Capitalism’s grow-or-die imperative stands radically at odds with ecology’s imperative of interdependence and limit. The two imperatives can no longer coexist with each other; nor can any society founded on the myth that they can be reconciled hope to survive. Either we will establish an ecological society or society will go under for everyone, irrespective of his or her status.
I’m not trying to justify anyone’s behaviour. My critique is aimed at those who claim they’re acting on behalf of nature. Who appointed them to be the guardians of nature? Who is holding them accountable for it?
It’s the hubris that bothers me.
No: I don’t believe species have intrinsic value. Species are an invented concept: a set of categories we apply arbitrarily to suit ourselves. What we call species appear and disappear all the time.
In the great oxygenation event Cyanobacteria poisoned the entire planet with oxygen, wiping out untold swathes of obligate anaerobic life. That’s a pretty big change! We have yet to match that.