"Circle of Irony"

As the new century unfolds, there are two developments which will have a defining impact on the future of humanity. Both have to do with networks and both involve new technologies. One is the rise of global capitalism[1], which is concerned with electronic networks and the other is the creation of sustainable communities based on ecological literacy and the practice of eco-design. The goal of the global economy is to maximize the wealth and power of its elites; while the goal of eco-design is to use sustainability to maximize the way of life.

“Economics and politics are the governing powers of life today, and that's why everything is screwy."

-Joseph Campbell

One can not underestimate the powerful relationship between environmental issues and the global economic/political system. Solutions to our environmental crises will essentially come from systematic changes to the system. Thus where our problem lies because our economic system is largely focused on serving individual or nationalistic needs, as opposed to community or global needs.

I want it to be known that this problem isn’t recent; the view of nature has always been and will always be misrepresented. For example Karl Marx, founder of Marxism wrote; “The environment is a medium for human labor. Nature is to be used by humans for their production purposes. Though humanity was a part of nature, nature's destiny was to be shaped by human labor.”

To Marx this meant that the ultimate stage of Communism, from the environmental point of view, would mean that nature had been humanized to the greatest possible extent. Through science and technology, Marx thought humanity would progress to develop greater control over nature. In doing so, people would free themselves from being dependent upon the environment, mastering it instead of being enslaved by it.

John Foster believes that yes it is true that technology has changed, introducing massive new threats to the biosphere, however he brings up a good point that capitalism’s antagonistic relation to the environment was also apparent to the 19th and 20th century socialists[2], thus reflecting the fact that technology is not the primary issue. According to Foster, the problem is the nature and logic of capitalism as a specific mode of production. He acknowledges that socialists have contributed in fundamental ways to the development of the modern ecological critique. However to uncover this unknown legacy, which is a vital part of the overall endeavor to develop an ecological materialist analysis, which will be capable of addressing the devastating environmental conditions that face us today, we must first acknowledge the relationship between our environmental issues and the global economic/political system.

"People only protect what they love, but they can only love what they know."

- Jacques-Yves Cousteau

My purpose in writing this blog isn’t to tell you want to think (what’s right and what’s wrong). No, my purpose in writing this is to tell you “how” to think. In order for anything to make sense and be successful, one must first realize the connection that links the vicious circle together.

http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Economics/marxism_on_the_environment.html
http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj96/foster.htm
http://earthrenewal.org/global_economics.htm

Footnotes

[1] Capitalism typically refers to an economic and social system in which the means of production (also known as capital) are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in new technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor.

[2] Socialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with an egalitarian method of compensation.