Episode
What's Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis with MALCOLM HARRIS
- Published
- Aug 27, 2025
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Summary
Malcolm Harris explores the intersection of capitalism and the climate crisis, arguing that our current economic structure is fundamentally incompatible with a stable biosphere. He proposes moving beyond individual consumer choices toward a radical redesign of our social metabolism.
Topics
- Climate Crisis
- Capitalism
- Social Metabolism
- Internationalism
- Environmental Justice
- Political Economy
- Decarbonization
- Systemic Change
Highlights
- Main idea: The climate crisis is rooted in a 'value-theoretical' rift between human social structures and the natural world
- Failure mode: Treating decarbonization as a commodity or an individual purchase fails to address the systemic need for production redesign
- Practical takeaway: True environmental progress requires a collective shift in how we manage the planet's finite resources
- Main idea: Capitalism functions by carving up the biosphere into disposable parts, including both ecosystems and people
- Critical perspective: Effective internationalism must be rooted in solidarity with those facing immediate existential threats, such as the people of Gaza
Chapters
0:00From History to Future: A transition from studying the history of capitalism to analyzing the existential threats of the planetary crisis.3:00The Value of Oil and Ecology: Exploring how the concept of value links our economic systems to the physical reality of climate change.6:10Redesigning Social Metabolism: The necessity of moving toward a system based on collective needs and decarbonized production.9:10The Myth of Individual Solutions: Why market-based, individualistic approaches to climate change are fundamentally ineffective.18:20The Ethics of Complicity: Navigating political action and the risks of engaging with compromised systems to achieve better outcomes.31:10New Forms of Collectivity: Looking toward indigenous internationalism and new organizational structures in a disordered world.