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Ecocide: Kill the Corporation Before It Kills Us
We have reached the point of no return. The existential threat of climate change is now a reality. The world has never been more vulnerable. Yet corporations are already planning a life beyond this point. The business models of fossil fuel giants factor in continued profitability in a scenario of a five-degree increase in global temperature. An increase that will kill millions, if not billions. This is the shocking reality laid bare in a new, hard-hitting book by David Whyte. Ecocide makes clear the problem won't be solved by tinkering around the edges, instead it maps out a plan to end the corporation's death-watch over us. This book will reveal how the corporation has risen to this position of near impunity, but also what we need to do to fix it.
176 pages, Hardcover
Published June 16, 2020
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229 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 18, 2021
“Even after all of the struggles over climate change, and even after all of those corporations’ public commitments, they are still planning to profit as the world collapses around them.”
David Whyte’s bold and timely book is exactly what is needed to understand the global climate and ecological crises we are facing, right when so much of the world is literally on fire. Not only does it deserve to be widely read amid this genre, but it feels like an essential read in order to take a big leap forward.
The author demystifies the idea that “we are all to blame” and goes to great lengths to name the exact companies with the worst record on the environment, benefitting from the legal and state structures set up for them. Its 170 odd pages are packed full of examples and evidence.
It centres on “ecocide”, and the anticipation around its criminalisation, to explain why actually our legal systems are not adequate to deal with the grand moment we are in. It unravels the legal status of corporations, as well as its structures, to show how the worst perpetrators can get through scandal after scandal with soaring profits.
What stood out for me in particular was how Whyte does not shy away from explicitly linking the legacies of colonialism to the multiple crises we’re facing: how colonial capitalism turned into corporate racial exploitation.
I was also engrossed in reading the flaws of “end point regulation” – including the broken idea of corporate social responsibility and “green market fetishism” – and was somewhat astounded that the regulation of the start point hasn’t made it into mainstream discussions.
Whyte lists complex solutions and the potential problems with different types of corporate punishment, including how the most vulnerable people are often sacrificed in the process. His aim is to get everyone on board in upturning (and killing) the corporation.
An excellent and accessible book for those, like me, who are not very familiar with corporate law or the unspoken roots of the enormous crises we are living through. Highly recommend.
David Whyte’s bold and timely book is exactly what is needed to understand the global climate and ecological crises we are facing, right when so much of the world is literally on fire. Not only does it deserve to be widely read amid this genre, but it feels like an essential read in order to take a big leap forward.
The author demystifies the idea that “we are all to blame” and goes to great lengths to name the exact companies with the worst record on the environment, benefitting from the legal and state structures set up for them. Its 170 odd pages are packed full of examples and evidence.
It centres on “ecocide”, and the anticipation around its criminalisation, to explain why actually our legal systems are not adequate to deal with the grand moment we are in. It unravels the legal status of corporations, as well as its structures, to show how the worst perpetrators can get through scandal after scandal with soaring profits.
What stood out for me in particular was how Whyte does not shy away from explicitly linking the legacies of colonialism to the multiple crises we’re facing: how colonial capitalism turned into corporate racial exploitation.
I was also engrossed in reading the flaws of “end point regulation” – including the broken idea of corporate social responsibility and “green market fetishism” – and was somewhat astounded that the regulation of the start point hasn’t made it into mainstream discussions.
Whyte lists complex solutions and the potential problems with different types of corporate punishment, including how the most vulnerable people are often sacrificed in the process. His aim is to get everyone on board in upturning (and killing) the corporation.
An excellent and accessible book for those, like me, who are not very familiar with corporate law or the unspoken roots of the enormous crises we are living through. Highly recommend.
January 3, 2021
If there is one lesson in humility that has stayed with me, and likely will continue to stay with me for the rest of my life, it is the one taught to me by Ms. Reid, my English teacher from age 13-16. We had been set a class essay on a Shakespeare play; I forget which. I wrote something to the effect of “of course, this was no problem for a great writer such as Shakespeare.” The red ink when the essay was returned to me replied “and who are you to tell him if he is great?”
