ABSTRACT
The basis for the reproduction of material life over world history has been the large-scale utilization of the resources of the natural environment. The recurring outcome of this process—based on the human communities’ efforts to reproduce social life according to the social organizational patterns that have evolved—seems to be ecological degradation. Nonetheless, the motions of history also suggest periods of ecological recovery of the degraded areas, and the penetration of new areas for the extraction of fresh natural resources to sustain further world system evolution. Therefore, viewed from the perspective of la longue durée, ecological degradation and recovery appear to recur in phases. 1
