Adam Hanieh’s new book, Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market (Verso, 2024) could not be timelier. As all eyes turn to Baku for COP29, the capitalist world heads to yet another performance of misdirection. In contrast to that monumental deception, we need to see things as they really stand and take action accordingly. So, let’s take a deep dive and get the record straight, the basic problem remains that capitalism is destroying planet Earth at an accelerating pace. Crude Capitalism—hereafter CC—goes a long way to explaining why the capitalist powers remain so fully committed to oil, come what may.