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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a reproduction of the review published in the Marx & Philosophy Review of Books
In the last few decades, there has been a renewed interest in exploring issues of ecology and sustainability from a Marxist perspective. Partially inspired by the ecological movement more widely, partially by the revival of Marxist economic theory since the 1980s, the topic of 'Marx and ecology' has been given wide attention in a range of publications in recent years. All three of the authors of the present book have earned their stripes in this field of research, and in particular John Bellamy Foster has been influential in putting ecological questions on the agenda of socialist politics, a tradition that had hitherto often been hostile to the claims of (middle class) 'green' campaigners. That capitalism is incompatible with the demands of our ecosystem and the existence of a self-sustaining environment free from exploitation is now taken for granted by socialists of whatever kind in most of the world, even in China; and yet this is a thought that had largely lain dormant since the period of the Second International. Its revival in recent years is in many ways for a significant part due to the above authors, and this book can be seen as the culmination of their efforts in the theoretical development of the implications of Marxism for understanding what Marx called the 'metabolism' between mankind and nature (45, 46). The 'metabolic rift' that capitalism has opened is, according to the authors, due to the incompatibility of the drive for perpetual growth and accumulation with the requirements of the environment as the basis for life (85).
This disruption or rift in the metabolism between humans and the earth, the 'regulative law of social production' (124), expresses itself in three ways in the current-day catastrophic environmental feedback loop: first, the decline in the natural fertility of the soil, which has to be compensated for by transferring nutrients over long distances to new locations; second, the increase in the intensity of the exploitation of nature, extending and expanding the 'ecological rift' qualitatively and quantitatively; and third, the transformation of the earth in the capitalist production process into harmful waste and pollution (125). In the course of the book, the authors examine each of these in their historical development as well as in the findings of climatologists and other natural scientists regarding the current-day situation, underlining the scope and threat of the looming ecological disaster. This includes not only discussions of such politically familiar subjects as climate change and the carbon cycle, but also for example the impact of computer technology and electronic storage on the consumption of paper. The authors use not only Marx's understanding of the nature and expansion of capital to underline their argument, but also explore how the ecological degradations caused by capitalism despite its renowned 'efficiency' can be seen as a specific application of the famous Jevons Paradox - a study by the famous nineteenth century economist Jevons of changes in the consumption of coal with the introduction of more energy-efficient technologies, which contrary to all expectation led to an increase, rather than decrease, in the consumption and extraction of this nonrenewable good. As the authors are well aware, many of the liberal punditry and the political class today who are aware of the real dimensions of this ecological rift put their faith in capitalism's ability to achieve greater efficiencies by the introduction of new technology, and hope to avoid the impact of the ecological crisis in this way. But the Jevons Paradox and what the authors call the 'Paperless Office Paradox' (191) demonstrate why this cannot happen. Indeed, since the 1970s the energy consumption per unit of GDP of the United States has more than halved, but this has not in the least diminished the American over-consumption of energy resources relative to the rest of the world and the planet's carrying capacity. In a system based on limitless accumulation for its own sake, any savings in energy efficiency will only allow an expansion in economic activity based on the energy source, negating the environmental benefit from the new technology. This is the Jevons Paradox in action, and as the authors emphasize, capitalism shows this pattern time and again.
Despite the familiarity of the average economist (presumably) with the Jevons Paradox, the reality and consequences of the ecological rift are not much recognized by modern-day economists, who are loath even at the worst of times to say anything against the system of unlimited accumulation of value. The authors summarize the mainstream economic view of the ecological aspects of capitalism as threefold again: first, a belief in universal substitutability, in which no aspect of nature is in principle irreplacable; second, what they call 'demateralization', which is the belief or hope that the real production of goods can by technology somehow be decoupled from the use of resources, leading to a 'weightless economy'; and finally, the conversion of nature into natural capital, which although for the first time giving an economic weight to nature, at the same time equalizes it as a commodity with all the others, and denies its qualitative significance (112). This attitude is well summed up by a quote from Robert Solow, the Nobel Prize-winning growth economist: 'if it is very easy to substitute other factors for natural resources, then there is in principle no "problem". The world can, in effect, get along without natural resources, so exhaustion is just an event, not a catastrophe.' (122) Of course, in reality capitalism has found it much less easy than the economists have hoped to very easily substitute technology for the metabolism with nature. Unfortunately, given its importance, these excursions into non-Marxist economic theory and the ways in which it has dealt and still tries to deal with the ecological rift is very brief. The discussion of 'ecological modernization theory' takes up just a few pages (251-258). One would have wished the authors had expanded on this more generally, also in order to contrast more effectively the Marxist approach with the modern-day neoclassical one at the theoretical level, not just at the level of capitalism's practical incompatibility with the ecosystem.
