"The voluminous literature devoted to examining the relationship between capitalism and environmental degradation makes it rather difficult to have something original to say. But in her new book, Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature, the political theorist Alyssa Battistoni does exactly this by pinpointing the exact reasons for capitalism's persistent failure to value nonhuman nature, and what this means for politics as well as for our collective future on this planet."
"Inspired by Marxist thought, Battisoni argues that the problem of climate change is rooted in the manner in which capitalism systematically treats nature as a "free gift." By this she means that in a capitalist society nature is materially useful but is "something that can be taken without payment or replenishing" and therefore tends not to appear in exchange. How, for instance, do we make sense of the contradiction that exists between how brutal and violent human beings treat the natural world"
Capitalism treats nonhuman nature as a 'free gift'—materially useful but taken without payment or replenishment—so ecosystem goods and life-support processes remain excluded from exchange value. This systemic treatment produces a contradiction in which societies degrade the natural world despite existential dependence on its services. The exclusion of nonhuman contributions from political and economic valuation undermines collective capacity to reproduce life and manage ecological crises. Addressing this requires a politics that recognizes and remunerates nature's reproductive and provisioning roles, redesigns institutions to account for ecological inputs, and organizes collective power to shift valuation and resource governance.
Read at The Nation
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