Life After Capitalism: Can We Achieve Sustainability Without Eco-Terrorism?
- Lisa
- 11 minutes ago
- 7 min read
by Nina Munteanu
July 1, 2026 - 10
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The Sustainability Thread is a thematic series of articles, curated by Canadian SF author Nina Munteanu and sponsored by Reality Skimming Press. Pieces in the series appear twice a month Query Nina Munteanu about appearing on the thread at nina.sfgirl@gmail.com
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Life After Capitalism: Can We Achieve Sustainability Without Eco-Terrorism?
My climate thriller Gaia’s Revolution is Book 1 of The Icaria Trilogy, an environmental thriller released March 10, 2026 by Dragon Moon Press. The book wrote itself quickly and furiously over a few months. I wrote it in the back yard of a good friend one summer under a kind sun as I contemplated what life after capitalism would look like in Canada. I’d read Peter Frase’s book and considered his four options for the future. What I read chilled me. In some ways Gaia’s Revolution is my response.
The Icaria Trilogy—A Brief Description
Gaia’s Revolution starts in Berlin in 2022 as ambitious twin brothers Eric, a gifted engineer, and Damien Vogel, a brilliant scientist, escape the growing racial violence of Berlin, to ‘peaceful’ Canada in a rivalry to control the evolution of the human race (Books 2 and 3 of the trilogy).
The warring brothers trigger a violent revolution that destroys the Canadian technocratic government with an eventual migration of humanity into the enclosed worlds of Icaria. While Damien is an intellectual and scholar, believing in Naess & Sessions’s eight basic principles of deep ecology, Eric uses the principles to enact merciless ‘solutions’ through brutal acts of eco-terrorism—ultimately risking humanity’s very survival. Fanatical deep ecologist Monica Schlange insinuates herself into both brother’s plans to orchestrate her own unique vision of the world. Three orphaned children, caught in the web of intrigue and violence, will ultimately determine the direction of humanity by introducing the first veemelds (people who can communicate with machines in their brains), a new environmental disease, and a new set of rules neither brother envisioned.
Drawing on the unruly global environmental disturbances and poor leadership response, The Icaria Trilogy explores a collapsing late-capitalist society in Canada through ravages of climate change alongside a failing technology and infrastructure.
Capitalism hasn’t been kind to the environment. Economic pundits and sociologists insist that capitalism is devolving. But what will replace it? Cloud capital? Technofeudalism? Something else? For The Icaria Trilogy, I came up with technocracy in Canada, a social-capitalist meritocracy of technologists and social scientists who claimed they could take humanity through the changes to come. That system was, in turn, violently replaced by a revolutionary movement of radical deep ecologists called the Gaians, empowered by the growing toxic environment that eventually forced populations inside. And that brings us to the ultimate question raised in the title: how far can we (and the environment) be pushed before we get positively unruly?
Ontology of a Revolution For Sustainability
A hegemony that follows the hierarchal economic system of late capitalism inevitably commodifies and ‘others’ with ruthless purpose. Once something (or someone) is commodified, they are given a finite value and purpose outside their own existence. They become an object, a symbol to use and trade. They become a resource to manipulate, exchange, and dispose of with impunity. And through this surrender to utility, they become ‘othered.’ The consumer to manipulate. The trees of the forest to cut down. Water to squander and pollute. Homo sacer to hate and fear. Each has a role to play in the late capitalist narrative of digital abundance and physical scarcity.
This world of late capitalism intensifies bilateral polarization—politically, socially, and environmentally. Wealthy vs. poor. Privileged vs. indentured. Right vs. Left. Educated vs. illiterate. And so on. By its very nature, capitalism invites separation, segregation, and ‘othering’. This is the opposite of what we need—particularly to deal with the hyperobjects of climate change and environmental destruction, which require a united global effort to address and overcome. Polarization tears the fabric of society apart. Polarization leads to lack of consensus, greater misunderstanding, rage and violence. And fanaticism. Borne of deep frustration and fueled by relentless passion, fanaticism sparks violent change—not always good or effective, but definitely subversive. This is what we are seeing today throughout the world: unhinged fanaticism, fed by growing polarization and exclusion. In Germany, the far-right fascist Reichsbürgers movement violently rejects the legitimacy of the modern German state. In the USA, far-right white supremacists and Christian fundamentalists incite domestic terrorist violence fueled by nativism, populism, anti-communism, and ultranationalism. Eco-terrorism—from mild civil disobedience to destructive violence—is also increasing. Eco-terrorism has increased by over 22% since 2017 as acts of radical environmental activism have steadily escalated into environmental warfare.
Radical environmental activism—including tactics such as arson, equipment sabotage, and vandalism—inflict economic damage on offending corporations. Environmental warfare escalates activism that includes destruction and violence (to people, property, and even environment) to intimidate and hurt: such as burning oil reserves, poisoning water supplies, deploying biological agents, or compromising cybersecurity.
In the near-future Canada of The Icaria Trilogy, radical Gaians (deep ecology fanatics) destroy the technocratic government, then enclose and segregate the human population from the sacred environment, permitting it to heal. The Gaians’ secret is that they are keeping humanity “inside” not to protect humanity from a toxic wasteland but to protect the environment from a toxic humanity. The Gaians’ secret is that they are keeping humanity “inside” not to protect humanity from a toxic wasteland but to protect the environment from a toxic humanity.
