Climate Change and Marx in the 21st Century,Part I

This paper comes in two parts. Part I begins with an examination of the relationship between Marx’s characterization of the centrality of commodity production to capitalism as a system, its destructive results on Nature, and the global scale of the climate crisis confronting the 21st century. It then moves on to critically examine three models of political economy (Hayekism, Keynesianism and State Socialism). Part II takes the argument forward by critically examining a fourth model, Green Keynesianism, currently being manufactured in response to the crisis of climate change, in order to show the inability of all four models to resolve the existential threat posed to humanity in the 21st century and beyond. We then proceed to posit, as a thought experiment, a fifth model of political economy, Green Socialism, as something now needed in the 21st century and discuss the important building blocks of the future evolution of a coherent system. The paper concludes with a brief mention of both the ends and means that need deliberation if Green Socialism is to be realized.