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Title: The Vulnerable Planet: A Short Economic History of the Environment (Cornerstone Books (New York, N.Y.).) by John Bellamy Foster ISBN: 1-58367-019-X Publisher: New York University Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A sound framework for understaning environmental degradation
Comment: There's a lot of information out there about the destruction of the planet, but an understanding of where it comes from is harder to come by. Vulnerable Planet is a very useful starting point. Using historical materialism to trace the roots of environmental degradation, Foster breaks down some of the key debates, showing that it is not over-population, industrial production or humanity in of itself that is the problem. Rather the way that production and distribution are organized under capitalism that consistently puts the drive for profit above environmental sustainability. This book is short, but packed with information, statistics, and crucially a sound political framework from which to understand both the roots and the solution to the problem.
Rating: 5
Summary: Slender but potent
Comment: This is a little book, but very informative even though written from a Marxist point of view. Environmental destruction, as Foster shows, is as old as humankind. Nevertheless destruction of the natural world has increased at an astonishing rate during modern times making ours a very vulnerable planet. Foster links this increase to a specific social system, capitalism, instead of industrialism in general as many other critics do. This is a thought-provoking connection to make, since our media is usually silent on this topic. According to Foster (and Marx), it seems our system, capitalism, has an inborn need to turn everything it can into a saleable commodity in order to make money. Moreover it has to keep expanding commodities into ever new fields in order to return profits on money already invested. Like Topsy, then, the laws of its development tell it to either grow or die. Thus, when venture capitalists look at nature, they don't see what is living there; they see limitless raw material to be processed and sold, and if they don't do it, some competitor will. It is this relentless engine of development and destruction that has made the planet vulnerable. Thus Foster blames the problem on the way our economy operates, and not on technology in general. Critics should examine his arguments.
A couple of other subjects Foster discusses are worthy of review, given how they are usually talked about. On the topic of population and poverty, Malthus, an 18th century clergyman, famously blames poverty on the poor. The poor keep having kids when they shouldn't, he argues, which is why there are more hungry mouths to feed than food to feed them. So, don't feed them, they'll just have more kids. Being a parson and a kind of Newt Gingrich of his time, he would leave the wretched to the mercies of God. On the other hand, Foster (and Marx) take an historical perspective on overpopulation. Capital must have the poor, because wage levels depend on having an excessive number of poor people around. Employers need them as so-called replacement workers, should their own employees strike for higher wages. Without that threat, wages would rise and employers would lose money. The poor are not God's creation, they are man's. (Considering how our chief cental banker Alan Greenspan acts by encouraging unemployment, Foster's approach makes sense.) Ecology is another important part of our planet's mounting crisis. In making his case that our economic system is the main cause of the problem, Foster discusses Barry Commoner's four informal laws of capitalist ecology. They are worth mentioning. 1) Only the cash nexus (money) is lasting; 2) Waste can go anywhere as long as it's out of the capitalist loop; 3) The free market knows best: 4) nature is the possession of the private property owner. Together these provisions make up capital's marching orders in its assault on nature. Provision #3 seems particularly destructive since it replaces the complex web of millions of years of natural evolution with profit-driven human decision. Moreover, these provisions pretty much describe how big corporations act in the real world.
Anyway, friends will find ammunition; foes will find points to ponder; and the appropriately curious will be rewarded. Buy the book.
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Title: Ecology Against Capitalism by John Bellamy Foster ISBN: 1583670564 Publisher: Monthly Review Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature by John Bellamy Foster ISBN: 1583670122 Publisher: Monthly Review Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler ISBN: 0553246984 Publisher: Bantam Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 1989 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Environment, Energy, and Society: A New Synthesis by Craig R. Humphrey ISBN: 0534579558 Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing Pub. Date: 03 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $58.95 |
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Title: No Safe Place: Toxic Waste, Leukemia, and Community Action by Phil Brown, Edwin J. Mikkelsen ISBN: 0520212487 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1997 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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