LeCanadian

Top Menu

  • Login
  • Archives
  • Les Actualités
  • Advertising
  • Sexy Pages
  • Contact Us

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Foodie
  • Headline
  • Health
  • Editorials
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • UFO · Exopolitics
  • City
  • Sexuality
  • Dating
Sign in / Join

Login

Welcome! Login in to your account
Lost your password?

Lost Password

Back to login
  • Login
  • Archives
  • Les Actualités
  • Advertising
  • Sexy Pages
  • Contact Us

logo

Header Banner

LeCanadian

  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Foodie
  • Headline
  • Health
  • Editorials
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • UFO · Exopolitics
  • City
  • Sexuality
  • Dating
  • 7 reasons why online casinos are so popular in Ontario

  • La Commission indépendante soutient le recours de la Cour suprême contre le déni des droits des non-francophones par le Québec

  • Independent Commission endorses Supreme Court of Canada challenge against Quebec’s denial of rights to non-francophones

  • Ottawa International Crafts & Book Expo 2023: An assembly of literary brilliance

  • Diane Descôteaux – Une haïkiste passionnée: Le Salon d’Ottawa

Headline news
Home›Headline news›A Critique of Ecosocialism

A Critique of Ecosocialism

By admin
December 13, 2019
833
0
Share:

I wrote this commentary in 2011 for my book, TANSTAAFL: A Libertarian Perspective on Environmental Policy. With ecosocialism enjoying a resurgence, energized by the Green New Deal, it retains its relevance.

There are many who see capitalism as the source of all environmental ills and socialism as the path to sustainability. That school of thought is often called ecosocialism. What are the ideals of ecosocialism, and what is the record of socialism and the environment in the real world?

One source for the ecosocialist critique of capitalism is the Belem Ecosocialist Declaration, which was the product of a conference held in Paris in 2007. The declaration sets out a simple chain of cause and effect: Capitalism requires profit, profit requires growth, and growth means environmental destruction. Here are some excerpts:

Humanity today faces a stark choice: ecosocialism or barbarism. . . . We need no more proof of the barbarity of capitalism, the parasitical system that exploits humanity and nature alike. Its sole motor is the imperative toward profit and thus the need for constant growth. . . . Capitalism’s need for growth exists on every level, from the individual enterprise to the system as a whole. The insatiable hunger of corporations is facilitated by imperialist expansion in search of ever greater access to natural resources . . . . The capitalist economic system cannot tolerate limits on growth; its constant need to expand will subvert any limits that might be imposed . . . because to do so would require setting limits upon accumulation — an unacceptable option for a system predicated upon the rule: Grow or Die!

Let’s be right up front about it: The critique is not all wrong. The “Drill, Baby, Drill!” version of capitalism, with its throughput mentality and its contempt for environmental values, provides ample fodder for the ecosocialist critique. Still, the ecosocialist critique of capitalism sets off flashing red lights. To see why, we need to ask two crucial questions:

  • Which has been more environmentally destructive in practice, capitalism or socialism?
  • Which system, capitalism or socialism, is more receptive to the changes that need to be made to achieve long-run environmental sustainability?

Back in the days of the Soviet Union, it was evident, to anyone who cared to look, that the world’s preeminent experiment in socialism had serious environmental problems. Marshall Goldman chronicled those problems in his 1975 book, Spoils of Progress. In the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost, followed in the 1990s by the collapse of the Soviet Union, made access to Soviet environmental information easier for later authors like Murray Feshbach and Alfred Friendly, Jr., who provided a thorough survey in Ecocide in the USSR.

Post Views: 930
Previous Article

‘What happened to us?’ U.S. billionaires worry ...

Next Article

Capitalism and Robbery

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Related articles More from author

  • Headline news

    Cowboys Rule the Roost Again, and Have Much to Crow About

    November 15, 2016
    By admin
  • Headline news

    Quebec youth and human rights commission launch inquiry into Laval girl’s death

    January 10, 2021
    By admin
  • Headline news

    3 raisons de s’auto publierchez l’éditeur Agora Halifax, Nova Scotia

    February 7, 2019
    By admin
  • Headline news

    New Dicamba Herbicide Wreaks Havoc Across the US

    August 31, 2017
    By admin
  • Headline news

    Can We Put One Partner on Notice to Boost our Sale Price?

    May 2, 2016
    By admin
  • Headline news

    Trade Minister Needs to Break Out of Bureaucrat’s Bubble on TPP

    March 1, 2016
    By admin


AWeber Smart Designer




Popupar Articles

  • Week
  • Month

Week

Sorry. No data so far.

Month

  • 7 reasons why online casi... In the ever-evolving landscape of entertainment and lei...

Popular on The Le Canadian

  1. The Independent Canadian Commission on Civil and Human Rights
  2. Ottawa Winter Fest
  3. Ottawa Market
  4. Salon du Livre d'Ottawa
  5. Ottawa Book Expo
  6. AgoraCosmopolitan
  7. Agora Publishing Consortium
  8. Le Journal Canadien
  9. Dominion: Food News
  10. LeCanadian.com
  11. The Ottawa Star
  12. Capitalistocracy.com
  13. Agora Books Author House
  14. First Nations Press
  15. Toronto Digital Flog Newspaper
  16. The Etiquette Show
  17. Ontario People's Front
  18. COVID-19 unvaccinated singles

Recent Posts

  • 7 reasons why online casinos are so popular in Ontario
  • La Commission indépendante soutient le recours de la Cour suprême contre le déni des droits des non-francophones par le Québec
  • Independent Commission endorses Supreme Court of Canada challenge against Quebec’s denial of rights to non-francophones
  • Ottawa International Crafts & Book Expo 2023: An assembly of literary brilliance
  • Diane Descôteaux – Une haïkiste passionnée: Le Salon d’Ottawa
  • Diane Descôteaux – Une haïkiste passionnée: Le Salon d’Ottawa
  • How Canadians can access online casinos through mobile phones
  • Comment gérer un retard de vol ?
  • 5 ways sudoku boosts brain health
  • 10 tips to successfully market your law firm

Most Viewed Posts

  • Automated China –Mass-Producing the Future (61,381)
  • Health: Shampoo Helps Hair Loss Sufferers (57,614)
  • Citizens of Italy unleash mass protests against mandatory vaccination law (39,209)
  • Why Investors are Putting Their Money on High-End Real Estate (37,244)
  • Montréal : le cœur battant de la génération Y (37,086)
  • Une Autre Facette de Richard Lipman : Le Soutien d’un Psychologue à la Fondation Fauna (32,512)
  • Introduction To How And Where You Can Trade CFDs (30,163)
  • Canada’s Property Values Rise, In Spite of Signs of Market Slowdown (21,157)
  • “Not Gonna Write Poems” A Poetry Book by Dr. Michael Lee: Could He Be The Next Shel Silverstein? (17,363)
  • Smoking is Still a Problem in Society – But it’s a Problem That’s Being Addressed (16,156)

Visitors

  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Foodie
  • Headline
  • Health
  • Editorials
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • UFO · Exopolitics
  • City
  • Sexuality
  • Dating