Another large section of the book is dedicated to 'dialectical ecology', which the authors identify as the line of thought extending from Engels' work on the dialectics of nature to Soviet applications of this thought to contemporary ecological questions. The authors, against the anti-Engelsian school of thought (e.g. Peter Thomas) and the general hostility towards the Dialectics of Nature by older interpretations of Marxist thought in the West, defend this approach as being not only shared by Marx and Engels alike, but also the cornerstone of their thought about the metabolism with nature and the creation of the ecological rift (241). To justify this, they contrast a Western tradition of critics of this dialectics, such as Lukacs and Gramsci, with a more sympathetic tradition within Marxist-oriented natural science, such as the works of J.D. Bernal, J.D.S. Haldane, and Hyman Levy as well as a similar current in the Soviet Union with Vernadsky, Oparin, and Hessen (241-243). The authors locate the roots of this dialectical way of thought about nature, that is nature as historically developing in its interaction with mankind and therefore always being in a state of 'emergence' (240), in Engels' work on dialectics as well as the Grundrisse. In this reading, the Marxist approach to ecological questions understands nature as being a historical (by which they presumably mean path-dependent) process, in which humanity since its existence has constantly come up against ecological boundaries to its social relations, which it can only overcome by reorganizing society to accord a better 'fit' with nature's laws (240). They contrast this view not just with the 'green' defenders of capitalism, who put their faith in technology, but also with holist systems such as that of James Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis (260) and the views of the South African General and architect of apartheid Jan Christiaan Smuts, who used a crude social Darwinism to justify the oppression of blacks (318). In what is perhaps the most interesting chapter of the book, or at least the most original territory for a Marxist discussion of ecological questions, the authors use the chapter 'The Sociology of Ecology' to trace the historical development of notions of 'nature' and its 'laws'. They examine this through the lens of what they call the 'double transference' common to bourgeois thought about nature and biology: the reading of particular patterns from ecology as analogous with those of bourgeois society, and then the re-application of these ideas as modified by the bourgeois self-understanding to the domain of nature, in which they are raised to the level of eternal laws (309). The authors wisely note this double transference as being the foremost trap to be avoided in a political-economic thinking about ecological questions, and note how Marx and Engels opposed both the tendency to read capitalist competition into ecology as an eternal law as well as theories of limitless cooperation as a natural example for socialists and anarchists (311). Here, again, the material would allow for a much greater exploration of these issues, although it must be noted John Bellamy Foster has already done so to a limited extent in his earlier work Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature (Foster 2000), on which much of the present volume is based. Read more ›
In the last few decades, there has been a renewed interest in exploring issues of ecology and sustainability from a Marxist perspective. Partially inspired by the ecological movement more widely, partially by the revival of Marxist economic theory since the 1980s, the topic of 'Marx and ecology' has been given wide attention in a range of publications in recent years. All three of the authors of the present book have earned their stripes in this field of research, and in particular John Bellamy Foster has been influential in putting ecological questions on the agenda of socialist politics, a tradition that had hitherto often been hostile to the claims of (middle class) 'green' campaigners. That capitalism is incompatible with the demands of our ecosystem and the existence of a self-sustaining environment free from exploitation is now taken for granted by socialists of whatever kind in most of the world, even in China; and yet this is a thought that had largely lain dormant since the period of the Second International. Its revival in recent years is in many ways for a significant part due to the above authors, and this book can be seen as the culmination of their efforts in the theoretical development of the implications of Marxism for understanding what Marx called the 'metabolism' between mankind and nature (45, 46). The 'metabolic rift' that capitalism has opened is, according to the authors, due to the incompatibility of the drive for perpetual growth and accumulation with the requirements of the environment as the basis for life (85).
