Eco-Marxian Critique of Capitalism
The contemporary world faces a triple planetary crisis comprising of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental pollution. It threatens the stability of both human societies and obviously defiles our cherished blue planet . While mainstream narratives blame overpopulation, technology and even individual lifestyle choices, a deeper intellectual tradition rooted in Marxist ecology, critical philosophy, and environmental sociology reveals that the crisis is a direct outcome of capitalist modes of production and the alienation of humans from nature.
Ecological Alienation: Humanity has always lived within nature, but modern capitalism has taught us to live against it. What was once a relationship of interdependence has become a relationship of extraction. Forests turn into timber, rivers into commodities, land into real estate, and even the atmosphere into a dumping ground. What a pity !
Furthermore, in this transformation not only degradation of ecosystems has occurred but also a deeper and unfortunately invisible rupture to what can be termed as ecological alienation. We are becoming strangers to the very earth that sustains us. As a Marxist, I consider it another internal contradiction or a seed of destruction of capitalism itself.
Capitalism, unequivocally, has become ecologically destructive. Beyond doubt it can be regarded as a system that can only survive by undermining the very natural foundations upon which it depends. Eco-Marxism therefore argues that ecological crises are not accidental, not technological failures, not individual shortcomings , not demographic accidents ,they are the inevitable outcome of a system that treats nature as infinite, human labour as expendable, and profit as sacred. To address climate change meaningfully, we must confront the deeper political-economic structures that produce it.
Sociological Perspective of capitalism induced ecological alienation and triple planetary crisis: - Capitalism must expand continuously hence it resorts to more production, more profit and fosters more consumption. It extracts nature faster than it can regenerate and hence prepones the earth overshoot day. So capitalism is structurally incompatible with ecological sustainability. Hence ironically it undermines the original sources of all wealth that is the good earth.
Commodification of Nature: Capitalism turns ecosystems into commodities. It destroys the very notion of sustainability. When forests, mountains, rivers, and even clean air become commodities, their intrinsic value disappears. This is the sociological heart of ecological alienation.
Overpopulation as a Convenient Myth:- The capitalist backed economically sound ruling classes frame the ecological crisis as a result of population growth and individual lifestyle choice. While there could be a correlation still it confuses correlation with causation. This narrative hides the real cause. It is not people, but profit-based production, that destroys the Earth.
According to an eloquent dossier published in Tricontinental institute for social research issue of October 2025, “Globally, the fossil fuel industry is the largest emitter of CO2, with roughly one hundred companies responsible for 71% of global historical CO2 emissions, according to a Carbon Majors report published in 2017. Among them are giants such as ExxonMobil, Shell, BHP Billiton, and Gazprom. Another 2019 study by the Climate Accountability Institute found that just twenty companies have been responsible for one-third of all global CO2 emissions since 1965.” Eventually, with massive noxious gas emissions rapid glacier melt, extreme heatwaves, destructive cyclones, unpredictable monsoon and crop failures become inevitable. So scientifically speaking , these are not natural variations but outcomes of burning fossil fuels for industrial accumulation.
Philosophical Consequences: Meaninglessness inevitably creeps in an extractive civilization because when nature becomes an object, humans lose meaning. Consumerism replaces purpose, screen life replaces real life, productivity replaces creativity and profit replaces ethics. People feel empty and meaninglessness not because humans lack meaning, but because capitalism deprives them of the conditions that generate meaning. So philosophically, ecological alienation is also an existential alienation.
Way forward: A meaningful way forward should begin with rebuilding our fractured relationship with nature by challenging the capitalist obsession with endless growth and replacing it with ecological well-being. Scientific innovation must align with ecological ethics rather than corporate expansion, while cultural narratives must move from consumerism to simplicity, responsibility, and harmony with the good earth. Ultimately, overcoming ecological alienation demands a new ecological consciousness that treats nature not as a resource, but as the very condition of our collective survival.
Conclusion:
We must be clear that the triple planetary crisis is not a technological failure or a demographic accident it is, in fact, the logical outcome of capitalist modernity. Marxian ecology clarifies that the crisis is rooted in the metabolic rift created by capitalist production, philosophy reveals the existential emptiness of treating nature as commodity and science confirms the accelerating collapse of climate, biodiversity, and ecological stability. So, to overcome ecological alienation, triple planetary crisis and allied issues , humanity must rebuild a world where life, not profit, forms the basis of civilisation. Only then can our cherished earth and the human spirit recover their lost harmony.
Tasaduq Maqbool Bhat, Student of Sociology at University of Kashmir.
