Society
& Nature, Vol. 3, No. 1
Subversive
Theory: Ecology,
Gaiocentric Sustainable Development, and the Third World
E.
G. Vallianatos
Abstract
Capitalist culture, in both its free market and state socialism expressions,
is ecologically illiterate and unsustainable. However, the global ecological
crisis is changing all human relationships, including the relationship of people
to nature. The theory of sustainable development and, particularly, the theory
of gaiocentric sustainable development, is the means by which we try to put
nature on an equal footing with treasured human values, thus shifting human
culture from the brink of disaster to a defender of a livable world. Yet the
knowledge for such a transformation does not exist in industrial societies. It
is the Third World that is the source for human survival. Third World people are
defending the integrity of ecosystems, biodiversity, the priceless Amazon.
wild rivers and gaiocentric sustainable development. These people know and
practice what we must know and practice in order to put the brakes on the global
ecocidal and anthropocidal policies of industrial capitalist development.
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