The lesson, while perhaps harshly delivered, was to avoid being overly emotive in academic writing, to not cast opinions without facts or standing with which to back them up. I have approached everything I have written ever since with the fear that Ms. Reid struck into me that day. I think if she were to ever read this, she would be quite pleased.
I mention all of this because I want to be clear that what I am doing here when I write down my thoughts after reading a book is not reviewing. I am no critic. I have no standing to offer a position. Instead, I am trying to document for my own sake the lessons I learn from each book I read. I found it most freeing when I realized that a good book does not have to impart words of wisdom verbatim upon you, like facts you must be prepared to recite in an exam. Instead, a good book changes the way you frame the world. It gives you a new lens through which to view your own experience. I hope that by committing to write down these impressions, they will be able to stay with me for longer. If I were to indulge my more fanciful, philosophical tendencies, I would paraphrase Socrates by saying that I am ensuring my life is worth living, by examining it. If you read these (and bless you if you do), consider them less of a review, and more of a personal essay.
The three hundred odd words of lowering expectations above are important to me here, as I just finished a book by a man I admire on a personal level. One whom I would never, ever, want to be considered as attempting to review, judge, or critique. David Whyte is a professor at the University of Liverpool. He was my personal tutor while I was there, and I have him to thank for many of my personal viewpoints, as well as my excitement for Slavoj Zizek related things. He is also the reason I maintain a goal in life to have a personalized rubber stamp with which to mark my books, as he marked his copy of Violence by Zizek before handing it to me for a loan.
Dave’s class remains one of my absolute favorites. He was my Corporate Crime professor. Every other week, class would run until 8pm as he would show us a movie, and often would bring in a guest speaker from that movie to answer our questions. The topics ranged from the Hillsborough disaster, through to Food, Inc, which is still one of my go to documentaries, focused as it is on the issues facing our food supply system brought about by corporate greed. Dave’s class was refreshing in that it was different to most of the other options available during my Sociology degree. At a time when the University was focusing heavily on Criminology, Dave’s class took a viewpoint that was distinctly different from the focus on individual crimes. Between him, and Paul Jones’ teachings on the sociology of cities, I should have realized much longer ago the pathway I was set on. An urban planner with a strong sense of injustice seems almost manifest destiny at this point.
I pretty much read the entirety of Ecocide in Dave’s voice, even though it has been a good four years since I last saw him. His convictions come through strongly, and he is broad and bold in his identification of not only the existential threat of corporate driven climate change, but the solutions he offers. I found myself on several occasions pausing to reflect on my own positions and part in Ecocide, which for the purposes of this post I will simplify as acts that are widely destructive toward the environment.
Key for me, is Dave’s ability to reframe concepts and processes that are widely considered common sense. So much of planning is based upon finding the highest and best use for land and resources. What if that highest and best use is just being left well enough alone? Not in the NIMBY “this swampland behind my home should be left as such because my home should be the last thing built ever” way, but more in the “what right do transnational corporations have to pillage poor communities of their natural resources?” way. Dave asks big, important questions about the rights of individuals vs the rights of corporations, and my favorite chapter which picks apart the colonial history of the corporation as a shield to dehumanize the most wicked of acts.
Much as Dave’s focus on corporate crime provided me a refreshing break from the focus on individual crimes when I was an undergrad student, so to now does his focus on corporate responsibility provide a refreshing, and much needed, shift away from our personal responsibility (“turn off your lights and fly less”) focused approach toward climate change. Dave’s lessons about our fetishism for individual responsibility are insightful for our collective failures around the COVID-19 pandemic, too. How much impact can our individual efforts make when we are in a system that demanded a reopening of the economy before we were ready? How much does buying the eco-friendly packaging make a difference when it is sat on the shelf next to the single-use plastic variant? If both products have already been made, do we really have a choice?
Because this is not a review, I am straining not to end this piece with a paragraph or two on how I thought this was a great book, or how I’ll keep a copy to inform my practice and to re-read, etcetera, etcetera. I will, however, leave with this. I read this book across the first two days of 2021. I am glad that to be starting my year armed with new questions, and a new perspective.
