Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Eco-justice and an Orientation toward the Ecosystem

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Green Criminology and Green Theories of Justice

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Green Criminology ((PSGC))

  • 748 Accesses

Abstract

When discussing the issue of eco-justice, it is necessary to recognize that there are a variety of views concerning the concept of justice in ecological terms, and that these concepts of ecology can be translated into more specific, definable orientations toward eco-justice (e.g., Opotow and Clayton 1994 for review). That is to say, there are different ways of defining the content of “green justice,” which is defined relative to a definition or conceptualization of the idea of an ecosystem or ecological unit. At issue are whether any of these approaches are to be preferred and the implications of choosing one orientation toward green justice over any other view.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Al Sayed, Ahmad R.M., and Siok Kun Sek. 2013. Environmental Kuznets Curve. Evidences from Applied Mathematical Sciences 7 (22): 1081–1092.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Attfield, Robin. 2012. Biocentrism and Artificial Life. Environmental Values 21 (1): 83–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Babu, Swati Sinha, and Soumyendra Kishore Datta. 2013. The Relevance of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) in a Framework of Broad-based Environmental Degradation and Modified Measure of Growth–a Pooled Data Analysis. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology 20 (4): 309–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beirne, Piers. 1999. For a Nonspeciesist Criminology: Animal Abuse as an Object of Study. Criminology 37 (1): 117–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2007. Animal Rights, animal abuse and green criminology. In Issues in Green Criminology, ed. P. Beirne and N. South, 55–86. Devon, UK: Willan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benton, Ted. 1998. Rights and Justice on a Shared Planet. Theoretical Criminology 2 (2): 149–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bookchin, Murray. 1988. Social Ecology Versus Deep Ecology. Socialist Review 18 (3): 9–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyce, James K. 2002. The Political Economy of the Environment. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brulle, Robert J., and David N. Pellow. 2006. Environmental Justice: Human Health and Environmental Inequalities. Annual Review of Public Health 27: 103–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burkett, Paul. 2008. Marxism and Ecological Economics: Toward a Red and Green Political Economy. Chicago: Haymarket Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burkett, Paul, and John Bellamy Foster. 2006. Metabolism, Energy, and Entropy in Marx’s Critique of Political Economy: Beyond the Podolinsky Myth. Theory and Society 35 (1): 109–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burns, Thomas J., Byron L. Davis, and Edward L. Kick. 1997. Position in the World System and National Emissions of Greenhouse Gases. Journal of World Systems Research III: 432–466.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castree, Noel. 2000. Marxism and the Production of Nature. Capital & Class 24 (3): 5–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2002. False Antitheses? Marxism, Nature and Actor-networks. Antipode 34 (1): 111–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Choumert, Johanna, Pascale Combes Motel, and Hervé K. Dakpo. 2013. Is the Environmental Kuznets Curve for Deforestation a Threatened Theory? A Meta-analysis of the Literature. Ecological Economics 90: 19–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, Brett, and Richard York. 2005. Carbon Metabolism: Global Capitalism, Climate Change, and the Biospheric Rift. Theory and Society 34 (4): 391–428.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2008. Rifts and Shifts: Getting to the Root of Environmental Crises. Monthly Review 60 (6): 13–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clausen, Rebecca, and Richard York. 2008. Global Biodiversity Decline of Marine and Freshwater Fish: A Cross-national Analysis of Economic, Demographic, and Ecological Influences. Social Science Research 37 (4): 1310–1320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Devall, Bill. 1980. The Deep Ecology Movement. Natural Resources Journal 20 (April): 299–322.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dinda, Soumyananda. 2004. Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis: A Survey. Ecological Economics 49: 431–455.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Durland, Karann. 2008. The Prospects of a Viable Biocentric Egalitarianism. Environmental Ethics 30 (4): 401–416.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faber, Daniel J., ed. 1998. The Struggle for Ecological Democracy: Environmental Justice Movements in the United States. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Field, Rodger C. 1997. Risk and Justice: Capitalist Production and the Environment. Capitalism Nature Socialism 8 (2): 69–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foster, John Bellamy. 1992. The Absolute General Law of Environmental Degradation Under Capitalism. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 3 (3): 77–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1994. The Vulnerable Planet: A Short Economic History of the Environment. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1997. The Crisis of the Earth: Marx’s Theory of Ecological Sustainability as a Nature-Imposed Necessity for Human Production. Organization & Environment 10 (3): 278–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1999. Marx’s Theory of Metabolic Rift: Classical Foundations for Environmental Sociology. American Journal of Sociology 105 (2): 366–405.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2000. Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2002. Marx’s Ecology in Historical Perspective. International Socialism 96: 71–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2012. The Planetary Rift and the New Human Exemptionalism: A Political-Economic Critique of Ecological Modernization Theory. Organization & Environment 25 (3): 211–237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giljum, Stefan, and Nina Eisenmenger. 