Description

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An exposé of the plunder of the world's oceans, and the devastating economic and environmental impact this is having across the globe

The sea provides more than half the oxygen we breathe, food for billions of people and livelihoods for hundreds of millions.

But giant corporations are plundering the world's oceans, aided by global finance and complicit states, following the neoliberal maxim of Blue Growth.

The situation is dire: rampant exploitation and corruption now drive all aspects of the ocean economy, destroying communities, intensifying inequalities, and driving fish populations and other ocean life towards extinction.

The Blue Commons is an urgent call for change, from a campaigning economist responsible for some of the most innovative solutions to inequality of recent times. From large nations bullying smaller nations into giving up eco-friendly fishing policies to the profiteering by the Crown Estate in commandeering much of the British seabed, the scale of the global problem is synthesized here for the first time, as well as a toolkit for all of us to rise up and tackle it.

The oceans have been left out of calls for a Green New Deal but must be at the center of the fight against climate change. How do we do it? By building a Blue Commons alternative: a transformative worldview and new set of proposals that prioritize the historic rights of local communities, the wellbeing of all people and, with it, the health of our oceans.

'A landmark book... The Blue Commons is at once a brilliant synthesis, a searing analysis, and an inspiring call to action.' - David Bollier, author, Think Like a Commoner

'With remarkable erudition, passion and lyricism, Guy Standing commands the reader to wake up to the threat posed by rentier capitalism's violent policies for extraction, exploitation and depletion of that which is both common to us all, but also vital to our survival: the sea and all within it.' - Ann Pettifor, author, The Case for the Green New Deal

'This is a powerful, visionary book - essential reading for all who yearn for a better world.' - Jason Hickel, author, The Divide

About the Author

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Guy Standing has held professorships at Bath, London and Monash Universities, was a program director in the UN's International Labour Organisation and has advised many international bodies and governments on social and economic policies. He co-founded the Basic Income Earth Network and is now its co-president. He is author of The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class (2011), Basic Income: And How We Can Make it Happen (2017) and Plunder of the Commons: A Manifesto for Sharing Public Wealth (2019).

Praise For…

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Few have illuminated the critical needs and shared responsibilities of our oceans as well as Guy Standing in The Blue Commons -- Marc Benioff, author, Trailblazer

Looking out of my window at the radiant blue of the Aegean Sea, I surrender to the dream of a near future where Guy Standing's Blue Commons proposals have been implemented - an indispensable blue section of any genuine Green New Deal. It is a good dream, one that deserves a shot at infecting our sad reality -- Yanis Varoufakis, author, Talking to My Daughter About the Economy

In this important book, Guy Standing, always an original and impassioned thinker, looks at the despoliation of the oceans by overfishing, mining, waste and rising temperatures. The crisis he outlines persuasively and in detail is the result of our short-sighted and largely uncontrolled exploitation. Standing offers radical ideas for creating new forms of common property. The proposals are ambitious and arguably unrealistic. But the issues he lays out are real and deeply concerning. We need good answers. -- Martin Wolf ― Financial Times Best Economics Books of 2022

In this landmark book, Guy Standing not only documents how state-corporate collusion is destroying fragile ocean ecosystems, fisheries, and coastal communities. He explains how degrowth economics and fishery commons could restore the 'Blue Commons-Wealth' that belongs to all of us. The Blue Commons is at once a brilliant synthesis, a searing analysis, and an inspiring call to action -- David Bollier

Standing writes with remarkable erudition, but also with passion and lyricism about the Blue Commons.He commands the reader to wake up to the threat posed by rentier capitalism's violent policies for extraction, exploitation and depletion of that which is both common to us all, but also vital to our survival: the sea and all within it. He offers radical and hopeful alternatives to the dominant economics for 'making a killing' from the commodification of nature - giving hope to the dedicated stewards of the seas - fishers and 'blue commoners' - but also to his readers -- Ann Pettifor

As capital sets its sights on the seas, our planet's final frontier, the struggle for the commons becomes all the more urgent. This is a powerful, visionary book - essential reading for all who yearn for a better world -- Jason Hickel, author, Less Is More

Standing makes an urgent case for a new politics of the ocean . . . For anyone who has watched a David Attenborough documentary and wished it made a clearer appeal for a change in ocean governance, this is the book for you -- India Bourke ― New Statesman