Intro Notes ISS 220
Page 1: Time, Climate, and Capitalism
Time affects how we see actions and changes, as a quote from Nietzsche suggests.
We've had good weather for a long time (Holocene). Some call our current time the Anthropocene (human-driven), but the authors say it's the Capitalocene, meaning it's shaped by capitalism's relationship with nature.
Climate change means big, fast, and possibly irreversible changes (a state shift) are happening now.
We often find it easier to imagine the end of capitalism than the end of the planet, but the book argues we need a new way of thinking (an intellectual state shift).
The book will show how seven "cheap" things made the modern world: nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives. These aren't just things; they are processes connected to life.
"Cheapness" isn't just about low prices; it's a strategy to control parts of the web of life through social, political, and ecological actions.
Example: A Chicken McNugget shows how modern capitalism works, involving a global system of breeding, labor, and transport.
This book is a short history of how capitalism built our world, not a full history.
Key terms: Capitalocene, Anthropocene, State shift, Cheap nature/money/work/care/food/energy/lives, Oikeios (life-making pulse).
No specific numbers on this page.
Page 2: Naming the Epoch
The authors prefer Capitalocene over Anthropocene because capitalism, not just all humans, is the main driver of planetary changes.
Big, irreversible changes are expected in the 21st century, making a political-ecological view necessary.
Humans have changed the planet for ages, but capitalism has created changes at a new scale and speed.
Like imagining a world without God, it's hard for many to imagine a world without capitalism; it seems easier than picturing the end of the planet.
First task: Be precise with language; Capitalocene highlights capitalism's role.
The seven cheap things are the main way to understand how the modern world was built by making these things cheap.
Running Example: Chicken bones (Gallus gallus domesticus) show how post-WWII breeding created profitable but costly meat production, illustrating the cheapness logic.
No specific numbers here, but the discussion sets up future examples.
Page 3: The Role of Cheap Things
Again, the book uses Capitalocene and the seven cheap things to explain modernity.
The chicken example: today's chickens grow very fast due to intensive breeding, showing how corporate food production links labor, energy, and environment with cheap products.
The seven cheap things are: cheap nature, cheap money, cheap work, cheap care, cheap food, cheap energy, and cheap lives.
This leads into a historical case study: Madeira sugar, where these cheap things first appeared.
Page 4: How Cheapness Works (Chicken Example)
This page explains each of the seven cheap things, using the poultry industry:
Cheap Nature: The poultry industry uses lots of land, feed, and water, powered by fossil fuels and technology.
Cheap Work: Poultry workers get very low pay. For example, only dollars of every dollar spent on fast food chicken goes to workers. Some even use prison labor for about . Workers face pain and injuries (reported by 89 ext{ ext{%}} of workers), often with denied claims and long-term income drops.
Cheap Care: Undervalued care (family, community) keeps workers in the system, making it "cheap" for the economy.
Cheap Food: Low chicken prices make mass-produced meat popular, but hide its true labor and environmental costs.
Cheap Energy: Large-scale poultry relies on abundant, subsidized energy (fuel for farms, processing).
Cheap Money: Capital, subsidies, and credit boost private profits, often shifting risks to the public.
Cheap Lives: Racism, gender inequality, and colonization make all seven cheap things possible, burdening marginalized groups.
Fixing ecological problems also means fixing these injustices.
The Chicken McNugget becomes a symbol of modern cheapness and its hidden costs; its legacy will be in the fossil record.
Page 5: The Chicken McNugget and Historical Cheapness
The Chicken McNugget shows how the modern system pushes burdens onto others.
The authors connect the seven cheap things to history: capitalism expanded through colonization and exploiting labor to create cheapness.
These "cheapings" aren't universal rules but historical patterns from capitalism's spread.
Historical Example: The Madeira sugar frontier shows how nature (forests), labor (slaves), energy (wood fuel), money (European financing), and lives (enslaved people) were all made cheap to produce sugar.
This story isn't a full global history, but it explains how the current world-ecology works.
Map 1: Shows how Europe colonized the world, supporting capitalist expansion.
Page 6: Map of Colonialism
Map 1: Visually shows areas colonized or influenced by Europe, illustrating capitalism's link to colonial power.
