The Non-Negotiable Needs Of Capitalism

A Very Public Sociologist has an important post on the limits to political ecology. We need to think really hard about what kind of ideas and assumptions back up political action.

If we accept "non-negotiable" ideas (we need to use more and more energy; any scientific innovation is progress), then it leads to nuclear power and biotechnology. If we contest non-negotiable ideas, mainstream media won't listen to us (we're not being "realistic").

Are we at an eco-political turning point, a point where green politics is not about to take off but where it could give way to a politics of unsustainability?

The vision offered by sustainable development and political ecology talk about different lifestyles, re-engineered social-natural relations, new (post-capitalist) forms of economic life and a society animated by existential need, not the impoverished vision of acquisitive materialism.

When this is pitted against the non-negotiable needs of capitalism - labour flexibility and capital mobility, information, improved transport, nuclear energy and bio-technology, the system wins out every time.