Capitalist development and environmental degradation: a Marxist approach

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to use the Marx contributions, specifically, the value theory to analyze the nature-capital contradiction revealed in the increasing global and local ecological conflicts. The double conception of the production and the labor process, and the use value – exchange value contradiction allow to determinate the specific role of the nature into the capitalist mode of production and the capital accumulation process, and organically relate the environmental issue to the capitalist value form namely, the wage-labor form. In addition, throughout the paper we expose widely disseminated misinterpretations assert that in the value theory the nature is downgrade to passive or marginal role.