The lesson, while perhaps harshly delivered, was to avoid being overly emotive in academic writing, to not cast opinions without facts or standing with which to back them up. I have approached everything I have written ever since with the fear that Ms. Reid struck into me that day. I think if she were to ever read this, she would be quite pleased.
I mention all of this because I want to be clear that what I am doing here when I write down my thoughts after reading a book is not reviewing. I am no critic. I have no standing to offer a position. Instead, I am trying to document for my own sake the lessons I learn from each book I read. I found it most freeing when I realized that a good book does not have to impart words of wisdom verbatim upon you, like facts you must be prepared to recite in an exam. Instead, a good book changes the way you frame the world. It gives you a new lens through which to view your own experience. I hope that by committing to write down these impressions, they will be able to stay with me for longer. If I were to indulge my more fanciful, philosophical tendencies, I would paraphrase Socrates by saying that I am ensuring my life is worth living, by examining it. If you read these (and bless you if you do), consider them less of a review, and more of a personal essay.
The three hundred odd words of lowering expectations above are important to me here, as I just finished a book by a man I admire on a personal level. One whom I would never, ever, want to be considered as attempting to review, judge, or critique. David Whyte is a professor at the University of Liverpool. He was my personal tutor while I was there, and I have him to thank for many of my personal viewpoints, as well as my excitement for Slavoj Zizek related things. He is also the reason I maintain a goal in life to have a personalized rubber stamp with which to mark my books, as he marked his copy of Violence by Zizek before handing it to me for a loan.
Dave’s class remains one of my absolute favorites. He was my Corporate Crime professor. Every other week, class would run until 8pm as he would show us a movie, and often would bring in a guest speaker from that movie to answer our questions. The topics ranged from the Hillsborough disaster, through to Food, Inc, which is still one of my go to documentaries, focused as it is on the issues facing our food supply system brought about by corporate greed. Dave’s class was refreshing in that it was different to most of the other options available during my Sociology degree. At a time when the University was focusing heavily on Criminology, Dave’s class took a viewpoint that was distinctly different from the focus on individual crimes. Between him, and Paul Jones’ teachings on the sociology of cities, I should have realized much longer ago the pathway I was set on. An urban planner with a strong sense of injustice seems almost manifest destiny at this point.
I pretty much read the entirety of Ecocide in Dave’s voice, even though it has been a good four years since I last saw him. His convictions come through strongly, and he is broad and bold in his identification of not only the existential threat of corporate driven climate change, but the solutions he offers. I found myself on several occasions pausing to reflect on my own positions and part in Ecocide, which for the purposes of this post I will simplify as acts that are widely destructive toward the environment.
Key for me, is Dave’s ability to reframe concepts and processes that are widely considered common sense. So much of planning is based upon finding the highest and best use for land and resources. What if that highest and best use is just being left well enough alone? Not in the NIMBY “this swampland behind my home should be left as such because my home should be the last thing built ever” way, but more in the “what right do transnational corporations have to pillage poor communities of their natural resources?” way. Dave asks big, important questions about the rights of individuals vs the rights of corporations, and my favorite chapter which picks apart the colonial history of the corporation as a shield to dehumanize the most wicked of acts.
Much as Dave’s focus on corporate crime provided me a refreshing break from the focus on individual crimes when I was an undergrad student, so to now does his focus on corporate responsibility provide a refreshing, and much needed, shift away from our personal responsibility (“turn off your lights and fly less”) focused approach toward climate change. Dave’s lessons about our fetishism for individual responsibility are insightful for our collective failures around the COVID-19 pandemic, too. How much impact can our individual efforts make when we are in a system that demanded a reopening of the economy before we were ready? How much does buying the eco-friendly packaging make a difference when it is sat on the shelf next to the single-use plastic variant? If both products have already been made, do we really have a choice?
Because this is not a review, I am straining not to end this piece with a paragraph or two on how I thought this was a great book, or how I’ll keep a copy to inform my practice and to re-read, etcetera, etcetera. I will, however, leave with this. I read this book across the first two days of 2021. I am glad that to be starting my year armed with new questions, and a new perspective.
