The Value of a Whale

On the Illusions of Green Capitalism

English language

Published Oct. 2, 2022 by Manchester University Press.

ISBN:
978-1-5261-6262-5
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5 stars (1 review)

Public understanding of, and outcry over, the dire state of the climate and environment is greater than ever before. Parties across the political spectrum claim to be climate leaders, and overt denial is on the way out. Yet when it comes to slowing the course of the climate and nature crises, despite a growing number of pledges, policies and summits, little ever seems to change. Nature is being destroyed at an unprecedented rate. We remain on course for a catastrophic 3°C of warming. What's holding us back?

In this searing and insightful critique, Adrienne Buller examines the fatal biases that have shaped the response of our governing institutions to climate and environmental breakdown, and asks: are the 'solutions' being proposed really solutions? Tracing the intricate connections between financial power, economic injustice and ecological crisis, she exposes the myopic economism and market-centric thinking presently undermining a future where all life can …

3 editions

Comprehensive and compelling

5 stars

Buller's book takes the idea of assigning a monetary value to a whale ($2m, apparently) as a jumping-off point to consider how the promise of green capitalism -- that if we just eliminate externalities and assign monetary values to the natural world, everything will be fine -- goes horribly wrong. She carefully demolishes the promise of carbon taxes and carbon offsets, though much of the book goes on to discuss how the greening of asset manager capitalism, especially that espoused by the CEO of Blackrock, doesn't and can never work. The latter part of the book pivots from discussing carbon as the principal problem, to covering the loss of biodiversity and the supposed attempts to prevent this through, you guessed it, markets in conservation credits. Among the many, many great takeaways from the book are the insight that attempting to deal with the environment through markets inevitably means compressing all …