Question

What is Marxian Ecology (e.g., metabolism, metabolic rift, Lauderdale Paradox, alienation, exploitation, first and second contradiction of capitalism)? How does its explanation of our global ecological crisis differ from that of neoclassical economics and deep ecology?

Answer 1

Marxian Ecology:

Marx defined the labor process itself as a way in which “man, through his own actions, mediates, regulates and controls the metabolism between himself and nature.” Human production operated within what he called “the universal metabolism of nature.” On this basis, he developed his theory of ecological crisis proper.

Marxian approaches to the planetary ecological crisis and the socio-ecological transformation necessary for its resolution have evolved rapidly in recent decades. This has created the basis for a much more powerful, collective struggle for a Great Transition, in which values of “consumerism, individualism, and domination of nature” are replaced with “a new triad: quality of life, human solidarity, and ecological sensibility.” The demands for a society .dedicated to need rather than profit and to human equality and solidarity have long been associated with socialism. More recently, socialist thinkers have given equal importance to ecological sustainability, building on Karl Marx’s environmental critique of capitalism and his pioneering vision of sustainable human development.

Economics and Ecological Economics:Global ecological crisis differ:

An ecological crisis occurs when changes to the environment of a species or population destabilizes its continued survival. Some of the important causes include: Degradation of an abiotic ecological factor (for example, increase of temperature, less significant rainfalls) Increased pressures from predation.Traditional economics is a unified discipline, it uses established theories to dictate how the market will react to situations. These theories cover everything from human rationality to the properties of matter. There is a major flaw in assuming that all people and companies react in specific ways to different stimuli. Ecological economics, instead of using given theories, allows for the adoption of new ideas, information, and research methods. Modern environmental problems are just too complex to be viewed from a single perspective; this transdiscipline approach uses the best possible viewpoints to gain a better understanding of a problem.

Ecological economics incorporates the ideas of different disciplines by not defining a specific set of methods for understanding the world around us. In a transdiscipline approach, a problem is first evaluated, and then researchers decide what methods they will use to better understand the issue. The tools and methods applied should include ideas from across many disciplines, this is the actual definition of transdiscipline. There have been other attempts at combining various fields of study to understand a problem, and then attempts to combine them to come to conclusions. The problem is that research in different fields is almost always communicated in different ways, making it quite hard to understand the material unless you’re an expert.