Metabolic Rifts, Temporal Imperatives, and Geographical Shifts: Logging in the Adirondack Forest in the 1800s

Abstract

ABSTRACTDistinct land-use patterns can radically transform ecological conditions. In the following historical study, the authors employ Marx’s metabolic approach, nested within a political-economic perspective, to assess the ecological and temporal contradictions that emerged between the capitalist logging industry in New York State and the Adirondack forests in the 1800s. They present the environmental, socioeconomic, and technological changes that accompanied the consolidation and intensification of timber operations, expanding the harvesting of trees and the realm of ecological degradation. The authors highlight how the temporal demands of capital conflict with those of trees in the forest and how the social metabolism of capitalist logging violates the universal metabolism of nature, resulting in distinct ecological rifts and geographical shifts in production.