Review: For the Earth to Live: The Case for Ecosocialism

Allan Todd’s For the Earth to Live, with a foreword by Professor Julia Steinberger, hits hard and straight, arguing we need a radical break to face down the ecological and social chaos closing in on us. This book is a full-throated roar for ecosocialism, plain and simple.

Forget the usual tiptoeing around. This book is unapologetic, nailing down the truth: we have to smash together ecological survival and socialist solutions. When so much talk is wishy-washy and watered down, “For the Earth to Live” stands tall, pushing for a political path that’s straight-up pro-ecology and pro-socialism. It grabs Gramsci’s line – “Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will” – and uses it to slap you awake about where we’re at, then fires you up to fight.

Todd, tagged as a scholar-activist, doesn’t skimp on the facts. The book packs in political, historical, and scientific evidence to show how the climate breakdown, collapsing biodiversity, and health threats are all tangled up with the rotten system we live under. It builds its case point by point, laying out the ecological danger, digging into the political and economic messes, and landing on the undeniable need for revolutionary ecosocialist politics. The references are solid, giving you the hook-up for digging deeper yourself.

Taking on degrowth

This book takes on the big ideas needed for a world worth living in, and that includes “degrowth”. It puts “degrowth” right up there as one way to draw the map for a future where we live lighter on the Earth and gobble up fewer resources. The book calls out Kate Raworth’s challenge to ditch chasing GDP growth and instead focus on what actually lets humans live good lives. It spells out how pumping up economic growth since 1950 has trashed the environment, leading to a surge in ecological impacts. Writers like Giorgos Kallis, Jason Hickel, and Kate Soper get a nod for pushing us to ditch the endless “more-growth” treadmill. This whole approach, whether you call it “degrowth” or “post-growth living,” is about slamming the brakes on things on purpose to minimise harm to humans and the planet’s systems. Caring and community solidarity are painted as key principles of degrowth societies. Jason Hickel is cited arguing we can actually make life better without the economy constantly getting bigger. The book blasts “exponential economic growth” as the main culprit behind “global boiling” and wrecking the planet, requiring constant resource inputs and tearing up land, water, and air. That’s why “degrowth” is lined up as a strategic weapon against capitalism’s obsession with growth, calling specifically for planned, socially-just degrowth in the richest countries. This means cutting back or dumping harmful production while jacking up stuff that works with ecosystems. The book doesn’t flinch – not going for “degrowth” means we’re just sleepwalking into ecological and societal collapse, because Earth’s systems and the capitalist system are on a collision course. The book is clear: “degrowth” isn’t about making people “poorer”. It’s about building societies that are good for the planet, based on “useful production, democracy, economic redistribution, and well-being”. That, the book argues, is how we get better, happier lives focused on developing skills, health, looking after kids, and building strong communities, once everyone’s basic needs are met.

Who’s behind it

Allan Todd, the author, calls himself a “scholar-activist”. He’s published by Resistance Books. Todd talks straight about previously missing the boat on “crucial ‘green’ issues” in his activism and hopes this book makes up for it. He also wrote a book on Che Guevara. Professor Julia Steinberger wrote the foreword. She’s an Ecological Economist at the University of Lausanne, and shares how she met Todd at a protest against fracking, seeing activists putting their bodies on the line. Professor Joseph Daher, also mentioned as being at the University of Lausanne, was recently noted in Heckle as having lost his job due to his support for Palestine.

Who’s this for

The book spells it out – it’s “addressed mainly to those, in both the climate and labour movements, who feel that ‘System Change’… is badly needed, but who as yet remain unconvinced that ecosocialism is the form such ‘System Change’ should take”. That includes folks who might think “green capitalism” is a thing or want socialism but haven’t linked it fully to ecological breakdown. The book aims to build ecosocialism into a “majoritarian perspective,” not some niche idea, showing it can be the political home for most people and life on Earth. This makes it a solid entry point, a way in for people wanting to get their heads around ecosocialism.

The book stares down the despair you feel looking at the scale of the crisis. By pushing Gramsci’s “optimism of the will,” it tells us to find “horizons even in the darkest night”, fueling the fire to keep fighting for something better. It’s clear: ecosocialism is the “best hope for replacing today’s ‘old order’ with a new one”.

Todd lays out the grim science on climate, ecological collapse, and health crises, showing how the system fails us. He also touches on how Indigenous societies often had a better handle on living with nature, pointing towards other ways of being.

Bottom line

“For the Earth to Live” is a crucial weapon in the ecosocialist arsenal. It’s got the solid facts, the sharp analysis, and a burning call to action. It takes on the mess we’re in head-on and puts forward a clear alternative. This book is going to be essential for activists, for anyone trying to build a world that’s good for the planet and everyone on it. It demands we dig deep for “optimism of the will,” but it grounds that hope in seeing the fight clearly. Our best shot for the Earth to keep living, it argues, is ecosocialism. Published by Resistance Books, a name you’ll see linked with socialist and ecosocialist writing.

• For the Earth to Live: The Case for Ecosocialism by Allan Todd. Published by Resistance Books.