Preface

This introductory chapter provides a brief description of capitalist relations’ earth-scale environmental damage, which eventually impelled a profound rethinking of socialism and the rise of ecosocialist movements. It is argued that the unprecedented cumulative and long-term destruction due to capitalism necessitates worldwide coordinated responses and shifts to an egalitarian and ecologically sustainable system, based on cooperation, mutually beneficial relations, and substantively democratic decision-making institutions. In other words, there must be a systemic change towards ecosocialism to stop or at least markedly reduce ongoing devastation, to address the lasting damage from past impacts in life-affirming and socially just ways, and to pre-empt destructive impacts in future. The discussion of the linkages between capitalism-caused environmental catastrophes and the emergence of ecosocialism is followed by a historical survey of ecosocialism and then a discussion of the chapters included in this Handbook on Ecosocialism.