IN HIS introduction to the 11 essays in this book, Martin Empson argues that the multiple environmental crises which pose an existential threat to humanity – including climate change and biodiversity loss – are caused by the nature of capitalist society and that those who argue that we should change our individual lifestyles are missing the point.

“We need to challenge the very existence of those fossil fuel corporations and the system that needs them,” he maintains.

In other contributions, Ian Rappel’s critique of the increasingly neoliberal idea of “natural capital” is thought-provoking; as is Camilla Royle’s discussion of the politics surrounding the concept of the Anthropocene; as is Amy Leather’s point that nothing sums up the irrationality of capitalism more than single-use plastics — “materials that can last practically forever are used to make products designed to be thrown away.”