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Page 8: World Before Capitalism
The book looks at humans and nature before capitalism, critiquing idealized views.
It starts with feudal Europe, looking at how climate shaped society.
The Medieval Warm Period (roughly 900–1300s) had mild, long growing seasons.
This led to population growth (from about 70 million early on) and more agriculture, towns, and people working outside farming.
The Crusades are an example of early mobilization and conquest that paved the way for colonial capitalism.
Page 9: Climate Crisis and Feudal Collapse
The Great Famine and a colder, wetter climate in the 14th century (Little Ice Age) hurt feudal food systems.
Feudal agriculture depended on lords and peasants, with lords controlling land and peasants producing.
Climate stress revealed problems: tired soils, low productivity, and bad harvests.
The crisis wasn't just about population (Malthusian idea) but about power and how resources were taken. Capitalism later emerged as a response.
The Great Famine and climate stress caused social unrest, setting the stage for capitalism, though it wasn't a simple, smooth change.
Page 10: Power and Food Shortages
Feudal food systems failed under climate pressure, mainly because of how power extracted and shared food.
The authors argue that while Malthus is partly right about population, Marx gives a better view by showing how feudal lords hoarded resources and failed to adapt.
Even as food production dropped, the powerful tried to keep things the same rather than reacting to nature's limits.
The Great Famine and the Black Death broke down the feudal order, leading to capitalism as a new system for organizing labor and property.
The connection between climate, resources (carrying capacity), and power is key.
Page 11: The Black Death and Social Change
The Black Death was a huge event, spreading through trade and cities, turning a health crisis into a political one.
Feudalism weakened as the plague drastically reduced peasant populations, shifting power.
Peasant and worker wages/living standards rose after the plague, which helped create new class relations.
Rulers tried to control labor (e.g., wage caps) to protect profits, foreshadowing capitalism's labor practices.
The Black Death created conditions for revolts and power shifts, moving society from feudalism to capitalism.
Page 12: Broad Impact of the Black Death
The Black Death's spread was linked to growing trade and cities, connecting Asia and Europe.
The crisis caused massive uprisings that threatened feudal power, which couldn't recover.
Capitalism emerged as a new system to organize labor and property.
The link between climate failure, farming problems, and social revolution shows that crises are both ecological and political-economic.
Page 13: Iberian Expansion and Sugar
The Reconquista (reconquest of Spain) was financed by Italian bankers, creating war debt. This led to a new push for expansion: colonialism and finding wealth in new frontiers.
By the late 15th century, Portugal and Castile needed new ventures (Atlantic exploration, sugar plantations) to pay off debts.
The sugar frontier became key for new capitalism: sugar production became a model for modern industry, connecting finance, exploitation, and expansion.
Two big colonial projects shaped capitalism: (1) Atlantic sugar plantations, and (2) European colonial ventures funded by financiers.
Page 14: Madeira - The First Sugar Factory
Madeira became an early frontier where sugar production changed labor, land, and energy use.
The island saw quick deforestation for sugarcane. Wood was crucial for processing sugar.
About were burned to make , showing how energy-intensive early sugar production was and why it caused huge ecological changes.
Madeira sugar used enslaved Indigenous people from the Canaries and North Africans, along with paid workers. Water channels (levadas) irrigated the fields.
European money and Portuguese masters controlled Madeira's sugar. Production peaked in the early 16th century, then dropped as forests disappeared.
Madeira then shifted to wine, using wood from the New World for barrels. Later, it became a hub for the Atlantic slave trade and now uses its history for tourism.
The plantation is seen as the first factory, achieving efficient production and division of labor long before Adam Smith's famous pin factory example.
Madeira shows how frontiers change: when local resources run out, production reinvents itself (sugar to wine) and trade networks shift.
Page 15: Sugar Frontier Evolution
The sugar frontier had two phases, leading to new technologies and organization.
Madeira's forests were quickly used up. When wood ran out, producers moved to New World forests for fuel, showing how capital adapts to ecological limits.
The sugar frontier then spread to the New World (Caribbean, Brazil), always seeking new resources.
Madeira's sugar industry also linked to wine and the Atlantic slave trade, showing how frontier economies can change forms but keep the goal of cheap production and profit.
