Course	SST 229 The Ecological Crisis : Radical Perspectives
Professor	Joel Kovel
CRN	95015
Schedule	Mon Wed 1:30 -2:50 pm OLIN 305
Distribution	OLD: A/C	NEW: HUMANITIES

Cross-listed: Human Rights, Science, Technology & Society

The crisis posed by collapsing ecosystems on a global scale is a threat of incalculable proportion; indeed it places the future at risk. As it can be shown that the driving force behind this crisis is the relentless expansion of the capitalist system, and as Karl Marx provided the most cogent understanding of capitalism, it follows that the study of the ecological crisis and that of Marxism can be usefully combined. Professor Kovel’s book will provide the central text, supplemented by the core writings of Marx, and others. The course is not merely the diagnosis of a civilizational pathology, it also is about radical pathways that can be taken to overcome the crisis, and raises the questions of an ecologically rational society, what a world beyond capitalism might be like, and how we are to get there.