2004. North-South Trade and the Distribution of Environmental Goods and Burdens: A Biophysical Perspective. The Journal of Environment & Development 13 (1): 73–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Golley, Frank B. 1987. Deep Ecology from the Perspective of Environmental Science. Environmental Ethics 9 (1): 45–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gould, K.A., D.N. Pellow, and A. Schnaiberg. 2008. The Treadmill of Production. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grimes, Peter E., and Jeffrey Kentor. 2003. Exploring the Greenhouse: Foreign Capital Penetration and CO2 Emissions, 1980–1996. Journal of World Systems Research IX (2): 261–275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grossman, Gene M., and Alan B. Krueger. 1995. Economic Growth and the Environment. Quarterly Journal of Economics 60: 353–377.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gunderson, Ryan. 2011. Marx’s Comments on Animal Welfare. Rethinking Marxism 23 (4): 543–548.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffmann, John P. 2004. Social and Environmental Influences on Endangered Species: A Cross-national Study. Sociological Perspectives 47 (1): 79–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jorgenson, Andrew K. 2003. Consumption and Environmental Degradation: A Cross-national Analysis of the Ecological Footprint. Social Problems 50 (3): 374–394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2006. Unequal Ecological Exchange and Environmental Degradation: A Theoretical Proposition and Cross-National Study of Deforestation, 1990–2000. Rural Sociology 71 (4): 685–712.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2011. Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Central and Eastern European Nations, 1992–2005: A Test of Ecologically Unequal Exchange Theory. Human Ecology Review 18 (2): 105–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jorgenson, Andrew K., and Thomas J. Burns. 2007. The Political-economic Causes of Change in the Ecological Footprints of Nations, 1991–2001: A Quantitative Investigation. Social Science Research 36 (2): 834–853.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jorgenson, Andrew K., and Brett Clark. 2011. Societies Consuming Nature: A Panel Study of the Ecological Footprints of Nations, 1960–2003. Social Science Research 40 (1): 226–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2012. Are the Economy and the Environment Decoupling? A Comparative International Study, 1960–20051. American Journal of Sociology 118 (1): 1–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jorgenson, Andrew K., and James Rice. 2005. Structural Dynamics of International Trade and Material Consumption: A Cross-national Study of the Ecological Footprints of Less-developed Countries. Journal of World-Systems Research 11 (1): 57–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaika, Dimitra, and Efthimios Zervas. 2013a. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) Theory—Part A: Concept, Causes and the CO2 Emissions Case. Energy Policy 62: 1392–1402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2013b. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) Theory. Part B: Critical Issues. Energy Policy 62: 1403–1411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lau, Lin-Sea, Chee-Keong Choong, and Yoke-Kee Eng. 2014. Investigation of the Environmental Kuznets Curve for Carbon Emissions in Malaysia: Do Foreign Direct Investment and Trade Matter? Energy Policy 68: 490–497.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Layfield, David. 2008. Marxism and Environmental Crises. Bury Street Edmunds, UK: Arena Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lovelock, J. 2006. The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis & the Fate of Humanity. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, Michael J. 2016. A Marxian Interpretation of the Environmental Kuznets Curve: Global Capitalism and the Rise, Fall (and rise) of Pollution. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 27 (4): 77–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, Michael J., Michael A. Long, Kimberly L. Barrett, and Paul B. Stretesky. 2013. Is It a Crime to Produce Ecological Disorganization? Why Green Criminology and Political Economy Matter in the Analysis of Global Ecological Harms. British Journal of Criminology 55 (3): 997–1016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, Michael J., Michael A. Long, and Paul B. Stretesky. 2015. Anthropogenic Development Drives Species to be Endangered: Capitalism and the Decline of Species. In Green Harms and Crimes: Critical Criminology in a Changing World, ed. R.A. Sollund, 117–146. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, Michael J., and Paul B. Stretesky. 2003. The Meaning of Green: Contrasting Criminological Perspectives. Theoretical Criminology. 7 (2): 217–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, Michael J., Paul B. Stretesky, and Michael A. Long. 2016. A Proposal for the Political Economy of Green Criminology: Capitalism and the Case of the Alberta Tar Sands. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 58 (2): 137–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKinney, Laura A., Edward L. Kick, and Gregory M. Fulkerson. 2010. World System, Anthropogenic, and Ecological Threats to Bird and Mammal Species: A Structural Equation Analysis of Biodiversity Loss. Organization & Environment 23 (1): 3–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merchant, Carolyn. 2005. Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mohai, Paul, David Pellow, and J. Timmons Roberts. 2009. Environmental Justice. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 34: 405–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Naess, Arne. 1973. The Shallow and the Deep, Long-range Ecology Movement. A Summary. Inquiry 16 (1–4): 95–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor, James R. 1998. Natural causes: Essays in Ecological Marxism. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Opotow, Susan, and Susan Clayton. 1994. Green Justice: Conceptions of Fairness and the Natural World. Journal of Social Issues 50 (3): 1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orton, David. 2014a [1998]. Left Biocentrism Primer. http://home.ca.inter.net/~greenweb/lbprimer.htm. Accessed 15 Jan 2014.

  • ———. 2014b [1994]. Envirosocialism: Contradiction or Promise? http://home.ca.inter.net/~greenweb/Envirosocialism.html and/or http://ecotopianetwork.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/a-left-biocentrism-primer-my-path-to-left-biocentrism-part-1-by-david-orton/. Accessed 15 Jan 2014.

  • Perlo, Katherine. 2002. Marxism and the Underdog. Society and Animals 10 (3): 303–318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rothenberg, David. 1987. A Platform of Deep Ecology. Environmentalist 7 (3): 185–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saboori, Behnaz, and Jamalludin Sulaiman. 2013. Environmental Degradation, Economic Growth and Energy Consumption: Evidence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve in Malaysia. Energy Policy 60: 892–905.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schweitzer, Alfred. 2002. Reverence for Life: The Ethics of Albert Schweitzer for the Twenty First Century. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shandra, John M., Christopher Leckband, Laura A. McKinney, and Bruce London. 2009. Ecologically Unequal Exchange, World Polity, and Biodiversity Loss a Cross-national Analysis of Threatened Mammals. International Journal of Comparative Sociology 50 (3–4): 285–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stern, David I. 2004. The Rise and Fall of the Environmental Kuznets Curve. World Development 32 (8): 1419–1439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stretesky, Paul B., Michael A. Long, and Michael J. Lynch. 2013. The Treadmill of Crime: Political Economy and Green Criminology. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stretesky, Paul B., Ruth E. McKie, Michael J. Lynch, Michael A. Long, and Kimberly L. Barrett. 2018. Where Have All the Falcons Gone? Saker Falcon (falco cherrug) Exports in a Global Economy. Global Ecology and Conservation 13: e00372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wake, David B., and Vance T. Vredenburg. 2008. Are We in the Midst of the Sixth Mass Extinction? A View from the World of Amphibians. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 10 (S-1): 11466–11473.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Laili, Xuemei Ding, and Xiongying Wu. 2014. Environmental Kuznets Curve for Pollutants Emissions in China’s Textile Industry: An Empirical Investigation. International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management 17 (1): 14–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, Richard A. 1983. A Critique of Anti-anthropocentric Biocentrism. Environmental Ethics 5 (3): 45–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, Rob. 2007. Green Criminology and the Pursuit of Social and Ecological Justice. In Issues in Green Criminology: Confronting Harms Against Environments, Humanity and other Animals, ed. P. Beirne and N. South, 32–54. Devon, UK: Willan.

    Google Scholar 

  • York, Richard, and Eugene A. Rosa. 2003. Key Challenges to Ecological Modernization Theory. Organization & Environment 16: 273–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • York, Richard, Eugene A. Rosa, and T. Dietz. 2010. Ecological Modernization Theory: Theoretical and Empirical Challenges. In The International Handbook of Environmental Sociology, ed. M.R. Redclift and G. Woodgate, 77–90. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • York, Richard, Eugene A. Rosa, and Thomas Dietz. 2003. Footprints on the Earth: The Environmental Consequences of Modernity. American Sociological Review 68: 279–300.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

    Michael J. Lynch

  2. Department of Sociology, Stillwater, OK, USA

    Michael A. Long

  3. Department of Social Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK

    Paul B. Stretesky

Authors
  1. Michael J. Lynch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michael A. Long
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Paul B. Stretesky
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Lynch, M.J., Long, M.A., Stretesky, P.B. (2019). Eco-justice and an Orientation toward the Ecosystem. In: Green Criminology and Green Theories of Justice. Palgrave Studies in Green Criminology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28573-9_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28573-9_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28572-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-28573-9

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation