Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
commonly shared resources that are now con-
trolled by the state (including woodlands and
water courses); 2) a general decline in the eco-
logical knowledge and capacities of people whose
previous engagements with the natural world
(perhaps through forest agricultural, coppicing
or water management) are now administered by
state officials and experts; and 3) the general alien-
ation of people from the natural world. Prominent
anarchist writers, such as Henry David Thoreau
(1995), have argued that real freedom, and associ-
ated forms of personal independence, can only be
achieved if individuals are able to connect more
directly to the environmental systems upon which
all life depends. Neo-anarchist thinkers, such as
Murray Bookchin, argue that it is only through
the abolition of nation states and the formation
of smaller scale municipal forms of government
that the exploitative treatment of nature can be
redressed (Bookchin, 1986). In his book
Post-
scarcity Anarchism
, Bookchin (1986) observes how
hierarchical systems of social organization, such as
the nation state, have consolidated humanity's
collective sense of power over the natural world.
Echoing the work of James Scott (1998), Bookchin
also argues that the rise of hierarchical societies
has been associated with nature being understood
in simplified and objectified ways. As nature is
increasingly removed from people's everyday
experiences it becomes more and more difficult
to discern how it is being used and exploited in
order to support industrial society. To these ends,
anarchist thought and philosophy suggest a poten-
tial paradox within the Anthropocene: namely
that although humans may be responsible for more
and more of what goes on in the global envir-
onment, their actual awareness and sense of
responsibility for such actions may be diminishing
(see
Chapter 8
for a discussion of the psychological
processes associated with this situation).
human-environment relations. Such theories tend
to see states and governments as having a degree
of autonomy from the political and economic
interest groups that are present in any society. The
state is thus seen to play a crucial role in protecting
the collective interests of society, which may
include the sustainable use of natural resources
or the preservation of clean air and water. These
are parts of the environment that are typically
seen as common goods that would be neglected
if individuals were allowed to simply follow
their own selfish interests (see Johnston, 1996:
131-132). While such visions of the state tend to
be based upon rather negative understandings of
human nature (centred on a selfish gene that
drives a inherently self-serving and competitive
human nature, see Rifkin, 2009), they do reveal
the important role that states can play in govern-
ing so-called
environmental externalities
. In eco-
nomics, externalities are the unwanted side effects
of economic transactions that are visited upon
peoples or groups that have no part in the original
activity. Like the innocent bystander in a comedy
sketch who is struck by a custard pie that is
intended for someone else, the problem with
environmental externalities is that they do not tend
to incur a cost on the actual perpetrators of the
original action. In many ways states are like social
custodians, to whom we collectively grant certain
powers (such as law-making, policing, regulating)
so that others do not unfairly visit externalities
upon us. It is in this context that states are able
to regulate environmental externalities such as
air and water pollution, to ensure that those who
economically benefit from causing environmental
harm are held to account.
7.3.3 The capitalist state and the
environment
A third set of theories that connect the state with
environmental affairs has emerged out of work
within Marxist political economy (for more
on Marxism see
Chapter 2
in this volume).
These theories tend to depict the state as having
a far from neutral role in the management of
7.3.2 Ecological leviathans and
green referees
Other theories of the modern state suggest that
it may have a more positive influence on
