Locating Environmental Education Between Modern Capitalism and Postmodern Socialism: A Reply to Lucie Sauvé

Abstract

In countries as diverse as Belgium, Mexico, Bangladesh and China, 1998 brought severe flooding which threatened the lives and livelihoods of countless millions of people. More and more disaster experts, development agencies, and citizens' groups are supporting the theory that the globalisation of economies is largely responsible for such human misery. Structural adjustment programmes, deregulation and the opening of markets may be good for international capital, but such processes increase inequalities, encourage people and countries to over-exploit natural resources, and contribute to reductions in spending on social and environmental welfare. The global environmental crisis cannot be separated from the global economic crisis and any analysis of the causes and possible solution to environmental problems should start from this fact.