Class 1
Introduction: capitalist natures
Christos Zografos, PhD
Department of Political and Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
christos.zografos@upf.edu
Masters in Environmental Studies, 2020-21
Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Introductions: a bit about me
•Senior Research Fellow
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•Background:
–Studies
–Jobs
–Research interests
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C:\Users\U53969\Desktop\PSPC_WEB.png

Research Group on Health Inequalities, Environment - Employment Conditions Network
Profile | professional record
Tb. DEA History and Economic Institutions
Profile | professional record
Tb. Masaryk Visiting Prof
Tb. Edinburgh U, Invited Prof
Areas of research interest
Environmental conflicts
Climate change adaptation
Democracy (direct) and degrowth
Motivation for taking course
Usually, in smaller classes I ask each person individually, but this is large class..
So, some questions for those who would like to answer:
•Why are you taking this course? Share
•How relevant to your degree?
•Other reasons?

Introductions:
students introduce themselves
–Name
–Course you are doing at Masaryk Uni
–Place of origin
–First degree in … from … University
–
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INTRODUCE MYSELF
•Profile: a bit about me
•Current post
•Background: studies
•Professional record (work)
•Areas of research interest

Class outline
1.Introduction to course:
–Logistics
–Evaluations, etc.
–
2.Introduction to some key terms for the course
–Fields and sub-disciplines used in the course
–Terms/ concepts: politics, power, political ecology, etc.
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3.Class 1: Capitalism and environmental transformation
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16.05. Introductions. 1, 2
•Me: 2 min
•Them: 8 min (20 seconds per student)
16.15. The course. 3-8
16.25. Key terms. 10-20
16.50. Capitalist natures: why inevitable (the reasoning). 21-31
17.20. When policies fail: Privatising wetlands + Environmental movement. 42, 43
[17.30. 10-min LEEWAY]
17.40. BREAK – 20 mins
18.00. Evidence: the case of soil erosion. 32-35
18.20. Degradation as a condition for capitalism. Classroom activity. 45-46:
15 min: read
15 min: discuss and prepare answers
12 min: each group presents
3 min: I explain
19.10. Degradation as a condition for capitalism. 47-49
19.15. Summarising. 51
19.20. End
[19.30. 10-min LEEWAY]

1. INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
•
5

Course structure
•Course aims
–How power influences environmental change and governance
–Environmental social science (political ecology) + environmental history
–Develop critical understanding of environmental change and relevance of power and politics in
producing it
•Course logic
•Structure of classes
–Reading and assignment (upload to IS: 2 hours before the class)
–Answer assignment in class (individually, small groups, whole class)
–Classroom activities
–Lecturing: expand points from reading; summarise class
– * Notes pages of ppt
•
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COURSE AIMS
How power influences environmental change and governance, from an environmental social science
perspective.
The classes draw on disciplines of political ecology and environmental history that explain how
environmental change is produced and what are its social implications.
COURSE LOGIC
Based on a political ecology explanation of environmental transformation (will describe what this
means later in this class), the logic of this short course is:
•The political economy is a major force in producing environmental change. Class 1 explains how
this is
•The exercise of power mediates, implements, facilitates that political economy-driven
environmental change. Class 2 presents a mainstream understanding of how power works (power imposed
from the outside), and Class 3 presents a more nuanced, less obvious way in which power operates to
facilitate the political economy-driven production of environmental change
Of course this is political ecology at its ‘barest’, i.e. its most essential; missing are: power as
agency; agency of nature (materiality); hybridity and marginalisation as opportunity; etc.
STRUCTURE OF CLASSES
•Classes based on 1 reading (i.e. article or chapter) done by students before the class
•Students will answer a question (max. 500 words) based on the reading and bring their answers in
class where they are asked to discuss their answers individually, in small groups, or collectively
(whole class) in the classroom.
•The class is complemented with classroom activities
•and a more ‘traditional’ lecture format in I explain further points related to the topic and
concludes with a summary of main points raised with the class.
•Participation in class: very important. I want the class to be participatory (not any type of
participation)

