A study of Half-Earth Socialism by Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass

A study of their modern vision for a socialist ecotopia.

In their book Half-Earth Socialism, Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass put forth a utopian vision that would rewild half the world, allowing the earth to create healthier, more biodiverse ecosystems that would sequester carbon naturally while adopting a democratically elected socialist government that would manage the balance between humanity’s need and nature’s need. For example: Are we ok with consuming more of nature because we need more fuel? Or can we protect more of the environment and use less fuel?

Using a modeling tool they call “Gosplant” (a play on Gosplan, the central planning committee for the Soviet Union), the authors run several models to see what would work best for all of us, assuming a world population of 10 billion and with the goal to leave 50 percent of land wild and sufficiently mitigate carbon emissions so that global temperatures would warm more than 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average. (The threshold that would cause extreme weather conditions and mass extinctions, according to the IPCC.)

They outline various models that each achieve this differently. According to one: