Environmentalism is a humanism
October 7th, 2006 by Jim JustThe biggest mistake the environmental movement made was hiving the environment off into a separate sphere. Climate change is so serious and so fundamental that this idea of a separate sphere of activity outside the social is more ridiculous than ever. Climate change is a problem that crosses all neat boundaries—it is utterly tied to modes of production and the social division of labor. That peak oil presents a problem is also a result of the type of social and economic conditions under which we live. There is a negative synergy between these two crises that negates the separate space of the environmental. It is the economic growth model and practice that is at the root of the problem. Solutions to climate change are also the only real solutions to peak oil. Real answers to the ecological crisis will also be answers to the social crisis.