The entire editorial board of Capitalism Nature Socialism (CNS) is deeply saddened by the passing of David Schwartzman on July 1st of this year. A long-time editor and contributing writer to CNS, David co-published his first essay in the journal in 2003. Entitled “Another Look at the End of the World,” the piece offered an insightful critique of Joel Kovel’s book The Enemy of Nature. A friendship soon developed between David and Joel, the journal’s Editor in Chief from 2003 to 2012. At one of the last panels they did together at the Left Forum, David talked about utopia and Joel about Ernst Bloch. It was a perfect match. David collaborated with the journal in many ways since then, including tabling for the journal and co-presenting with then Ecofeminist Collective coordinator Leigh Brownhill and then Senior Editor Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro (saed) at various venues. Joel expressed nothing but praise and admiration for David and the work he did on behalf of the journal and the movement. For more than a decade, they, and others in the journal, became close comrades in a variety of organizational forms – from campaigns to the Green Party, and from the Ecosocialist International and Global Ecosocialist Network to the work of the journal.
During this time, David published no less than 19 articles, reviews, critical interventions, and response pieces in the journal, ranging from ecosocialist critiques of degrowth, guarded support for the Green New Deal, solar energy prospects in Venezuela and the United States, the ecological future of the planet, and most recently the exchanges with Andreas Roos and Alf Hornborg on key questions related to “Technology as Capital.” Among his key contributions was to bring clarity on what is achievable and under what biophysical conditions and timelines, as well as provide much needed correctives to ecosocialist and broadly leftist ecological thought with respect to biophysical processes, especially in relation to misrepresentations and misuses of thermodynamics. Even as he was deeply involved in other projects, including the journal Science & Society, he was always eager to assist the CNS collective by reviewing manuscripts and other tasks. David was involved as well in countless informal discussions, debates, and in offering constructive critiques of journal content with saed, Chief Editor from 2012–2023. At the Historical Materialism conference in London in 2023, he was there with Leigh Brownhill, our current Co-Editor in Chief, tabling for CNS. He was sharp, sprightly, indefatigable and witty as always, and as witnessed by saed at the transdisciplinary “Marx in the Anthropocene” conference in Venezia (Italy), held in March 2025. There, among his last presentations, he shared an updated iteration of his thesis on solar communism, to much appreciation.
A proud ecosocialist, David never compromised in his claim for the necessity of Marxist understandings of ecology to bring a solution to the global ecological crisis. David was always a breath of fresh air for us at the journal. A Professor Emeritus and one time Head of the Department of Biology at Howard University, he secured a reputation around the world as a leading voice on the Ecological Left on the emancipatory possibilities of ecosocialism to usher in a communist solar society. This is easily seen in The Earth is Not for Sale: A Path Out of Fossil Capitalism to the Other World That is Still Possible, written with his older son, Peter Schwartzman, Mayor of Galesburg, Illinois, and Environmental Studies professor at Knox College. The technical and, to some extent, the political pathways they formulated together can be found at solarutopia.org. David’s scientific research interests were biogeochemistry, geochemistry, (Isotope, environmental) astrobiology, environmental studies and policy, philosophy of science, SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence), and the origin of life. His publication record reflects this breadth of knowledge and versatility, often combined with a Marxist framework, a rare achievement. In the words of his own family, “he was a dedicated eco-socialist, world class climate and energy scientist, red diaper baby, [and] lifelong activist for human rights, peace, social and economic justice.”
Just prior to his most untimely passing, David was looking for a publisher for a book under the title of “Solar Communism: A Guide for the twenty-first Century.” He had completed an initial draft of about a hundred pages. The work, still in its infancy, nevertheless contained a compelling argument in the book proposal, a culmination of decades of praxis (as in the mutually transformative dynamic of theory and political engagement):
A reconceived vision of communism for this century will contribute to the motivation and provide guideposts for achieving the other world that is still possible, one at peace for the flourishing of humans and the biodiversity of our planet. Solar energy is foundational to this vision.He envisioned the work as a series of five chapters, starting with a short history of communism. He would have then moved to explaining the necessity for a specifically solar energy basis of communism and an ecosocialist path to reaching that objective. The last two chapters would have featured a discussion on a global prefigurative subject capable of carrying such a political project to its fruition, as outlined and argued in prior publications, including the above-cited The Earth Is Not for Sale, and with saed in a 2022 special issue in Science & Society. The concluding chapter would have been dedicated to, as he wrote, a “detailed science fiction description of the world one hundred years in the future with the realization of a global solar communist civilization and an account of the history of the last 100 years that made this possible.”
David’s dedication to the hard work of organizing and political mobilization was embodied in his participation in countless local organizations over the years. He combined his scientific competence with political struggles by means of Science for the People in the 1970s, carrying that project onwards, after its 1989 demise, in Washington, DC, as DC Metro Science for the People. Some of the members of that group had taken part of the above-mentioned critical appraisal and discussion in the journal of Joel Kovel’s book. David was also active in the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, becoming a member of the National Coordinating Committee by 2013, and since 2019 with the Democratic Socialists of America Ecosocialist Working Group. He ran for office as a District of Columbia (DC) Statehood Green Party candidate three times and served as Chair of the Political Policy and Action Committee of the DC Statehood Green Party (see also https://www.gp.org/dr_david_schwartzman). His tireless advocacy for raising taxes on wealthy residents was finally rewarded last year when the DC Council passed the tax hike with the added revenue earmarked for childcare, affordable housing and the DC Earned Income Tax credit – programs that overwhelmingly benefit workers. In the words of those who knew him best, his immediate family members, “David was a rare spirit for his genuine compassion for others, using his considerable intellect to improve lives every day of his life. He was admired for his decades of devotion to DC and to economic justice for its poor and workers, and for his willingness to honestly and respectfully discuss with anyone the issues that mattered.” For the editors, writers, and readers of CNS, David will be sorely missed but his vision of an ecosocialist and solar communist future lives on.