ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 (Australia and Eco-Socialism in a Global Context) explores my proposal of an eco-socialist agenda for Australia as part of a larger global call for eco-socialism. If Australia, like other wealthy countries, keeps up its wholehearted embrace of the capitalist growth paradigm that’s behind deepening social divides and a climate crisis worsening despite the deliberations at 26 UN conferences and despite emissions-trading schemes around the world, the alternative may be dystopia. Achieving an eco-socialist Australia would have to be part of a larger global effort in which a greatly enlarged climate justice movement works in alliance with other anti-systemic movements, such as the global justice; labor, Indigenous, and refugee rights; and women’s rights movements. The Australian climate movement could more fully join in the struggle for social justice both globally and at home if it were to place greater emphasis on climate justice and less on ecological modernization, which has a role to play in climate change mitigation but will not counteract the capitalist treadmill of production and consumption and its drive for continual economic growth.
