A review of Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass, Half-Earth Socialism (London/New York: Verso, 2022).
No beating around the bush: I have a somewhat complicated relationship to Verso books. Many highly relevant publications for leftist debate, without doubt, but also a tendency to promise too much (quite a few books with grand titles but not-so-grand content), veer toward academic hyperbole, and disregard non-Marxist traditions within the left.
Why open this review that way? Because Half-Earth Socialism might just be my favorite Verso book. (“Who cares,” you might say, but it does provide context for the below.)
The term “half-earth” comes from the entomologist E.O. Wilson, I learn from the Half-Earth Socialism authors Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass. I didn’t even know what an entomologist was, but with Vettese and Pendergrass explaining that Wilson’s research “has shown the need to rewild half of the planet to staunch the haemorrhaging of biodiversity” I reckon it can’t be that bad a discipline. Vettese and Pendergrass (not entomologists, rather environmental historian and engineer, respectively) seem convinced that Wilson is right but that a only a socialist twist can make rewilding at that level possible.
Yes, rewilding and socialism. Two concepts that seemed irreconcilable thirty years ago form a synthesis here. First credit to the book!
Blending fiction and non-fiction, Vettese and Pendergrass speak of dishing out “four courses.” It’s a metaphor I could have done without (I prefer to keep eating and reading separate), but I understand that’s a matter of … taste? In any case, the courses are “the philosophical, the material, the technical, and the imaginative.”
Course one – the philosophical – brings us the likes of Hegel and Hayek and much in between. I mainly liked the opening pages, as they are dedicated to Biosphere II, the famed, futuristic research facility in the Arizonan desert that promised to demonstrate the viability of closed ecological systems. I visited the site in 1994 with high expectations and left deeply disappointed. Vettese and Pendergrass don’t have too much good to say about it either. They use Biosphere II to emphasize “the impossibility of controlling ecological systems even of a modest size,” and remind us that “Marxism cannot simply be greened by reading Capital with viridian-tinted glasses.” Point taken.
Course two – the material – delves into the history of environmentalism, lines out different positions within it, and then explains why the Half-Earth Socialism take tops them all. Fair enough. You argue for what you believe in.
Course three – the technical – is about planning. At times, I got lost among the numbers (my fault, I’m inept, useful information such as “methane would emit 3.6 kg CO2/W over a year but has an enviable power density of 4,500 W/m2” just flows right above my head), but there is plenty of interesting stuff about the Soviet Union.
Course IV – the imaginative – is the part that one would think should have suited me the most. It didn’t. It’s where Vettese and Pendergrass project their half-earth utopia into the year 2047. They compare the chapter to William Morris’s The News from Nowhere, but I thought it was more of a blend of Walden II, Ecotopia, and Bolo-bolo. The path felt a little trodden (naive outsider comes to experience a superior society), but most bothersome was that this “modest idyll” appeared terribly unappealing to me. I apologize for the stereotypes, but it seemed like a retreat for East Coast liberals who came to a rational conclusion that this kind of life is the one they should lead, dullness notwithstanding. (Too little sports, too. Some vaguely defined “sports facilities” on abundant suburban lawn space won’t suffice.) Vettese and Pendergrass’s intentions, of course, are good, but the kind of future sketched by, say, Margaret Killjoy in Take What You Need and Compost the Rest resonates more with my cultural comfort zone.
***
I realize that, at this point, it might not have become entirely clear yet why Half-Earth Socialism might just be my favorite Verso book. So let me add a few points to the one above about merging rewilding and socialism.
- I think that the authors’ professed desire to build a “broad coalition” with folks from “all liberatory traditions” is genuine. Not much of a Marxist high horse here. (Now, don’t expect anarchists to be featured heavily, but William Godwin makes an appearance s a “proto-anarchist.” It’s a start.)
- There are various concrete links between theory and social movements.
- It’s an honest book. “Admittedly our utopia would still be constrained by scarcity, but true prosperity is measured in land, not dollars.” It’s nice to read such words, when, way too often, the attempts to argue for one’s position turn into one-sided advertising campaigns with little intellectual credibility. “Beans for desert” might be a stretch, but it is certainly true and important to acknowledge that “there is no escape from trade-offs between luxury and environmental stability.” And: “True freedom lies in the comprehension and acceptance of such limits.”