Course evaluation
Essay (70%)
•Deadline: Thursday 17 December 2020
–Late submissions: ‘Fail’
–If you get less than 50% overall mark, then chance for another short essay
•Individual or Collective essay
–Collective: maximum 2 students per group
–Group will produce one essay
–I mark the essay, i.e. both students get same mark

vTopic: Klein, N. 2016. Let Them Drown. The Violence of Othering in a Warming World.
•Answer 3 questions
•max 1,000 words (excluding references)
•I will explain into more detail what you need to do for this in Class 3
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Class participation (30%)
•Student commitment and performance in answering class assignment: 10% per assignment
•You should upload (IS) each assignment 2 hours before class
•I provide brief feedback to each class assignment (IS Notebook) and you can also ask me in person
after the class
•10%: eager to participate and constructive comments in classroom
Grades:
§FAIL
§PASS
§DISTINCTION
•But: for MUNI system purposes I can only assign ‘Pass’ or ‘Fail’

Evaluation tool
% of final mark
Assignments and participation in classroom
30%
Final Essay
70%

A note on answering assignments
•File name of your assignments
–Your_name_assignmentnumber
–E.g. Zografos_Christos_2
NOTHING ELSE PLEASE!
How to answer your assignment:
–First, answer the question, e.g. in one sentence
–Then, substantiate, support your answer with arguments (reasoning) + evidence from the text
• Avoid being descriptive: don’t answer by simply describing a situation and don’t re-state what
the question says!
–Finally, you can say whether you agree-disagree with author, and why
•
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Other
•Can reach me through my email christos.zografos@upf.edu

•Help with English (unknown words): http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
•Do you have any questions re: course programme, structure, outputs, etc.?
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2. INTRODUCTION TO KEY TERMS
•
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I will introduce those terms in a bit of a piecemeal way without linking them directly to something
we will look at immediately in the course
But later on you will (hopefully) see why they are useful, as you will need to understand what I
mean when I’m using them (e.g. environmental governance), and how I use some of them (e.g.
politics, power)

ACTIVITY 1: pollution
•Watch:
•India pollution: Air quality reaches 'hazardous' levels in Delhi
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9E-aJeRLmW8
•Ground Report: Why Farmers Are Burning Stubble In Punjab
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6y8z5bw9GO4
•Watch: What makes Delhi's air so deadly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVzvZxW5n2Q
•Questions, discuss:
1.
1.What goes on here? Who suffers?
2.What are the causes of this?
–Why are there such levels of pollution?
3.What can be done?
•
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1. What goes one: Winners and losers; but mixed also!
2. CAUSES
- Economic: farmers cannot afford non-polluting practices/ not polluting in the first place. Many
of those farmers are smallholders
- Political decisions, and the political economy: urban expansion (more population and pollution);
India’s breadbasket (intensive agriculture) and water consumption; the water law
- The role of geography: mountains and air
- All factors mix together
A key element of this environmental change (pollution) and conflict is the way in which policy (and
its aimed for environmental change, i.e. water preservation) has generated winners and losers
Sub-soil Water Preservation Act losers: farmers
Winners: to identify, must ask "who benefits from groundwater savings?”
But also: “in the 2000s rice farming here took off”
Political ecology would ask: why did it take off? How? To whose benefit?
Relevance of political economy (key term)
[More info on stubble burning
-Why farmers in Punjab and Haryana continue to burn rice stubble:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqUHM3jZfk4]