This disruption or rift in the metabolism between humans and the earth, the 'regulative law of social production' (124), expresses itself in three ways in the current-day catastrophic environmental feedback loop: first, the decline in the natural fertility of the soil, which has to be compensated for by transferring nutrients over long distances to new locations; second, the increase in the intensity of the exploitation of nature, extending and expanding the 'ecological rift' qualitatively and quantitatively; and third, the transformation of the earth in the capitalist production process into harmful waste and pollution (125). In the course of the book, the authors examine each of these in their historical development as well as in the findings of climatologists and other natural scientists regarding the current-day situation, underlining the scope and threat of the looming ecological disaster. This includes not only discussions of such politically familiar subjects as climate change and the carbon cycle, but also for example the impact of computer technology and electronic storage on the consumption of paper. The authors use not only Marx's understanding of the nature and expansion of capital to underline their argument, but also explore how the ecological degradations caused by capitalism despite its renowned 'efficiency' can be seen as a specific application of the famous Jevons Paradox - a study by the famous nineteenth century economist Jevons of changes in the consumption of coal with the introduction of more energy-efficient technologies, which contrary to all expectation led to an increase, rather than decrease, in the consumption and extraction of this nonrenewable good. As the authors are well aware, many of the liberal punditry and the political class today who are aware of the real dimensions of this ecological rift put their faith in capitalism's ability to achieve greater efficiencies by the introduction of new technology, and hope to avoid the impact of the ecological crisis in this way. But the Jevons Paradox and what the authors call the 'Paperless Office Paradox' (191) demonstrate why this cannot happen. Indeed, since the 1970s the energy consumption per unit of GDP of the United States has more than halved, but this has not in the least diminished the American over-consumption of energy resources relative to the rest of the world and the planet's carrying capacity. In a system based on limitless accumulation for its own sake, any savings in energy efficiency will only allow an expansion in economic activity based on the energy source, negating the environmental benefit from the new technology. This is the Jevons Paradox in action, and as the authors emphasize, capitalism shows this pattern time and again.
Despite the familiarity of the average economist (presumably) with the Jevons Paradox, the reality and consequences of the ecological rift are not much recognized by modern-day economists, who are loath even at the worst of times to say anything against the system of unlimited accumulation of value. The authors summarize the mainstream economic view of the ecological aspects of capitalism as threefold again: first, a belief in universal substitutability, in which no aspect of nature is in principle irreplacable; second, what they call 'demateralization', which is the belief or hope that the real production of goods can by technology somehow be decoupled from the use of resources, leading to a 'weightless economy'; and finally, the conversion of nature into natural capital, which although for the first time giving an economic weight to nature, at the same time equalizes it as a commodity with all the others, and denies its qualitative significance (112). This attitude is well summed up by a quote from Robert Solow, the Nobel Prize-winning growth economist: 'if it is very easy to substitute other factors for natural resources, then there is in principle no "problem". The world can, in effect, get along without natural resources, so exhaustion is just an event, not a catastrophe.' (122) Of course, in reality capitalism has found it much less easy than the economists have hoped to very easily substitute technology for the metabolism with nature. Unfortunately, given its importance, these excursions into non-Marxist economic theory and the ways in which it has dealt and still tries to deal with the ecological rift is very brief. The discussion of 'ecological modernization theory' takes up just a few pages (251-258). One would have wished the authors had expanded on this more generally, also in order to contrast more effectively the Marxist approach with the modern-day neoclassical one at the theoretical level, not just at the level of capitalism's practical incompatibility with the ecosystem.
