Skip to main content
A useful work of political ecology
MARTIN GRAHAM recommends a book that makes a critique of neoclassical economics and attempts to envision a sustainable global future
The global average in 2021 was 50,000 kilocalories per head, in the US, however it was 190,000 kilocalories per head [NASA Earth Observatory/CC]

The Physics of Capitalism: How a New Political Ecology Can Change the World
by Erald Kolasi
Monthly Review Press £27.99

 

READERS who struggle with the maths and abstractions inherent in the physics of the 20th and 21st centuries — Einstein, Niels Bohr and all that flowed from their work — should not be deterred by the title of this book.

Erald Kolasi draws only on classical physics to show how energy flows determine the fate of complex systems, including economic systems and life itself. It also equips him to provide a devastating critique of neoclassical economics and enables him to give us a vision of a sustainable global future — all without resorting to a single equation!

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
UNITED VOICE REQUIRED: Workers stand up, yesterday, to the management of Volkswagen plant in Zwickau, Germany with slogans: ‘fighting for the future,’ and ‘exclusion,’ ‘job insecurity’ (strips attached to the scythe) / Pic: Jan Woitas/dpa via AP
Climate Crisis / 11 July 2026
11 July 2026

The future does not have to be climate chaos and social breakdown. MARC VANDEPITTE looks at the alternatives offered by the Global Justice Report, co-authored by Thomas Piketty

 

cicero
Books / 22 May 2026
22 May 2026

MARTIN HALL examines the way the Roman orator took on different schools of philosophy

unequal
Books / 9 April 2026
9 April 2026

MARTIN GRAHAM welcomes, with reservations, a scholarly addition to the unfinished business of understanding how capital works on a world scale

green philo
Books / 16 January 2026
16 January 2026

BRENT CUTLER welcomes a valuable contribution to discussions around the need to de-carbonise energy production