Fields and disciplines
–Main ones used in course
–Study: interaction humans – environment
•Political ecology
–Environmental change and its consequences
–The causes of change
–Power and politics: analytical concepts (more: later)
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•Environmental history
–Human interaction with natural world over time
–How humans shape their environment
–How they are shaped by it: active role played by nature in human affairs (agency of nature)
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Political Ecology
Focus: explain environmental change (broadly speaking) and its consequences (e.g. environmental
degradation such as pollution, environmental conflict, etc.)
-By looking at its causes
-By mobilizing power as an analytical concept to explain how and why change happens (will see later
in this class)
-Environmental change creates winners and losers
OR: POLITICAL ECOLOGY IN NUTSHELL
Environmental change (and its effects on human communities/ societies) is political
And so are:
•environmental policy and governance (key social and political mechanism that manages and produces
this change)
•and the conflicts that ensue around it
Environmental change produces winners and losers
•Some benefit (more) from such changes (e.g. Anglo-American settlers/ farmers)
•Some benefit less or bear costs of change (e.g. Native Americans)
[* Note: broader understanding of governance, i.e. beyond formal/ regulatory, or normative “public
decision-making” understanding]
Environmental History
•Study of human interaction with natural world over time.
•In contrast to other historical disciplines, it emphasizes the active role nature plays in
influencing human affairs.
•Environmental historians study how humans both shape their environment and are shaped by it.
Three components; study:
1.Nature itself and its change over time
•Includes physical impact of humans on the Earth's land, water, atmosphere and biosphere
2.How humans use nature
•the environmental consequences of increasing population, more effective technology and changing
patterns of production and consumption
•transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer communities to settled agriculture in the neolithic
revolution
•effects of colonial expansion and settlements, and the environmental and human consequences of the
industrial and technological revolutions
3.Study how people think about nature - the way attitudes, beliefs and values influence interaction
with nature, especially in the form of myths, religion and science
Examples of studies and books
•Donald Worster ‘Dust Bowl’ - tells the story of the Dust Bowl in ecological as well as human
terms. A story on the subject of the land and how humans interact with it
•John McNeil ‘Mosquito Empires’ (we’ll see) – how mosquitoes have helped defend and then overthrow
Spanish Empire in the Caribbean
•Sam White ‘Climate of Rebellion’ - how imperial systems of provisioning and settlement that
defined Ottoman power in the 1500s came unraveled in the face of ecological pressures and extreme
cold and drought, leading to the outbreak of the destructive Celali Rebellion (1596–1610). This
rebellion marked a turning point in Ottoman fortunes, as a combination of ongoing Little Ice Age
climate fluctuations, nomad incursions, and rural disorder postponed Ottoman recovery over the
following century, with enduring impacts on the region’s population, land use, and economy

Political ecology (Simsik, 2007)
•Field: to understand relationship human societies – nature
•Environmental change is intrinsically political
–Decisions (e.g. policy)
–Consequences (e.g. environmental conflict)
•Environmental change: unqueal distribution of ‘goods’ (benefits) and ‘bads’ (costs)
–Winners and losers -> generation of conflict
–
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Instead of apolitical explanations of environmental change  (e.g. there are conflicts around
natural resources, because those resources are scarce)
•Use political ecology to study environmental change
•Academic field that seeks to understand relationship human societies – nature
•Posits that environmental change is intrinsically political
•And so are the decisions taken to produce environmental change (environmental governance)
•And the implications or consequences of environmental change, e.g. conflict

Politics
•Not confined to a particular sphere (e.g. government, the state)
•Concerns production, distribution and use of resources in the course of social existence
•At work in all social activities and every corner of human existence
–Leftwich (1984): at heart of all collective social activity, formal and informal, public and
private, in all human groups, institutions & societies
•Takes place at every level of social interaction within families, amongst small groups of friends
just as much as amongst nations and on the global stage
•Radical feminist assertion: 'the personal is the political’
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FULL TEXT
The fourth definition of politics is both the broadest and the most radical. Rather than confining
politics to a particular sphere (the government, the state or the 'public‘ realm) this view sees
politics at work in all social activities and in every corner of human existence. As Adrian
Leftwich proclaimed in What is Politics? The Activity and Its Study (1984:64), 'politics is at the
heart of all collective social activity, formal and informal, public and private, in all human
groups, institutions and societies'. In this sense, politics takes place at every level of social
interaction; it can be found within families and amongst small groups of friends just as much as
amongst nations and on the global stage.
At its broadest, politics concerns the production, distribution and use of
resources in the course of social existence. Politics is, in essence, power: the ability
to achieve a desired outcome, through whatever means.
This notion was neatly that 'the personal is the political'. This slogan neatly encapsulates the
radicalfeminist
belief that what goes on in domestic, family and personal life is intensely
political, and indeed that it is the basis of all other political struggles. Clearly, a more
radical notion of politics underlies this position. This view was summed up by Kate
Millett in Sexual Politics (1969:23), in which she defined politics as 'powerstructured
relationships, arrangements whereby one group of persons is controlled
by another'. Feminists can therefore be said to be concerned with 'the politics of
everyday life'. In their view, relationships within the family, between husbands and
wives, and between parents and children, are every bit as political as relationships
between employers and workers, or between governments and citizens.
BP TEXT: RADICAL FEMINIST ASSERTION: 'THE PERSONAL IS THE POLITICAL’ means:
•what goes on in domestic, family and personal life is intensely political - and indeed is the
basis of all other political struggles
•'the politics of everyday life’: relationships within family, between husbands and wives, and
between parents and children, are every bit as political as relationships between employers and
workers, or between governments and citizens

