The Metabolic Rift and the Dialectics of Ecology

Abstract

In the 21st century, there has been a systematic recovery and reconstruction of Karl Marx’s theory of metabolic rift, as a general approach to ecological crisis, serving as the basis for an integrated economic and ecological critique of capitalism. This approach is rooted in classical historical materialism, which includes both ecological materialism and dialectical ecology. Marx’s dialectical triadic metabolic analysis consists of the universal metabolism, social metabolism, and metabolic rift. The universal metabolism is the all-encompassing, evolving natural world, of which humans are a part. The social metabolism involves the constant interchange between humans, via labor and the production process, and nature. A metabolic rift emerges when an alienated social metabolism creates a rupture in the universal metabolism. Given capitalism’s tendency to rob nature, it produces ecological rifts, which are progressively undermining the conditions that support life. Metabolic rift scholarship, building on Marx and the work of radical scientists, has offered a rich analysis of all varieties of ecological crises, such as climate change, the depletion of soil nutrients, the collapse of fisheries, the draining of aquifers, and the spread of zoonotic diseases. It has also documented how capitalist working conditions contribute to a corporeal rift, which degrades, shortens, and harms life. The same is true regarding the lives of animals—such as cows, pigs, and chickens—in industrial food operations, given the alienated speciesism that arose under capitalism. Overall, metabolic rift scholars are addressing the planetary emergency itself. This comprehensive analysis includes integrating issues of ecological imperialism/unequal ecological exchange and the expropriation processes associated with nature, class, gender, and race. Its economic and ecological critique of capitalism reveals the historical necessity for revolutionary changes in the social metabolism, whereby metabolic restoration is a crucial part of ecological sustainability. This broad social change is part of a new socialist project rooted in the recognition and advancement of the environmental proletariat, aimed at creating sustainable human development, embodying substantive equality.