What Comes After Capitalism?
In his book Four Futures: Life After Capitalism sociologist Peter Frase considers effects of climate change and automation in possible outcomes of a post-Trump election America. Frase envisions four scenarios based on abundance and scarcity and whether a society operates by equality and inclusion (e.g., communism under abundance / socialism under scarcity) or hierarchy and exclusion (Rentism under abundance / Exterminism under scarcity).
Versions of all four of these systems are or have been either already in existence of are currently developing in the world. This evokes author William Gibson’s famous statement: the future is already here; it’s just unevenly distributed. An early example of Rentism began during medieval times under early English capitalism when gentry enclosed land in what has been misidentified as “The Tragedy of the Commons.” The tragedy wasn’t in the commons, but in the loss of them as land reverted from being a common right of peasant farmers to private property under the restricting control of large landowners. It was the beginning of the concept of ownership and exclusion.
Given the currently growing scarcity of resources—lack of sufficient clean freshwater and rampant habitat destruction—the following scenarios are more likely to prevail: Socialism (if a society operates by equality) or Exterminism (if a society operates by hierarchy).
Socialism may arise within an egalitarian society if driven by altruistic notions of self-limitation. Ecologists describe such a self-limiting system as K-selected (see my discussion of K-selection and r-selection in my book Water Is…). A K-selected population operates at or near the carrying capacity of the environment and favours individuals that successfully and respectfully compete for resources and produce few young.
Exclusion within a hierarchical system lies at the heart of Exterminism. The Western World’s current hierarchical model of elitist wealth inequality (driven by greed and resource scarcity) favours its elite oligarchs by ‘othering’ and repressing its labour/worker population. Within a late capitalist model, the hierarchy of capitalist/owner and labourer/worker is based on mutual dependence; however, as automation, various technologies and AI supplant human labor needs, the mutuality crumbles. In his Exterminism scenario of hierarchy and scarcity, Frase proposes that: “When mass labor has been rendered superfluous, a final solution lurks…”
The Question …
Frase touches upon the final answer to my question in the title: “The real question,” writes Frase, “is not whether human civilization can survive ecological crises [such as climate change and habitat destruction to establish sustainability] but whether all of us can survive it together, in some reasonably egalitarian way.” And, again, Gibson provides the answer.
References:
Eagan, Sean P. 1995. “From spikes to bombs: the rise of eco-terrorism.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 19(1): 1-18.
Frase, Peter. 2016. “Four Futures: Life After Capitalism.”, London. 150pp.
Gibson, William. 1999. “The Science of Science Fiction.” Talk of the Nation, Washington, D.C.: National Public Radio, November 30, 1999.
Munteanu, Nina. 2026. “Gaia’s Revolution, Part 1 of Icaria Trilogy.” Dragon Moon Press, Calgary, AB. 369 pp.
Munteanu, Nina. 2010. “Angel of Chaos, Part 2 of Icaria Trilogy.” Dragon Moon Press, Calgary, AB. 518 pp.
Munteanu, Nina. 2007. “Darwin’s Paradox, Part 3 of Icaria Trilogy.” Dragon Moon Press, Calgary, AB. 294 pp.
Sessions, George, Bill Devall. 2000. “Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered.” Gibbs Smith. 267pp.
Thompson, E.P. 1980. “Notes on Exterminism: the Last Stage of Civilization, Exterminism, and the Cold War.” New Left Review 1(121).
Eagan, Sean P. 1995. “From spikes to bombs: the rise of eco-terrorism.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 19(1): 1-18.
Frase, Peter. 2016. “Four Futures: Life After Capitalism.”, London. 150pp.
Gibson, William. 1999. “The Science of Science Fiction.” Talk of the Nation, Washington, D.C.: National Public Radio, November 30, 1999.
Munteanu, Nina. 2026. “Gaia’s Revolution, Part 1 of Icaria Trilogy.” Dragon Moon Press, Calgary, AB. 369 pp.
Munteanu, Nina. 2010. “Angel of Chaos, Part 2 of Icaria Trilogy.” Dragon Moon Press, Calgary, AB. 518 pp.
Munteanu, Nina. 2007. “Darwin’s Paradox, Part 3 of Icaria Trilogy.” Dragon Moon Press, Calgary, AB. 294 pp.
Sessions, George, Bill Devall. 2000. “Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered.” Gibbs Smith. 267pp.
Thompson, E.P. 1980. “Notes on Exterminism: the Last Stage of Civilization, Exterminism, and the Cold War.” New Left Review 1(121).
Young, Paul. 2024. “Rise of Eco-Terrorism and Environmental Terrorism.” Medium, April 23, 2024.Young, Paul. 2024. “Rise of Eco-Terrorism and Environmental Terrorism.” Medium, April 23, 2024.
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Nina Munteanu is an Canadian ecologist, author, editor and writing coach, notably but not exclusively in the realm of Speculative Fiction (SF/F). In addition to nine published novels, Munteanu has written short stories, articles and non-fiction books, which have been translated into several languages throughout the world. Munteanu is a member of SF Canada.
Nina Munteanu on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninamunteanu/
Nina Munteanu Writing Coach. https://ninamunteanu.me/
Nina Munteanu (Wikipedia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Munteanu
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Image Credits
Munteanu, N. , June 2, 2026. A Beaver Pond.
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