Another large section of the book is dedicated to 'dialectical ecology', which the authors identify as the line of thought extending from Engels' work on the dialectics of nature to Soviet applications of this thought to contemporary ecological questions. The authors, against the anti-Engelsian school of thought (e.g. Peter Thomas) and the general hostility towards the Dialectics of Nature by older interpretations of Marxist thought in the West, defend this approach as being not only shared by Marx and Engels alike, but also the cornerstone of their thought about the metabolism with nature and the creation of the ecological rift (241). To justify this, they contrast a Western tradition of critics of this dialectics, such as Lukacs and Gramsci, with a more sympathetic tradition within Marxist-oriented natural science, such as the works of J.D. Bernal, J.D.S. Haldane, and Hyman Levy as well as a similar current in the Soviet Union with Vernadsky, Oparin, and Hessen (241-243). The authors locate the roots of this dialectical way of thought about nature, that is nature as historically developing in its interaction with mankind and therefore always being in a state of 'emergence' (240), in Engels' work on dialectics as well as the Grundrisse. In this reading, the Marxist approach to ecological questions understands nature as being a historical (by which they presumably mean path-dependent) process, in which humanity since its existence has constantly come up against ecological boundaries to its social relations, which it can only overcome by reorganizing society to accord a better 'fit' with nature's laws (240). They contrast this view not just with the 'green' defenders of capitalism, who put their faith in technology, but also with holist systems such as that of James Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis (260) and the views of the South African General and architect of apartheid Jan Christiaan Smuts, who used a crude social Darwinism to justify the oppression of blacks (318). In what is perhaps the most interesting chapter of the book, or at least the most original territory for a Marxist discussion of ecological questions, the authors use the chapter 'The Sociology of Ecology' to trace the historical development of notions of 'nature' and its 'laws'. They examine this through the lens of what they call the 'double transference' common to bourgeois thought about nature and biology: the reading of particular patterns from ecology as analogous with those of bourgeois society, and then the re-application of these ideas as modified by the bourgeois self-understanding to the domain of nature, in which they are raised to the level of eternal laws (309). The authors wisely note this double transference as being the foremost trap to be avoided in a political-economic thinking about ecological questions, and note how Marx and Engels opposed both the tendency to read capitalist competition into ecology as an eternal law as well as theories of limitless cooperation as a natural example for socialists and anarchists (311). Here, again, the material would allow for a much greater exploration of these issues, although it must be noted John Bellamy Foster has already done so to a limited extent in his earlier work Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature (Foster 2000), on which much of the present volume is based. Read more ›
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
"...a scholarly, well-referenced, and important contribution" (Herman Daly)
4 Nov 2010
Format:Paperback
Books detailing nearly every aspect of ecological and environmental crisis are literally overflowing the shelves. To me, The Ecological Rift stands way out from the pile in this important respect: it enriches your understanding of the roots of ecological crisis by deepening and contextualizing (non-controversial) empirical facts with careful (yet, critical) reconstructions of debates between the most thoughtful and influential voices addressing ecological issues throughout history. From ecologically minded 18th and 19th century political economists like Stanley Jevons and Karl Marx; environmental sociologists like James O'Connor and Allan Schnaiberg; to popular social critics like Herman Daly, Juliet Schor and Annie Leonard, and outspoken contemporary scientists like James Hansen, Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin). Even the Greek philosopher, Epicurus, contributes a range of remarkable insights. It feels like you've been transported to the world's premier conference on the environment as a witty, critical participant.
After reading a few chapters you begin to realize that fundamental ecological contradictions--such as the paradox of public wealth and private riches (Ch. 1); mainstream economics' confusion of economic and ecological value (Ch. 4); the intractability of sustainability and perpetual economic growth (Ch. 3); the myth of 'rampant consumerism' in a world of "sovereign producers" (Ch. 16), etc.--are intimately connected with processes and ideologies inseparable from the "free market system." People allergic to obfuscation simply use the term capitalism. Given the dominance of capitalist relations, the book presents a critique of society as a whole, while by no means does ignoring specific issues and concerns (Ch. 10).
A central contribution of The Ecological Rift is that it highlights core tendencies within our society that conflict with stated environmental goals. As these tendencies are clarified you feel better able to avoid ideological traps: distinguishing science from apology, parsing genuine concern from propaganda, recognizing real danger in place of denial.
The authors invite you to the make many important connections and these can seem dizzying. This is because the approach to the problem is so thorough. The authors directly engage with the dominant paradigms of the all the social sciences, not simply or exclusively economics (see the Introduction). Obviously, this isn't a simple endeavor, yet neither is it impossible. The book's breadth, organization and seamless integration prove incredibly useful here, because one can jump in at a variety of points and not feel lost.
Each of the four parts is self-contained in the sense that various strands of critique are unified by the "theory of metabolic rift." A clear comprehension of this theory would obviously be helpful and several pieces do address more nuanced theoretical concerns (especially in part 3). (For those interested, see Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature and The Ecological Revolution: Making Peace with the Planet, both by John Bellamy Foster.) However the authors should be credited for grounding metabolic rift theory through its application to a wide range of concrete issues; and, again, repeated engagement with popular thinkers, debates and assumptions reinforces the relevance of the rift concept. For example, chapter 16 ("The Ecology of Consumption") is highly engaging because it demystifies oft-repeated jargon. By the end, you feel immune to making lazy assumptions about the pattern of environmental pollution and energized by all of the useful knowledge you've absorbed (e.g., municipal solid waste is only 2.5 percent of total waste in the U.S.)
