Subversive theory: Ecology, Gaiocentric sustainable development, and the Third World

Capitalist culture, in both its freemarket 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, are 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, 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. (author)