Über die Ursprünge unserer ökologischen Krise

Abstract

The Anthropocene has become the most important environmentalist concept of our times. In contrast to this I argue that we have to speak instead of the Capitalocene. I want to address three questions: 1) What is the character of 21st century ecological crisis? 2) When did that crisis originate? and 3) What forces drive that crisis? Therefore, I analyze the revolutions in the technics of appropriating Cheap Natures, especially the Four Cheaps of food, labor, energy, and raw materials in Europe as well as via imperialistic dominance in overseas territories since the 15th century. Cheap Nature reveals as a system of domination, appropriation, and exploitation. Capital, power, and nature entwine, and this development started much sooner than with the Industrial Revolution in Europe. We have to conceptualize the global transformations of human and extra-human natures, enabled by the emergence of new ways of seeing and organizing the unpaid work of humans and the rest of nature over the past five centuries.