Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The corporatisation of agriculture has also been accompanied by
significant changes in land use, such as a major expansion in cropland
worldwide: 'Viewed in a wider historical context, more land was
converted to cropland in the 30 years after 1950, than in the 150 years
between 1700 and 1850' (UNEP, 2007: 86). The environmental impact
is loss of habitat and biodiversity; soil water retention and regulation;
disturbance of biological cycle; increases in soil erosion, nutrient
depletion, salinity and eutrophication. For humans, there is greater
exposure to agrochemicals in air, soil and water.
Using nature for the purposes of profit-making involves many
different industries - from mining to agriculture, logging to fishing -
and involves exploitation of so-called natural resources on a huge scale.
In ecological terms, there are several key areas of environmental harm
that are especially apparent and that are directly and indirectly related
to the global capitalist mode of production. These relate to climate
change, biodiversity, pollution and waste, plastics and pollution in the
ocean, and plants and forests.
Climate change
A key problem identified by the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP 2007, 2012) is climate change. According to the
UNEP there are several interrelated dimensions to the problem. These
include ozone depletion, climate change linked to various kinds of
emissions, and the impact of air pollution on global warming. In large
measure, the problem of climate change is directly related to how
humans across the globe produce and consume, distribute and exchange
the fruits of their labour. While, to date, the impact of climate change
on humans has been felt disproportionately in developing countries, the
more affluent countries of the West are now beginning to experience
climate-related disasters (see UNEP, 2007). Plants and animals are
affected not only by global warming (for example, through threats to
habitat and weather changes), but by human efforts to mitigate and
adapt to climate change (for example, deforestation linked to planting
of GMO crops).
The problem of biodiversity
Commodification is taking place in all aspects of human life, and in
all parts of the globe. The global political economy of genetically
modified organisms (GMOs) provides a case in point, insofar as the
promotion of GMOs by large transnational corporations has continued
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