
6. Against the Entropic State: Guerrilla Ecology in a Green New World
Conclusion
Biography
John Maerhofer, Ph.D. is an activist-scholar based in the greater NYC area. He has taught literature, radical ecological history, and interdisciplinary studies at various colleges and universities, including Hofstra University, the University of Rhode Island, and at several campuses in the CUNY system. He is currently a full-time Teaching Instructor at Rutgers University where he teaches in the Writing Program. His first book, Rethinking the Vanguard, was published in 2009. His articles have appeared in the Journal of the Study of Radicalism, Cultural Logic, South Atlantic Quarterly, International Critical Thought, Socialism & Democracy, LeftEast, Axis of Logic, ROAR Magazine, and Monthly Review Online.
