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Capitalism
The nature of the capitalist economic system and its effects on the natural environment is a subject of much debate. This article begins by exploring the basic economic theory that explains why capitalism may result in patterns of production and consumption that ultimately lead to environmental degradation. Next, the article explicates two polar views on capitalism and the environment, first examining the steady state argument, which proposes that the economic freedom that forms the basis for capitalism is at the heart of the environmental crisis. The counterpoint view of the market apologists is then presented; this group of thinkers contends that economic growth and the technological innovation spurred by the market system will produce solutions that will ultimately reduce or even solve environmental problems. After ...
- Politics and Ecology
- Politics and People
- Politics Challenges
- Acid Rain
- Afforestation
- Anti-Toxics Movement
- Appropriate Technology
- Biodiversity
- Decentralization
- Deforestation
- Domination of Nature
- Endocrine Disrupters
- Environmental Justice
- Environmental Management
- Equity
- Future Generations
- Global Climate Change
- Globalization
- Groundwater
- Industrial Revolution
- Innovation, Environmental
- Kuznets Curve
- Limits to Growth
- Malthusianism
- Megacities
- Millennium Development Goals
- Nonviolence
- North–South Issues
- Nuclear Politics
- PCBs
- Precautionary Principle
- Regulatory Approaches
- Resource Curse
- Revolving Door
- Risk Assessment
- Risk Society
- Silent Spring
- Structural Adjustment
- Suburban Sprawl
- Sustainable Development
- Technology
- Toxics Release Inventory
- Tragedy of the Commons
- Transportation
- Uncertainty
- Urban Planning
- Wetlands
- Wilderness
- Agenda 21
- Bhopal
- Brundtland Commission
- Bureau of Land Management, U.S.
- Clean Air Act
- Clean Water Act
- Club of Rome
- Copenhagen Summit
- Corporate Responsibility
- Department of Energy, U.S.
- Endangered Species Act
- Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations
- Environmental Protection Agency, U.S.
- Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S.
- Forest Service, U.S.
- Institutions
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- Kyoto Protocol
- Land Ethic
- Marine Mammal Protection Act
- Montreal Protocol
- NIMBY
- North American Free Trade Agreement Organizations
- Sagebrush Rebellion
- Stockholm Convention
- Transnational Advocacy Organizations
- Wise Use Movement
- World Trade Organization
- Politics Parties, Systems, and Economics
- Anarchism
- Basel Convention
- Biophilia
- Capitalism
- Citizen Juries
- Commodification
- Common Property Theory
- Conservation Enclosures
- Conservation Movement
- Consumer Politics
- Convention on Biodiversity
- Cost-Benefit Analysis
- Death of Environmentalism
- Democratic Party
- Ecocapitalism
- Ecofascism
- Ecosocialism
- Environmental Movement
- Federalism
- Gaia Hypothesis
- Gender
- Governmentality
- Green Discourse
- Green Neoliberalism
- Green Parties
- Green Washing
- International Whaling Commission
- Intrinsic Value
- Iron Triangle
- Participatory Democracy
- Petro-Capitalism
- Policy Process
- Political Ideology
- Politics of Scale
- Postmaterialism
- Power
- Pragmatism
- Skeptical Environmentalism
- Steady State Economy
- Transnational Capitalist Class
- UN Conference on Environment and Development
- UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
- Utilitarianism
- Water Politics
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