What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism

Magdoff, Fred; Foster, John Bellamy

doi:10.14452/mr-061-10-2010-03_1

Cited by 117 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…As Magdoff and Foster (2010) outline, capitalism is a system that must continually expand, in constant search for new sources of raw materials, cheaper labor, and new markets. But a system, they argue (ibid.…”

Section: Metabolic Rift and The Dialectics Of Ecological Crisismentioning

confidence: 99%

Greening Capitalism? A Marxist Critique of Carbon Markets

Böhm

Misoczky

Moog

2012

Organization Studies

187

110

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Climate change is increasingly being recognized as a serious threat to dominant modes of social organization, inspiring suggestions that capitalism itself needs to be transformed if we are to 'decarbonize' the global economy. Since the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, carbon markets have emerged as the main politico-economic tools in global efforts to address climate change. Newell and Paterson (2010) have recently claimed that the embrace of carbon markets by financial and political elites constitutes a possible first step towards the transformation of current modes of capitalist organization into a new form of greener, more sustainable 'climate capitalism.' In this paper, we argue that the institutionalization of carbon markets does not, in fact, represent a move towards the radical transformation of capitalism, but is better understood as the most recent expression of ongoing trends of ecological commodification and expropriation, driving familiar processes of uneven and crisis-prone development. In this paper, we review four critical Marxist concepts: metabolic rift (Foster, 1999); capitalism as world ecology (Moore, 2011a); uneven development and accumulation through dispossession (Harvey, 2003(Harvey, , 2006 and sub-imperialism (Marini, 1972, 1977), developing a framework for a Marxist analysis of carbon markets. Our analysis shows that carbon markets form part of a longer historical development of global capitalism and its relation to nature. Carbon markets, we argue, serve as creative new modes of accumulation, but are unlikely to transform capitalist dynamics in ways that might foster a more sustainable global economy. Our analysis also elucidates, in particular, the role that carbon markets play in exacerbating uneven development within the Global South, as elites in emerging economies leverage carbon market financing to pursue new strategies of sub-imperial expansion.

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Section: Metabolic Rift and The Dialectics Of Ecological Crisismentioning

confidence: 99%

Greening Capitalism? A Marxist Critique of Carbon Markets

Böhm

Misoczky

Moog

2012

Organization Studies

187

110

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Participants (n = 62) read a piece of text (643 words), which discussed the relationship between the dominant economic system and environmental problems (adapted from a text by Magdoff & Foster, 2010;see Table 1). Simple questions about the text were inserted between sections to ensure that participants had read the information.…”

Section: System-critical Information Conditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neither Fair nor Unchangeable But Part of the Natural Order: Orientations Towards Inequality in the Face of Criticism of the Economic System

Becker

Sparks

2016

Soc Just Res

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The magnitude of climate change threats to life on the planet is not matched by the level of current mitigation strategies. To contribute to our understanding of inaction in the face of climate change, the reported study draws upon the pro status quo motivations encapsulated within System Justification Theory. In an online questionnaire study, participants (N = 136) initially completed a measure of General System Justification. Participants in a ''System-critical'' condition were then exposed to information linking environmental problems to the current economic system; participants in a Control condition were exposed to information unrelated to either environmental problems or the economic system. A measure of Economic System Justification was subsequently administered. Regressions of Economic System Justification revealed interactions between General System Justification and Information Type: higher general system justifiers in the Systemcritical condition rated the economic system as less fair than did their counterparts in the Control condition. However, they also indicated inequality as more natural than did their counterparts in the Control condition. The groups did not differ in terms of beliefs about the economic system being open to change. The results are discussed in terms of how reassurance about the maintenance of the status quo may be bolstered by recourse to beliefs in a natural order.

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“…The system simply could not exist if these sources of profit and capital accumulation were to be eliminated in favor of small-scale local price competition. The book also provides a useful critique of "natural capitalism," as well as providing up-to-date data on the limits posed by climate change and resource shortages [21].…”

Section: Political Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Heterodox Political Economy and the Degrowth Perspective

Klitgaard

2013

Sustainability

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Abstract:The transition to sustainability will be difficult. Environmental sustainability entails living within the Earth's limits, yet the majority of scientific studies indicate a condition of overshoot. For mainstream economists sustainability means perpetuating economic growth. Consequently, environmental and economic sustainability are incompatible in the present institutional context. This paper seeks to develop a new theory of sustainability based upon historical and institutional contexts, the role of economic crises, as well as focusing upon energy quality and meaningful work. Mainstream economics, which emphasizes market self-regulation and economic growth, is not a good vehicle for a theory of sustainability. Better insights are to be found in the literature of heterodox political economy and political ecology. Political ecology is based upon the theory of monopoly capital. Monopoly capitalism exhibits a tendency towards stagnation, because the economic surplus cannot be absorbed adequately in the absence of system-wide waste. The Monthly Review School continues this tradition in the context of the metabolic rift, while the Capitalism, Nature and Socialism School develops the idea of a second contradiction of capitalism. The Social Structure of Accumulation school pursues the idea of long swings of economic activity based upon institutional structures that aid or inhibit capital accumulation.

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What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism

Cited by 117 publications

References 11 publications

Greening Capitalism? A Marxist Critique of Carbon Markets

Greening Capitalism? A Marxist Critique of Carbon Markets

Neither Fair nor Unchangeable But Part of the Natural Order: Orientations Towards Inequality in the Face of Criticism of the Economic System

Heterodox Political Economy and the Degrowth Perspective

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