What do we mean by “political” in PE?
•Politics as power
–Power as a key analytical term for studying politics
–
•In political ecology:
–Power as a social relation built on asymmetrical distributions of resources and risks (Hornborg,
2001)
–So, we study: practices and processes through which power is yielded and negotiated (Paulson et
al., 2005)
•
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Yield: “give up control or responsibility of something” (Cambridge Dictionary)

Defining Power
vBut what exactly is/ do we mean by power?
ØMax Weber: “chance of a man or a number of men to realise their own will in a social action even
against the resistance of others”
•In political ecology:
–Two ways of understanding and studying power (how it operates)
–
•
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Source: Public Domain

Two types of power
•Sovereign power
•Capacity (of state and its institutions) to legitimately impose will; e.g. enclose resources for
conservation
•Note 1: multiplies/ controls degradation
•Note 2: non-legitimate force as well
•
•Internalised power
•Power also expressed on how individuals come to obey and take things as natural (e.g. enclosure;
property) •Internalising control and authority as normal and natural
•How power is exercised within individuals
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Source: mechanicsofpower.wordpress.com
Copyright: David Hayward (source: geotimes.co.id)

Classes 2 and 3 will show examples of both sovereign and internalised power

The political economy
•Political economy
–Study of: how political institutions, the political environment, and the economic system influence
each other (Oxford Dictionary)
•Environmental issues:
–How these shape the environment
•how they produce environmental change
–How environmental change shapes them back
•
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3. CAPITALIST NATURES: CAPITALISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
–“Capitalism inevitably produces environmental degradation”
–
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ACTIVITY 2: Debate
•Watch those three videos (in that order):
–Free Markets and the Environment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAgFHuFXvzc
–Climate Change : What Do We Need To Do To Address It, George Monbiot?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir-XjQhOyNQ
–Is capitalism sustainable? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsyCD4duIzg
•Answer the question: So, does capitalism have to necessarily be bad for the environment?
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The green materialist claim
•Robbins, 2004: environ degradation because
•“all progress in capitalistic agriculture is the progress in the art, not only of robbing the
labourer, but of robbing the soil; all progress in increasing the fertility of the soil for a given
time, is a progress towards ruining the lasting sources of that fertility” (Marx, 1967)
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Because capitalism requires the extraction of value surplus from labour and nature
which involves extracting more than what you re-invest in nature (and compensate labour)

Value surplus: what is it?
•Marx (1867)
–“Yield, profit or return on production capital invested, i.e. amount of the increase in the value
of capital…”
–…after it goes through the production process
•new value created by workers in excess of the cost of their own labour in the production process
•excess:
–appropriated by capitalist as profit when products are sold
–not shared with worker/ labourer
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Zentralbibliothek Zürich Das Kapital Marx 1867.jpg

