Ecology in the time of global economic crisis

A "failed system" is how John Bellamy Foster describes capitalism in his presentation to the International Conference on the Critique of Capitalism in the Era of Globalization, held at Suzhou University in Jiangsu province in January.

Foster says that by "a failed system I do not of course mean that capitalism as a system is in any sense at an end". What he means by a failed system is that capitalism as a global economic and social order "increasingly exhibits fatal contradiction between reality and reason - to the point, in our time, where it threatens not only human welfare, but also the continuation of most sentient forms of life on the planet".

Foster is professor of sociology at the University of Oregon, US, and editor of neo-Marxist magazine Monthly Review. But he is also known for his seminal work on Marx's writings on the environment: Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature. And it's ecology, he said in his paper at the Suzhou conference, that faces the greatest threat from financialization of capital. It's this part of his paper that deserves special attention.