- Otto Neurath: a central reference point for Vettese and Pendergrass, which is exciting for two reasons (in that order): a) Neurath was Austrian, and b) he was involved in the Bavarian Council Republic.
- Speaking of which: Give it up for planned economy! (Side note: my favorite book title ever is that of a 2012 Swedish comic book called All I Want for Christmas is planekonomi.) Here, the honesty – and the focus on trade-offs – continues: “Socialism involves certain trade-offs [less dynamic, tendency to shortages] that are inseparable from the system itself, just as the dynamism of capitalism goes hand in hand with inequality, unemployment, and ecological devastation.” It is really odd – and saddening – to think how difficult it has become in political debate (also within the left) to say something like: “I hear all your arguments, some of them are convincing, but, all considered, I take another position.” Vettese and Pendergrass’s way of reasoning is very refreshing.
- Veganism: unflinchingly defended throughout. In a Verso book.
- Clear rebuttal of “green capitalism.” Solid.
- We get enlightened about plenty of things along the way. Frankly, who knows much about the environmental policies of Cuba? (Remember Cuba?)
- Props to Vettese and Pendergrass for tracking the roots of their ideas. I was afraid they’d speak of “rewilding” without any reference to the 1990s, when it became a popular term within the radical environmentalist movement, but at least Earth First! and Dave Foreman are part of the narrative. The latter is, rightfully, criticized for his macho and xenophobic leanings, but accounting for the origins of ideas and terms is not the same as uncritical appraisal.
- I had to think about it a little, but “BECCS: I’m a Loser, Baby” (a subheader) is quite funny. (So is “Hold My Beer”, although that would need a little more explanation – hint: there’s a British economist called Stafford Beer.)
- Astonishingly, I didn’t find a single German word misspelled. And not just that: “mist of schwärmerei” is a bon mot if there ever was one.
***
Enough of the brushing the belly (that’s Genglish). What would I have liked to see more of, or done differently?
- The engagement with how rewilding was featured in the radical environmental movement of the 1990s could have been stronger. After all, there were currents and groups – deep ecology, primitivism, green anarchism, the Earth Liberation Front – that were taking the concept very seriously. They replicated some of the problematic tendencies associated with the Earth First! wing around David Foreman (a disregard for social inequalities, “back to nature” idealism, nonsensical philosophical claims, and Malthusianism, something Vettese and Pendergrass strongly object to), but they also raised important questions about life after disaster capitalism. Plus, many protagonists walked the walk.
- Call me petty, but at least some critical reflection on science as our savior wouldn’t have hurt. Then again, maybe that’s just stubbornness on behalf of a fellow who passionately read the likes of Thomas S. Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend, and Hans Peter Duerr thirty years ago.
- It would have been interesting to read the authors’ take on “green colonialism,” but that’s a point even more self-centered than the former because I’m mainly thinking of how the Sámi of northern Europe use and interpret it, and northern Europe is a long way from the US. Besides, it’s one of those “Why didn’t you write about what I would have liked to read” type of comments, which are among the most annoying to make in a review. Why do I do it then? Cheekiness. I would like everyone to read about what the Sámi have to say about green colonialism and, for example, wind parks, as it complicates the fossil-free future, and complicating things is good, as it challenges us to fine-tune the solutions.
- The final point brings us back to the 2047 utopia. Better than life today, for sure, but I’m a hopeless romantic who finds the simplicity of, say, the Amish lifestyle much more enticing than anything that has to do with the technological wonders of our time. (For example, I couldn’t even explore the Half-Earth video game that Vettese and Pendergrass conceived, because when I opened the site there were too many words and warnings I didn’t understand.) This, however, is a point even more self-centered than the ones above.
***
Some readers might have already noticed, but I’m late to the ball here. Half-Earth Socialism was first published three years ago. What prompted me to review it now was the release of the Swedish edition. Well, better late than never, they say. At least, at the current stage, you have several languages to choose from if you wanted to read the book (the Swedish translation is far from the first one) – something I’d highly recommend.
Gabriel Kuhn
(May 31, 2025)