Commodification of nature

The commodification of nature is an area of research within critical environmental studies that is concerned with the ways in which natural entities and processes are made exchangeable through the market, and the implications thereof. The commodification of nature is an area of research within critical environmental studies that is concerned with the ways in which natural entities and processes are made exchangeable through the market, and the implications thereof. Drawing upon the work of Karl Marx, Karl Polanyi, James O’Connor and David Harvey, this area of work is normative and critical, based in Marxist geography and political ecology. Theorists use a commodification framing in order to contest the perspectives of 'market environmentalism,' which sees marketization as a solution to environmental degradation. The environment has been a key site of conflict between proponents of the expansion of market norms, relations and modes of governance and those who oppose such expansion. Critics emphasize the contradictions and undesirable physical and ethical consequences brought about by the commodification of natural resources (as inputs to production and products) and processes (environmental services or conditions). Most researchers who employ a commodification of nature framing invoke a Marxian conceptualization of commodities as 'objects produced for sale on the market' that embody both use and exchange value. Commodification itself is a process by which goods and services not produced for sale are converted into an exchangeable form. It involves multiple elements, including privatization, alienation, individuation, abstraction, valuation and displacement. As capitalism expands in breadth and depth, more and more things previously external to the system become “internalized,” including entities and processes that are usually considered 'natural.' Nature, as a concept, however, is very difficult to define, with many layers of meaning, including external environments as well as humans themselves. Political ecology and other critical conceptions draw upon strands within Marxist geography that see nature as 'socially produced,' with no neat boundary separating the 'social' from the 'natural.' Still, the commodification of entities and processes that are considered natural is viewed as a 'special case' based on nature’s biophysical materiality, which 'shape and condition trajectories of commodification.' The commodification of nature has its origins in the rise of capitalism. In England and later elsewhere, 'enclosure' involved attacks upon and eventual near-elimination of the commons—a long, contested and frequently violent process Marx referred to as 'primitive accumulation.' Classical liberalism, the ideological aspect of this process, was closely bound to questions of the environment. Privatization was presented as 'more conducive to the careful stewardship of natural resources than the commons' by thinkers like Bentham, Locke and Malthus. The neo-Malthusian discourse of Garrett Hardin’s 'Tragedy of the Commons' (1968) parallels this perspective, reconceptualizing public goods as 'scarce commodities' requiring either privatization or strong state control. Ecology Against Capitalism As Foster points out in Ecology Against Capitalism, the environment is not a commodity (such as most things are treated in capitalism) but it is rather the biosphere that sustains all life that we know of. However, it is important to note that in our society, it is treated as a capitalistic value. For example, a price is put on lumber in a certain forest or the quality of water in a river or stream, or the minerals that are available under ground. These ways of putting a price on the ecosystem tend to forget to put a price on exploiting it. This can cause more damage to an ecosystem if the externalities for business are not taken into consideration. One way to fix this problem is taxes that will increase the cost of environmental damage. For example, a carbon tax would help society get off of fossil fuels and go towards renewables much faster. This is one step that many scientists and experts agree needs to happen in order to transition away from fossil fuels and delay or even prevent man made climate change. Deregulation of governmental programs such as the EPA, and other environmental organizations may be good for business, but it doesn't serve the people who must live on a more polluted earth. Marxists define capitalism as a socio-economic system whose central goal is the accumulation of more wealth through the production and exchange of commodities. While the commodity form is not unique to capitalism, in it economic production is motivated increasingly by exchange. Competition provides constant pressure for innovation and growth in a 'restless and unstable process,' making the system expansionary and 'tendentially all-encompassing.'