In The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth environmental sociologists John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark, and Richard York offer a radical assessment of both the problem and the solution. They argue that the source of our ecological crisis lies in the paradox of wealth in capitalist society, which expands individual riches at the expense of public wealth, including the wealth of nature. In the process, a huge ecological rift is driven between human beings and nature, undermining the conditions of sustainable existence: a rift in the metabolic relation between humanity and nature that is irreparable within capitalist society, since integral to its very laws of motion.
Critically examining the sanguine arguments of mainstream economists and technologists, Foster, Clark, and York insist instead that fundamental changes in social relations must occur if the ecological (and social) problems presently facing us are to be transcended. Their analysis relies on the development of a deep dialectical naturalism concerned with issues of ecology and evolution and their interaction with the economy. Importantly, they offer reasons for revolutionary hope in moving beyond the regime of capital and toward a society of sustainable human development.
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9781583672181
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: Monthly Review Press
Publication Date: 11-01-2010
Pages: 544
Product Dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.50(d)
About the Author
John Bellamy Foster is a professor of sociology at the University of Oregon and editor of Monthly Review. He has written many books including The Robbery of Nature (with Brett Clark) and The Return of Nature, which won the Deutscher Memorial Prize. Richard York is associate professor of sociology at the University of Oregon. He is co-editor of the journal Organization & Environment and co-author (with John Bellamy Foster and Brett Clark) of Critique of Intelligent Design. Brett Clark is a associate editor of Monthly Review and a professor of sociology at the University of Utah. He is co-author (with John Bellamy Foster and Richard York) of Critique of Intelligent Design.