March 21, 2022
De los mejores ensayos que he leído del tema, maravilloso
September 5, 2024
I really enjoyed the overall message of this book, that the corporation is inherently structured to exploit the environment for profit and it removes blame from those culpable. It allows for environmental destruction to go unchecked and because this ecocide is profitable, most corporations exploit natural resources beyond their bounds. I also like how Whyte dedicated his last chapter to potential solutions as this made the book seem more hopeful. It helps when a book leads you with direction; there is a problem but we know the action that must be taken to solve it.
Although the legal aspect provided good context to an issue grounded in corporate law (as these permit ecocide so must be strengthened), I found the language somewhat winding. Honestly, it is no fault of the book at all, I just am not the target demographic for a legal perspective on environmental problems as I am disinterested.
Overall, excellent book and would highly recommend if you are interested in regulation around the corporate environmental destruction.
Although the legal aspect provided good context to an issue grounded in corporate law (as these permit ecocide so must be strengthened), I found the language somewhat winding. Honestly, it is no fault of the book at all, I just am not the target demographic for a legal perspective on environmental problems as I am disinterested.
Overall, excellent book and would highly recommend if you are interested in regulation around the corporate environmental destruction.
September 22, 2023
Informative, to the point and engaging. Builds a compelling argument throughout. The power and influence of corporations has never been curtailed, and the book reminds us of the importance to resist corporate capture in international law. It is an easily digestible interesting book for everyone, not just legal scholars or activists.
June 24, 2025
“In many cases, corporations are permitted to poison air and water supplies and destroy bio-diverse areas because we have an international legal system that now privileges corporate rights above the future of the planet and its people.”
July 23, 2023
Great title, pretty great arguments and unsatisfactory conclusions. How to rate this book?
The author is in my opinion fundamentally right: ‘limited’ corporations should be killed to be able to prevent ecocide (and genocide). Public ownership and ‘commons’ should return to make human activity more human again.
By outlining how powerful and untouchable corporations are without giving the reader a practical clue what to do against it, the author remains an academic in the worst sense of the word.
It makes this book one of many ‘leftish’ books in the last thirty or forty years that remain safely in the ivory towers of theory. A shame, because the corporations that threaten to kill us are real and need practical action against them.
Four stars for chapters 1-3, no star for the conclusion, an extra star for the subtitle.
The author is in my opinion fundamentally right: ‘limited’ corporations should be killed to be able to prevent ecocide (and genocide). Public ownership and ‘commons’ should return to make human activity more human again.
By outlining how powerful and untouchable corporations are without giving the reader a practical clue what to do against it, the author remains an academic in the worst sense of the word.
It makes this book one of many ‘leftish’ books in the last thirty or forty years that remain safely in the ivory towers of theory. A shame, because the corporations that threaten to kill us are real and need practical action against them.
Four stars for chapters 1-3, no star for the conclusion, an extra star for the subtitle.
October 28, 2023
10/10 I fucking love this book
“The corporation eradicates the possibility that we can put the protection of the planet before profit. A fight to get rid of the corporations that have brought us to this point may seem like an impossible task at the moment, but it is necessary for our survival. And it is hardly radical to suggest that if something is killing us, we should over-power it and make it stop. And this is what we need to do. We need to kill the corporation before it kills us.”
“The corporation eradicates the possibility that we can put the protection of the planet before profit. A fight to get rid of the corporations that have brought us to this point may seem like an impossible task at the moment, but it is necessary for our survival. And it is hardly radical to suggest that if something is killing us, we should over-power it and make it stop. And this is what we need to do. We need to kill the corporation before it kills us.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 25, 2024
This book is good for people starting to learn about these topics and explore the ideas of capitalism & environmental degradation. It’s been done before but it’s a good introduction. However, it lacks any mention or critiques of the many intersectional issues at play when discussing corporate greed & env destruction
November 13, 2020
This book is not an unbiased appraisal of thr Corporation. It is also an appraisal of the structures alone - nothing is considered about the choices leaders can make within the Corporate structure alone which can be for good.
January 15, 2022
A horror story with villains that rival that of any fiction.
July 18, 2025
One of the most pressing messages of our day delivered in the driest, most boring way possible.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews