Capitalism and Environmental Crisis

Abstract

Social ecology looks at the mutual constitution, or co-evolution, of society and nature (see Chapter 1).Environmental crises involve discords in this co-evolution. It is important to recognize that all concepts of environmental crisis are human-social constructs in the sense that they all implicitly or explicitly define these discords from the standpoint of the environmental requirements of human and social development.All concepts of environmental crisis are based on a particular vision of human development in and through nature and society; a “crisis” occurs when this human development is subjected to “above-normal” restrictions. These restrictions may be defined in terms of human health, mental and physical capabilities, and opportunities to appropriate or to co-habitate with natural conditions; or in terms of breakdowns in the reproduction of the social relations governing human production and development. Environmental crisis theory normally focuses on environmental changes stemming from human interventions into nature, such changes being the most consistent source of “above-normal” environmental restrictions on human development.¹