The Global Treadmill of Production and the Environment

Abstract

The intent of this chapter is to illustrate how the global “treadmill of production” (see the section below) arguably leads to the global “treadmill of destruction”. Drawing upon the theory developed by Allan Schnaiberg (1980), the treadmill of production (ToP) focuses on production as the key process in explaining the increasing environmental problems in today’s globalization of production, especially in developing countries whereby environmental degradation occurs as a direct result of production demand from advanced developed countries. Therefore, with the interaction of state, capital and the environment, ecological resources are increasingly converted into profits via transnational organization of production and market exchange. Consequently, with an intensification of production processes driven by competition and drive to increase profits in the capitalist world economy, there has been a rising amount of both resource withdrawals from and toxic additions to the environment (Islam, 2013; Schnaiberg, 1980). The endless production thus results in a continual process of environmental degradation that impacts ecosystems and human well-being.