Value Surplus 1/4
surplus value = new value created by workers in excess of the cost of their own labour in the
production process; excess: appropriated by capitalist as profit when products are sold
Surplus value = new value created by workers in excess of the cost of their own labour in the
production process; excess: appropriated by capitalist as profit when products are sold
GENERAL FORMULA FOR CAPITAL (Spark Notes)
Marx says that capital's starting point is with the circulation of commodities. The ultimate
product of this commodity circulation is money. We see this every day, when capital enters various
markets in the form of money. Marx distinguishes two kinds of circulation. C-M-C (commodities
transformed into money which is transformed back into commodities) is the direct form of
circulation. In this case we sell commodities in order to buy more, and money acts as a kind of
middle-man. However, there is also another form, M-C-M. In this case, we buy in order to sell;
money is capital. The first phase transforms money into a commodity, the second transforms a
commodity into money. Ultimately, then, we exchange money for money.
•Use-value is the purpose of C-M-C, while exchange-value is the purpose of M-C-M. Money is
indistinguishable, and it seems absurd to exchange it for itself. It is distinguishable only in
amount. Thus, in M-C-M what really occurs is M-C-M', where M' = M + excess. This excess is called
surplus-value. The original value adds to itself and converts the surplus value to capital.
•In the end, money is again the starting point, and from M' we go to M'' and so on. Thus, the
possessor of money becomes the capitalist. He is a capitalist in so far as the increase of wealth
is the sole force behind his actions—in this role he is "capital personified and endowed with
consciousness and a will." His aim is boundless enrichment. M-C-M' is the general formula for
capital, as it appears in the sphere of circulation.

How is it generated?
Source: http://utama.info/
Worker labour (wage) produces one shoe in 1h worth = 10€/ hour
Worker prod (machine): 10€/ 15min = 40€/ hour
or: 4 pairs/ hour
Owner (shoe in mkt) = 40€
4 pairs (produced in 1h)= €160
Operational costs = 20€/ h
Invest (put in prod) = 50€/ hour
Profit (above value investment) = 80€/ hour
    * not shared with labourer
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Example: shoe production with a machine that produces shoes
Worker wage: 10 €/ hour
Worker produces product worth = 10 € every 15 min = 40 €/hour
uBecause worker is productive, can produce an output value > what it costs to hire him
i.e. capitalist is paid 40 € when trading final product in market
Operational costs (e.g. machine depreciation, materials) = 20 €/ h
i.e. Investor puts 50 € in process (includes depreciation), e.g. to buy the factory buildings,
machinery, etc. and gets 80 € out of process
Profit for capitalist: 80 €/ hour; i.e. has made 30 €> than value of his investment

Why is it necessary?
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http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com.es
Source: http://freedombunker.com
Capital accumulation
“Accumulate, accumulate! This is Moses and the Prophets!” (Marx, Capital, Vol 1)

Value surplus 3/4
–Making such easy money (appropriating work of others) is attractive for capitalist
–But is also necessary for maintaining system (Kism)
uIt leads to capital accumulation = net addition to existing wealth + a re-distribution (from
labourer to capitalist) of (created) wealth
uNew K is used to accumulate more K by re-investing in production process, financial assets,
non-productive assets (e.g. works of art), human K, infrastructure, etc., i.e. on assets that
permit creating more K
uK accumulation is motor in engine of capitalist economy

Extracting surplus from nature
•Intensity of extraction > restoration
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•Niger Delta (Nigeria) (Image: Sosialistisk Ungdom – SU/Flickr)
Tar Sands from space (source: http://stephenleahy.net)

REASONING
When (because) the rate and intensity of extraction > restoration
uBy expropriating nature’s capital and underinvesting in restoration or repair of impacted
ecological systems
uTo make necessary profit (i.e. at the level needed for surplus accumulation):
uCapitalist firm squeezes surplus from ecology – just as it squeezes surplus from labour (workers)
i.e. degradation is inevitable result of capital accumulation, when it becomes (as it regularly
does) a necessary condition to achieve surplus (profit), and capital accumulation
* NOTE here how the “not shared with the labourer” example and condition for capitalism
(accumulation) applies to nature: in order to ensure surplus, you don’t share it with nature in
terms of “putting back” part of the surplus (or as much as it is necessary) for nature restoration

Second contradiction of capitalism
•
•
•Capitalism degrades the material basis upon which it depends •James O’Connor (1988): contradiction
capital accumulation vs. production conditions •Degrading production conditions is inevitable
•
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Source: http://sovietrussianow.blogspot.com.es/

What James O’Connor called second contradiction of capitalism
Which is a contradiction between K accumulation and production conditions
Marx says that there are THREE TYPES OF PRODUCTION CONDITIONS:
1.External physical conditions: viability of eco-systems, the adequacy of atmospheric ozone levels,
the stability of coastlines and watersheds; soil, air and water quality
2.Labourpower: physical and mental well- being of workers; the kind and degree of socialization;
toxicity of work relations and the workers' ability to cope; and human beings as social productive
forces and biological organisms generally
3.Communal conditions: social capital," "infrastructure”
BACKGROUND INFO
The contradiction: Capitalism degrades the material basis (production conditions) upon which it
depends
• Acid rain; soil erosion; pesticide overuse; climate change, etc.
• The health of workers, social K (e.g. community relation cohesion)
K makes use of those conditions, but it doesn’t produce them. The state either produces (e.g.
infrastructure) or maintains (e.g. viability of ecosystems) them
Without those conditions in place, K cannot be accumulated.
Two implications
• Capitalism carries within it, seeds of own destruction
• Degrading production conditions is inevitable

Why Inevitable?
•Why K degrades those conditions (Spence 2000)?
•It is driven by individual capitals seeking to shore up [support and/or maintain] their
profitability through cost-cutting which degrades, or fails to maintain, the material and social
conditions of their own production
•But these conditions are common to capitalist production as a whole, so capital-in-general is
confronted with higher costs further down the road, in order to repair the damage done to the
shared conditions of production by the short-termism of individual capitals (O'Connor, 1998)
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NOTE 1: O’Connor DESCRIBES A‘TRAGEDY OF COMMONS’ LOGIC
NOTE 2:
As concerns the system, i.e. capitalism, the second contradiction is thus a challenge of
under-production (not producing enough to accumulate K) vs. the first contradiction which is a
contradiction of over-production and over-accumulation
• 1^st contradiction: not being able to realise (i.e. pocket) the surplus value which you have
already extracted from workers
• A problem, because (as a capitalist) you stay with K which you cannot put into ‘productive’ use,
i.e. invest into something that will provide you with profit (surplus value), hence more K and so
keep the treadmill (system) going
• E.g. so the question (basic question in Km) becomes: where to find extra demand to sell product
you need to extract in order to squeeze surplus of labour/ nature/ infrastructure, in a way that
permits reproducing K?

The 2nd contradiction in action (example): environmental impact and profit (surplus)
•
•None of the world's top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they
use
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
• Source: grist.org - April 2, 2015 3:02 PM
•A sobering new study finds that the world's biggest industries burn through $7.3 trillion worth of
free natural capital a year. And it's the only reason they turn a profit.
•
•
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None of the world's top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they
use | PD 2.0 | Scoop.it

[Contemporary experiences with enclosing NRs: privatising wetlands (Robertson, 2000)]
•When wetlands stand in the way: “No Net Loss” by G. Bush Sr.
•Solution: restoration wetlands
•Robertson argues this is a case of “accumulation by dispossession” (next)
–Privatision of public assets
–That dispossesses public of its ecological wealth
•Dispossess: how? Biodiversity-ecosystem perspective of restored wetlands
–restored or created wetlands are often very different from natural
–They are coarser + have less organic matter
–Result: lower rate of colnisation by plants
–Lower capacity for nutrient cycling: key wetland ecological function
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Source: http://www.biodiversityoffsets.net/