The Ecological Rift is sure to make some waves. The painstaking investigation, forthright approach, and intelligible rendering of complex issues is certainly welcome. These authors have been honing and developing a critical understanding of ecological problems for at least 15 years: and they link their readers up with several *centuries* of critical thought. This may appear a Sisyphean task, and for many it is. We should remember why those in power never tire from reminding us what is and isn't *possible*. Our continued cynicism, our feeling of defeat renders passive and docile and we cede control and responsibility for change.
Unlike so many of the writings on ecological problems, this book has the potential to jolt us out of our cynicism because it also provides such an exciting and empowering conception of hope and possibility (Part 4).
After reading a few chapters you begin to realize that fundamental ecological contradictions--such as the paradox of public wealth and private riches (Ch. 1); mainstream economics' confusion of economic and ecological value (Ch. 4); the intractability of sustainability and perpetual economic growth (Ch. 3); the myth of 'rampant consumerism' in a world of "sovereign producers" (Ch. 16), etc.--are intimately connected with processes and ideologies inseparable from the "free market system." People allergic to obfuscation simply use the term capitalism. Given the dominance of capitalist relations, the book presents a critique of society as a whole, while by no means does ignoring specific issues and concerns (Ch. 10).
A central contribution of The Ecological Rift is that it highlights core tendencies within our society that conflict with stated environmental goals. As these tendencies are clarified you feel better able to avoid ideological traps: distinguishing science from apology, parsing genuine concern from propaganda, recognizing real danger in place of denial.
The authors invite you to the make many important connections and these can seem dizzying. This is because the approach to the problem is so thorough. The authors directly engage with the dominant paradigms of the all the social sciences, not simply or exclusively economics (see the Introduction). Obviously, this isn't a simple endeavor, yet neither is it impossible. The book's breadth, organization and seamless integration prove incredibly useful here, because one can jump in at a variety of points and not feel lost.
Each of the four parts is self-contained in the sense that various strands of critique are unified by the "theory of metabolic rift." A clear comprehension of this theory would obviously be helpful and several pieces do address more nuanced theoretical concerns (especially in part 3). (For those interested, see Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature and The Ecological Revolution: Making Peace with the Planet, both by John Bellamy Foster.) However the authors should be credited for grounding metabolic rift theory through its application to a wide range of concrete issues; and, again, repeated engagement with popular thinkers, debates and assumptions reinforces the relevance of the rift concept. For example, chapter 16 ("The Ecology of Consumption") is highly engaging because it demystifies oft-repeated jargon. By the end, you feel immune to making lazy assumptions about the pattern of environmental pollution and energized by all of the useful knowledge you've absorbed (e.g., municipal solid waste is only 2.5 percent of total waste in the U.S.)
The Ecological Rift is sure to make some waves. The painstaking investigation, forthright approach, and intelligible rendering of complex issues is certainly welcome. These authors have been honing and developing a critical understanding of ecological problems for at least 15 years: and they link their readers up with several *centuries* of critical thought. This may appear a Sisyphean task, and for many it is. We should remember why those in power never tire from reminding us what is and isn't *possible*. Our continued cynicism, our feeling of defeat renders passive and docile and we cede control and responsibility for change.
Unlike so many of the writings on ecological problems, this book has the potential to jolt us out of our cynicism because it also provides such an exciting and empowering conception of hope and possibility (Part 4).
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
A "Must Read" for the Youth Climate Movement
8 Nov 2010
Format:Paperback
At first I was a bit surprised to see "current affairs" as one of the topic areas on the back cover of The Ecological Rift. Other works by the authors I had read sweep the debates of social and natural science over the past two centuries or more on materialism, political economy, and ecology. This book is no less broad in scope reviewing, for example, paradoxes between public wealth and private riches and between sustainability and economic growth. They show these deeply troubled some earlier economic thinkers, only to be swept under the rug by more modern disciples of economics, and illustrate the relevance of those early insights to modern ecological problems.
However, by the end of the introductory chapter I could better see the appropriateness of the "current affairs" label. There are many books written on the growing and interconnected forms of ecological crisis that threaten the future of young people today. Bizarrely, as natural sciences warning have gotten starker, social scientists proposals have gotten weaker as evidenced by the popularity of ecological modernization--a managerial, technocratic perspective on environmental problems that tends to eschew both history and analysis of power relations:
"The danger lies not so much in the vast majority of social scientists..., who have essentially ignored...the ecological crisis...as in those who propose to manage the crisis (environmental economists, environmental sociologists, environmental political scientists), who profess they can "green" capitalism and green "modernity," all the time refusing to recognize that capitalism is not an immutable condition of human existence and that nature, far from being stabilized, is for all practical purposes being destroyed by this very system. Common notions of ecological modernization, for example, are increasingly being rendered irrelevant or useless in the face of the ongoing development of the ecological rift"(p.38).
