ABSTRACT
Marx was not an environmentalist in the modern sense of perceiving the dangers to the natural world of the ever-mounting human demands on it for material resources and the relentless destruction of the habitats of other natural species. But he had a particular view of the relationship that is compatible with, as well as informative to, modern environmentalism. He realised that humans were the same as all other animals in that they had to obtain from nature the physical means to live. But he also saw that humans, having as a species, a consciousness qualitatively greater than other animals, had the capacity, and the need, to develop a connection with nature of a specifically human kind. This encompassed developing not only a ‘big picture’ appreciation, but also a relationship with the unlimited specific features of nature – the air, the waters, the mountains, the valleys, the light, the minerals – far beyond and different from that of any other animal. This relationship was not only for maintaining life, but also for invention, science, and art as well – that is, for spiritual as well as physical purposes. In a sense, Marx held, human beings would thereby humanise nature, and naturalise themselves, by consciously realising that they were not separate, but a part of it.1
