Abstract

The disruption of the ecological balance sustaining human life has become one of the major products of advanced industrial society. Nature has been despoiled at the expense of all life for the benefit of a handful of recent generations who have been “fortunate” enough to enjoy the role of consumers in the 20th century. This consumerist model thrives upon the wasteful production of private goods by destroying the collective resources of the natural habitat.

Having overloaded the ecological system of North America, American firms have shifted capital and jobs to other continents, forging a transnational industrial regime out of their untapped ecological potential.