Planetary Eco-Collapse and Capitalism: A Contemporary Marxist Perspective

This article considers the continuing relevance of Karl Marx’s analysis of capitalism for understanding today’s on-going eco-collapse of planet Earth. Marx’s view of the relationship between natural and economic reproduction and his notion of the metabolic rift brought about by capitalism constitute a view of ecological and social destruction as codetermined. The systemic processes generating profit through competition, monopoly, the sales effort, work, and addictive consumerism destroy natural habitats, climate cycles, and the social environment. They create anomalous tipping points through increasingly extreme droughts, floods, rising sea levels, global warming, species extermination, and socially a declining quality of life, alienation and inequality. To rectify these extreme events, we need to promote systemic change through democratizing the economy, promoting alternative renewable energy resources, expanding mass and pedestrian-based transit, moving into humane urban and village-based residences, enlivening the local economy, and emphasizing environmental repair and resource recycling.