Half-Earth Socialism

Vital utopian optimism in the face of apocalyptic climate disaster. Half-earth socialism is both an attempt to map a way out of the inequity and instability capital has wraught, and an invitation to imagine beyond the bandaid solutions currently being proposed to push annihilation onto a future generation. A better world is possible. Believing anything less is a death sentence to us and everyone who'll follow.

It is not a perfect theory, being just a brisk 200 pages (about 30 are notes and citations), and the speculative fiction bookends frequently read with the didactic clunkiness of an edutainment cartoon. But its authors are quick to draw attention to the work still to be done and the long history of supporting texts both modern and ancient (yeah, Pluto gets a feature). Half-earth socialism succeeds as a foundation out of hopelessness towards an indefinite but possible future.

It's accessible enough to reach beyond academic circles while not lacking in research depth, which is an achievement in itself. I highly recommend the companion game at play.half.earth even if you don't read the book. It's a surprisingly robust global planning simulation that helped me understand some of the book's more technical theories, while also showing socialism can be fun (and only mildly terrifying when things go wrong).