This System is Killing Us Land Grabbing, the Green Economy and Ecological Conflict

Learning lessons from those on the front lines of capitalist environmental destruction

“Dunlap is one of the foremost researchers on the unfolding relationship between ecocide, colonialism, extractivism, and green capitalism. ... An important book” Peter Gelderloos, author of The Solutions are Already Here

“Vital for understanding the forces driving violence against land and water defenders around the world” Alleen Brown, investigative journalist

“A passionate account of the harms of green capitalism” Professor Anna Feigenbaum, author of Tear Gas

“One of the most compelling, demystifying, and provocative calls to action in the face of the violent collapse of modernity. A must-read” Dr. Carlos Tornel, author of Gustavo Esteva

This System is Killing Us is an insider look at the catastrophic effects that energy infrastructure and mining are having on communities and our planet. Xander Dunlap spent a decade living and working with Indigenous activists and land defenders across the world to uncover evidence of the repression people have faced in the wake of untamed capitalist growth.

By centring the struggles of people whose lives are being systematically destroyed, Dunlap reveals gaps within the current official debates around climate change. This includes reviewing feuds between socialist modernism and degrowth. While changing public policy could play a constructive role in remediating climate catastrophe, by understanding the successes and failures of those “on the front lines”, it becomes clear that ecologically decentralized self-organization could be the only way out of this environmental nightmare.

Xander Dunlap is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Global Sustainability, Boston University, USA, and a visiting research fellow in the Global Development Studies Department, University of Helsinki, Finland. Xander has written many books, most recently Enforcing Ecocide, and is a long-time participant in anti-police, squatting and environmental movements.

This System is Killing Us is an insider look at the catastrophic effects that energy infrastructure and mining are having on communities, their land and our planet. Xander Dunlap spent a decade living and working with Indigenous activists and land defenders across the world to uncover evidence of the repression people have faced in the wake of untamed capitalist growth.

From Zapotec and Ikoot people struggling against wind energy projects in Oaxaca, Mexico to the violence of the Hambach mine in the German Rhineland, Dunlap presents the truth that lies behind the green re-branding of capitalism that social movements in the Global North have been slow to challenge.

By centring the struggles of people whose lives are being systematically destroyed, Dunlap reveals blind spots within the current official debates around climate change. The book also speaks to the feuds between socialist modernism and degrowth. While changing public policy could play a constructive role in remediating climate catastrophe, by understanding the successes and failures of those 'on the front lines', it becomes clear that decentralised—and ideally viral—self-organisation could be the only way out of this socioecological nightmare.

*All royalties from the book are being donated to the Stop Cop City Movement and Atlanta Solidarity Fund*