The book may be seen in part as an attempt to intervene in current affairs with a rounded argument which demonstrates that ecological modernization is a dangerous diversion from the roots of the ecological crises we face. There is a keen urgency for the current generation of social scientists and activists as we stand at an epochal moment in human and natural history not to waste precious time and effort with false solutions.
But the book is in not primarily about debunking ecological modernization. The nature of solutions lies always in the nature of the problem and the authors argue this must be understood in terms of the fundamentals of capitalism. The chapters in part one demonstrate how a theoretical approach rooted in Marxist materialism offers a coherent framework with which to understand the causal framework behind the general association of ecological degradation and capitalist development. In part two, it is used to explain the particularly peculiar paradoxes that flummox ecological modernization. Expanding in scope, their framework in part three provides deep insights into the history of (human) ecology, and the ecology of (human) history. Finally, with part four, in place of empty economic recipes and prayers for technological miracles, the authors offer analyses of the social structural changes that must occur for sustainability, the material foundations upon which political bases might be mobilized for such change, and examples of movement struggles occurring in the world today along these lines.
In short, the authors make good on the confrontation of reality with reason that is the call of an intellectual. They show, contrary to some, capitalism is the system we live in, it has since its birth had identifiable systematic laws that create a rift with the reproduction of the ecological systems life depends on and will continue to do so until its death. If we don't want the possibility of a humane future to die with it, a different system based on democracy and sustainable human development is necessary. As the concluding chapters note, those who are struggling for it today in Latin America call it socialism for the 21st century.
However, by the end of the introductory chapter I could better see the appropriateness of the "current affairs" label. There are many books written on the growing and interconnected forms of ecological crisis that threaten the future of young people today. Bizarrely, as natural sciences warning have gotten starker, social scientists proposals have gotten weaker as evidenced by the popularity of ecological modernization--a managerial, technocratic perspective on environmental problems that tends to eschew both history and analysis of power relations:
"The danger lies not so much in the vast majority of social scientists..., who have essentially ignored...the ecological crisis...as in those who propose to manage the crisis (environmental economists, environmental sociologists, environmental political scientists), who profess they can "green" capitalism and green "modernity," all the time refusing to recognize that capitalism is not an immutable condition of human existence and that nature, far from being stabilized, is for all practical purposes being destroyed by this very system. Common notions of ecological modernization, for example, are increasingly being rendered irrelevant or useless in the face of the ongoing development of the ecological rift"(p.38).
The book may be seen in part as an attempt to intervene in current affairs with a rounded argument which demonstrates that ecological modernization is a dangerous diversion from the roots of the ecological crises we face. There is a keen urgency for the current generation of social scientists and activists as we stand at an epochal moment in human and natural history not to waste precious time and effort with false solutions.
But the book is in not primarily about debunking ecological modernization. The nature of solutions lies always in the nature of the problem and the authors argue this must be understood in terms of the fundamentals of capitalism. The chapters in part one demonstrate how a theoretical approach rooted in Marxist materialism offers a coherent framework with which to understand the causal framework behind the general association of ecological degradation and capitalist development. In part two, it is used to explain the particularly peculiar paradoxes that flummox ecological modernization. Expanding in scope, their framework in part three provides deep insights into the history of (human) ecology, and the ecology of (human) history. Finally, with part four, in place of empty economic recipes and prayers for technological miracles, the authors offer analyses of the social structural changes that must occur for sustainability, the material foundations upon which political bases might be mobilized for such change, and examples of movement struggles occurring in the world today along these lines.
In short, the authors make good on the confrontation of reality with reason that is the call of an intellectual. They show, contrary to some, capitalism is the system we live in, it has since its birth had identifiable systematic laws that create a rift with the reproduction of the ecological systems life depends on and will continue to do so until its death. If we don't want the possibility of a humane future to die with it, a different system based on democracy and sustainable human development is necessary. As the concluding chapters note, those who are struggling for it today in Latin America call it socialism for the 21st century.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Excellent contribution
27 April 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It is a seriously, well informed book. An excellent contribution to current discussion on "global change". Useful for those interested or even for those well informed in ecological economics, political ecology and ecological sociology.
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