In the Shadow of Sustainable Development

The prevailing notion of sustainable development has remained ineffective at reducing environmental degradation and social inequalities. The chapter argues that sustainable development, as it has been conceived, is actually a shell game for creating neocolonial dependency in the developing world rather than more sustainable, self-sufficient nations. This chapter explains the history of colonization and urbanization, contextualizing the problem of weak, neoliberal, sustainable development using social science environmental theories, such as climate denialism, ecofeminism, environmental justice, metabolic rift, and treadmill of production. It then provides an alternative, a radical sustainability that is at once socially and ecologically egalitarian, or transformative, and restores the health of people and the planet, or regenerative. These cases are presented as alternatives to sustainable development and as examples of radical sustainability and self-sufficient, autonomous development.

Preliminary insights on green criminology in Malaysia

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of environmental offences committed in Malaysia charged under the Environmental Quality Act 1974 (EQA1974). Design/methodology/approach This study used secondary data of the environmental court cases report by the Department of Environment (DOE) Malaysia from 2008 until 2016 to examine the nature of environmental offences based on the Treadmill of Production (ToP) approach. Findings In comparison with the GDP growth (Department of Statistic Malaysia, 2016), the findings support ToP argument that as far as the treadmill accelerates, the more would be the environmental crime committed. However, all offences charged were weighted more on the ecological additions rather than ecological withdrawn. The trend analysis showed a decreasing trend for all types of offences committed, reflecting that Malaysia's regulatory authorities are committed to fighting against environmental crime perpetrators. Therefore, all parties must be made to internalise the values of conducting business sustainably. Originality/value This paper is the first that examines the environmental offences committed in Malaysia using the ToP approach to analyse the nature of the crime committed in Malaysia associated with the growing literature of Green Criminology.

Ever-Expanding Frontiers of Ecological Destruction

This chapter explores the multiple forces that predispose capitalism to ever-increasing amounts of environmental damage. Sociologists discuss the treadmill of production, the degradation of the biosphere coming from increasing population growth and GDP requiring consuming ever-greater amounts of natural resources. A more refined argument is expanding frontiers of production. Modern economies require the incorporation of ever-greater amounts of physical space into capitalist production. Whenever an area is converted to commercial use, its natural function gets destroyed. The chapter then considers how capitalism is dependent on the four cheaps: cheap food, cheap energy, cheap natural resources, and cheap labor. All four are subject to expanding frontiers of production. However, the physical destruction of environments is not the only problem with expanding frontiers of production. The incorporation of new space into capitalist production means the dislocation of the population originally living in that space. Ultimately, landlessness leads to political volatility and warfare.

Gender-Focused Bilateral Aid in the Environmental Sector

According to feminist political ecology, women are uniquely and disproportionately affected by forest loss in many low- or middle-income countries (LMICs) because of gender divisions with regard to labor, land access, and forest resources. However, most macro-comparative theories of development (including economic dependency, ecological modernization, treadmill of production, world society, and neo-Malthusian theories) tend to ignore gender. We draw on ideas from feminist political ecology to examine how gender-focused bilateral aid in the environmental sector impacts forest loss from 2001 to 2015. To do so, we analyze data for 79 LMICs using ordinary least squares regression. We find that more gender-focused bilateral aid in the environmental sector is related to less forest loss. We also find support for economic dependency theory (more agricultural and forestry exports are related to more forest loss) and neo-Malthusian theory (more population growth is related to more forest loss). The main finding on bilateral financing supports the idea that gender should receive more attention in cross-national research, especially the integration of gender-related measures into analyses to refine and expand conventional macro-theories of development.

Recasting the Treadmills of Production and Destruction

We revisit and recast two prominent theories of environmental degradation: the treadmill of production and the treadmill of destruction. This recasting is guided by critical realism, focused on theorizing generative mechanisms that produce and shape empirical events. Our theorization is informed by Marxist and Weberian insights into environmental sociology contributions. In this critical realist recasting, the treadmill of production and the treadmill of destruction are conceived of as generative mechanisms. A treadmill refers to a process in which powerful organizations appropriate nature to amass power and capital. These organizations degrade the environment, and they suppress and distort information about the environmental damage they cause. The macrosocial context, the organizations at the center of them, and the elites that command these organizations make these treadmills distinct. A treadmill spans the biophysical and the social/cultural realms. Whereas the biophysical is necessary for the social/cultural realm to exist, it exists independent of human knowledge of this realm. As such, historical contingency and social change are at the center of analysis when studying the waxing, waning, transformation, and demise of treadmills. Adopting a critical realist stance, future theorization and research can and should engage a wide range of theories advanced in environmental sociology. The goal is not to establish the single best unitary theory, but to identify and gain insight into the generative mechanisms that shape and constrain human interactions with the environment.