Environmental destruction and social inequality

two sides of the same capitalist development process

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to reflect on two faces of the same contradiction in the contemporary world: the issue of environmental destruction as well as the understanding of social inequality and how the two themes are embraced and inseparable. Since the first discussions about the environment, in the 1970s, inequality was already a fundamental issue. The phenomenon of ongoing environmental destruction goes hand in hand with social inequality and the global phenomenon of poverty. Poor populations are most affected by the destructive production of current capitalist development. This phenomenon is revealed in several ways: the lack of basic sanitation, the absence of drinking water, the “food crisis”, in addition to the poor population living in areas at greatest risk. Therefore, the fight against social inequality also depends on the conservation of the environment. The handling of both problems depends on new ethical, political and economic relations, which develop within the scope of building a new sociability beyond the current absolute domain of capital's interests.