Exploitation of urban land (e.g. building malls, housing, etc.), a very lucrative (highly
profit-making) economic activity
•Capital accumulation opportunity of high value
Case of wetlands: loss of many million acres more, the extinction of species, the disappearance of
wilderness and wildlife
THE NO NET LOSS POLICY
The solution (George HW Bush): restoration/ mitigation wetlands!
Need to sacrifice wetlands for K accumulation project
•Urban development (malls)
Substitute natural wetlands with artificial ones
•You buy (from state) wetland to use as land to build your mall
(I argue that) this is a case of both
•Privatisation of public assets (wetlands)
•But also: dispossession of wealth (ecological) from public
The first is relatively straightforward: with the justification of restoration, wetlands pass from
being public property to become private (land to sell to e.g. build malls)
The second is a bit more complicated, and has to do with the ecological implications of restored
vs. original wetlands
From a biodiversity and ecosystem perspective
Policies may not be working because restored or created wetlands are often very different from
natural wetlands
•Many restoration projects are fail to recognize that wetlands are parts of larger landscapes
•Use design parameters that exclude important features of natural wetlands
•E.g. invertebrate species assemblages different in coastal constructed vs. natural wetlands
•Differences due to the fact that the substrates in the constructed wetland were coarser and had
lower organic matter, which resulted in a lower rate of colonization by plants (lower capacity for
nutrient cycling, key wetland ecological function)
•https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309173119_Nutrient_Cycling_in_Wetlands_Supporting_Service
s: Nutrient cycling is a supporting ecosystem services. The supporting services are perhaps the
most overlooked of all ecosystem services, relating largely to processes within ecosystems – also
including soil formation, habitat for wildlife, photosynthetic productivity and oxygen generation,
and water recycling – that though not directly consumed are fundamental for the resilience of
ecosystems and their capacity to produce other, more directly consumed services
•Wetland protection policies may be inadequate to preserve and restore ecological processes such as
nutrient cycling
•because they mostly focus on individual wetlands and ignore the fact that wetlands are integral
parts of landscapes (Whigham 1999) -
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222497001_Ecological_Issues_Related_to_Wetland_Preservatio
n_Restoration_Creation_and_Assessment
•Wetland mitigation projects often result in the exchange of one type of wetland for another and
result in a loss of wetland functions at the landscape level
No Net Loss: now with EU as well (“to a theatre near you”)!

Accumulation by dispossession
•David Harvey (2004):
–Neoliberal policies in western nations from 1970s onwards…
–…result in centralization of wealth and power in the hands of a few…
–…by dispossessing the public of their wealth or land (publicly-owned assets, e.g. water, forests,
etc.)…
–…that pass to become private property
•Privatisation: main practice
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Reuters: Roy Letkey (source: www.abc.net.au)

Harvey, 2004: …
Four practices:
1.Privatization (major practice)
2.financialization
3.management and manipulation of crises
4.state redistributions
E.g. Thatcher’s privatisation of social housing UK
uIdea: pass from rental to ownership-> control assets-> increase wealth (increase your assets = a
house)
uHousing speculation for central location housing
uPushes poorer populations in the periphery (long – and at cases: expensive – commuting to work,
makes their lives more difficult)
uNew homeowners: borrowing money (bank)-> increased profits (housing prices) transferred to banks
uCOSTS: for both poorer populations + new homeowners (debt); BENEFITS banks (increased profits)

Implications: environmental movements
•Labour movement
•Environmental movement
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Image credit: america.gov/Flickr

Pillage of nature must [inevitably] result in political response
As labour movement = result of capital squeezing surplus out of labour’s work (worker’s
exploitation)
Environmental movement = result of exploitation of nature
uParadox: in capitalism’s excesses lie the seeds of more sustainable and equitable practices

Accumulation by dispossession
•The previous are contemporary examples of ways in which capitalism produces environmental
degradation
–Claim: capitalism degrades the environment to generate the necessary profit (surplus value) in
order to maintain the capital accumulation project running which is essential for the preservation
and continuation of the system (capitalism)
•But there are also historical examples
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Primitive accumulation
•The question: how did some people manage to accumulate capital in the first place?
33
Source: http://pixgood.com

The question: how did some people managed to accumulate capital in the first place?
uAnd become (the class of) capitalists, i.e. those who have amassed capital?
Harvey (2005) summarising Marx: PA entailed
utaking land, e.g. enclosing it
uexpelling a resident population (creating landless proletariat, who became cheap industrial
workers)
ureleasing land for private owners to buy and use it to accumulate K
Preferred materialist example of PA: European (English) enclosures (16^th cent.)

Primitive accumulation: example
•English 16th – 19th century enclosures
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Source: https://theliberi.wordpress.com

English 16^th – 19^th century enclosures
Common lands: privately owned, but commonly used
-Based on tradition of common rights
-Practicing arable farming in open fields (subsistence farming)
Enclosure = the moment when fencing (enclosing) land entitled to private owners
•Either by buying common rights or law-and-use-of-force to enclose
•Dispossessed commoners become landless working force (class) used in industrial revolution (north
England)
In the enclosed land: landowners adopt practices that generate more profit
• Sheep that paid better for their wool (demand for English wool in 16^th cent), tallow (fat for
candles, etc.), and meat
• When sheep prices declined (1650s): owners adopt “improved” agricultural practices (fertilisers,
new crops) and economies of scale

Ecological effects of sheep overgrazing
•Ecological degradation: soil erosion and deforestation
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Source: www.fs.fed.us

But those land practices generate environmental impact:
Sheep destroy soil: overgrazing leads to -> deforestation: i.e. destruction of trees themselves, as
well as forest ecology and services (e.g. soil erosion, landslide barriers, etc.)
• Consider: “Overgrazing typically increases soil erosion.
•Reduction in soil depth, soil organic matter and soil fertility impair the land's future natural
and agricultural productivity.
•Soil fertility can sometimes be mitigated by applying the appropriate lime and organic
fertilizers.
•However, the loss of soil depth and organic matter takes centuries to correct. Their loss is
critical in determining the soil's water-holding capacity and how well pasture plants do during dry
weather.”
•Overgrazing environmental impacts:
§Overgrazing reduces usefulness, productivity, and biodiversity of land and is one cause of
desertification and erosion
§Desertification (Princeton University Dictionary): “process of fertile land transforming into
desert typically as a result of deforestation, drought or improper/inappropriate agriculture”
§What do you do as capitalist producer? Move to another, still fertile place to overgraze (Monbiot
on Kenya land enclosures)
§Another e.g. to also consider: substitution of coal for wood (lack of wood) as fuel->smoke and
soot in London (1578: Queen Elizabeth asks brewers to swap back to wood which they cannot)

Take away points
•Environmental change is political
–Winners and losers from environmental change
–Asymmetrical power relations (more, next classes)
–Political economy: role in producing change and injustice
•
•
•Political economy of capitalism (capitalist natures)
–Capital accumulation and the quest for value surplus are bound to (inevitably) produce
environmental degradation
–Two forms of accumulation: primitive, by dispossession
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ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IS POLITICAL
•And so are environmental governance and the conflicts that ensue around it
•Despite apolitical narratives of change and solutions
•Political analysis of environmental change looks for aspects made invisible by apolitical
explanations:
•Winners and losers from environmental change
•Political economy: its role in producing change and injustices
•Asymmetrical (yet: not immutable) power relations facilitate environmental transformations
according to the needs of the political economy (more on this – i.e. how this occurs – in next two
classes)
•Green governance: diverse mechanisms of power
BUT ALSO: ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION IS ITSELF A CONDITION FOR K ACCUMULATION (SURPLUS VALUE)
•Commodity frontiers: when ecology (and manpower) are exhausted, capital moves on to use and
exhaust those resources in other places
Note: a simple definition of what term political economy means/ involves (wikipedia):
Political economy is the study of production and trade and their relations with law, custom and
government; and with the distribution of national income and wealth.
•In the late 19th century, the term "economics" gradually began to replace the term "political
economy" with the rise of mathematical modelling coinciding with the publication of an influential
textbook by Alfred Marshall in 1890.
•use of the term "economics" began to overshadow "political economy" around roughly 1910, becoming
the preferred term for the discipline by 1920
•Today, the term "economics" usually refers to the narrow study of the economy absent other
political and social considerations while the term "political economy" represents a distinct and
competing approach.