The Value of a Whale: on the illusions of green capitalism

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Together with CUSP, our partners at Goldsmith’s PERC are hosting an evening discussion with author Adrienne Buller on her new book, The Value of a Whale: on the illusions of green capitalism, published with Manchester University Press. The evening will be led by Nick Taylor. Copies of the book will be on sale at the end, courtesy of The Word bookshop.

From the publisher’s website:

In this searing and insightful critique, Adrienne Buller examines the fatal biases that have shaped the response of our governing 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 flourish. The book examines what is wrong with mainstream climate and environmental governance, from carbon pricing and offset markets to ‘green growth’, the commodification of nature and the growing influence of the finance industry on environmental policy. In doing so, it exposes the self-defeating logic of a response to these challenges based on creating new opportunities for profit, and a refusal to grapple with the inequalities and injustices that have created them. Both honest and optimistic, The Value of a Whale asks us – in the face of crisis – what we really value.

Adrienne Buller is Director of Research at Common Wealth, a progressive think tank working toward a democratic and sustainable economy. Her writing and research focus on the intersection of finance and the climate crisis, and have been featured in the Financial Times, The Guardian and the New Statesman. She is the co-author of Owning the Future: Power and property in an age of crisis, out now with Verso Books.

All welcome. Visit this page for details on how to find Goldsmiths and the room.