A review by mars2k
Half-Earth Socialism: A Plan to Save the Future from Extinction, Climate Change and Pandemics by Drew Pendergrass, Troy Vettese

hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

3.5

That nature is ultimately unknowable does not mean we should not try to understand as much as we can about our beautiful, bewildering world. 

An ode to utopianism which feels lacking in the theory department. Very cursory. Analysis is broad rather than deep, flitting between a variety of topics which are interesting, sure, but don’t necessarily bolster an understanding of the book’s central premise. I haven’t read the book which inspired this one (Half-Earth by Edward O Wilson), but the crux appears to be a pivot to veganism and subsequent rewilding of land previously used for rearing livestock – a big ask, but reasonably sound as a means to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss. Vettesse and Pendergrass append Socialism to this theory mainly for the sake of logistics (a project on a planetary scale requires centralised planning, they argue).

Maybe I should reserve my judgement of Half-Earth theory until I read Wilson’s work on the subject but I do want to push back on this call to separate and segregate humanity and the natural world. The more I learn about ecology the more I realise “nature” is a construct with little merit; there is no such thing as nature and yet nature is everywhere, all around us, and we are part of it. But maybe such philosophising doesn’t belong in this review.

Half-Earth Socialism offered some food for thought and has certainly contributed to my ongoing research into and reflections on ecological matters. I just don’t think it makes its case (either for Half-Earth or for socialism) as effectively as it could have done.