ABSTRACT
The appropriation of resources from distant lands for commerce and war has long been part of human civilization and has been associated with various forms of environmental degradation. However, since the late fifteenth century, capitalism has been the hegemonic economic system, influencing social relationships, transforming landscapes, and shaping patterns of material exchange. It is a system predicated on the constant accumulation of capital. Its internal laws propel it forward, subsuming the world to the logic of capital – all the while generating contradictions and divisions. Capitalist expansion determines relationships of exploitation, ecological degradation, and unequal ecological exchange. While the specific forms and manifestations of these conditions depend upon the historical context and the demands of economic production, the ecologically unsustainable nature of the capital system is evident in how it employs land, resources, and labor in the accumulation process.
