Before casting the blame for our environmental ills on countries like China, we would do well to reflect on who is truly responsible.Before casting the blame for our environmental ills on countries like China, we would do well to reflect on who is truly responsible.

The modern consumer culture was born – not as a response to innate human greed or customer demand, but to the needs of industrial capital. With strong opposition, it can be changed.

The narrative that poverty rates are declining and that extreme poverty will soon be eradicated has a tremendous amount of institutional backing; it is supported by the world’s most powerful governments and promoted through the United Nations Millennium Campaign. But this narrative is misleading: poverty is not disappearing as quickly...