Page 16: Complex Chains and Exploitation
Madeira's sugar industry shows a move from simple resource extraction to complex global networks of finance, shipping, labor, and technology.
The use of enslaved labor highlights the social costs of "cheapness" in the Capitalocene.
After the sugar boom, capital moved to new frontiers (New World) for other resources.
The authors stress that capitalism's frontier logic isn't just about taking resources; it's about changing social relations (labor, race) to keep production cheap and profits high.
Page 17: Ecological Limits of Sugar
The Madeira system fiercely used energy and resources: levadas, slave labor, and a lot of fuel for processing.
By the early 16th century, the island's forests were gone, showing the limits of extraction.
The end of Madeira's sugar boom didn't end the "frontier logic"; instead, capital just moved to new frontiers (the Americas).
The main lesson: capitalism's cheapness depends on constantly finding new frontiers and resources as older ones are used up.
Page 18: Frontiers and Cheapness Framework
Frontiers are crucial for understanding capitalism because they turn crises into profits.
A frontier is where capital meets nature (including people), creating chances to profit by lowering production costs and starting new cycles of wealth.
Frontiers are not just violent; they are productive spaces that expand capitalism by controlling life-making processes.
Capitalism thrives by using nature to maximize profit while causing minimal disruption (initially). This "cheapening" lessens business costs by extending control over labor, capital, and nature.
The concept of oikeios (the life-making pulse) connects all life forms (humans, plants, animals) and how they co-create environments.
Non-English terms like minobimaatisiiwin, ubuntu, ukama, shi-shi wu-ai, and mauri also show this idea of interconnected, reciprocal life.
Nothing in modern capitalism works alone; all social relations (labor, property, power) shape the biosphere together.
Page 19: Life-Making and Co-production
Oikeios means life-making is a multi-layered process that supports both humans and nonhumans, showing that life and economy are linked, not separate.
Nature and humans are not separate; capital, labor, and life are all part of production and reproduction ecologies.
Example: The London Underground Mosquito (Culex pipiens molestus) adapted to human-made spaces, showing how life co-evolves with urban capitalism.
Capitalism's effects reach all scales of life, including urban and disease ecologies that come from human environments.
Page 20: Externalities and Systemic Crises
Capital and nature co-produce each other; humans and nature constantly shape life-making processes that capitalism tries to control.
The modern world emerged by ignoring "externalities" (costs or benefits not included in production calculations), until these hidden costs caused system problems.
Economists like Pigou and Meade's concept of externalities helps understand why crises happen and how they're managed (or not) in capitalism.
Capitalism survives by turning life-making processes into things you can buy, but over time, externalities build up, causing big crises (e.g., environmental harm, labor fights, climate change).
Capitalists want to reorganize nature to make profits with minimal problems, creating "islands of cash" in "oceans of cheap nature."
Externalities:
Page 21: The Seven Cheap Things Toolkit
The seven cheap things (nature, money, work, care, energy, food, lives) are a full set of tools to analyze capitalism's ecology.
Capitalism's frontiers exist within the wider biosphere; they are ecologies with social and environmental results.
Capitalism aims to minimize the cost of life-making in these seven areas, often through forced labor, resource extraction, and inequality.
Cheapness is a way of managing crises: choosing which life-making relations to exploit to keep money flowing, while hiding social and ecological costs, at least for a while.
This framework helps show how capitalism's ecologies work, where they fail, and how they can be changed.
This "world-ecology" framework connects distant events (colonialism, slavery, finance, climate change) into one story of capitalism as an ecology, not just an economic system.
Page 22: Defining Cheapness and World-Ecology
Cheapness: A strategic and often violent process to manage capitalism's relationship with life by temporarily fixing crises, often by exploiting labor and nature with little pay.
These "fixes" are short-term and depend on continued exploitation.
The seven cheap things help analyze how capitalism creates and solves crises at frontiers to continue making money.
World-ecology sees power, production, and reproduction working together with the web of life, not as economics separate from nature.
Capitalism's economic calculations alone can't explain its strength and problems without considering how it depends on nature and society.
Page 23: The Starting Point
The seven cheap things are a starting point, not a final theory. There could be more, but these seven were present at capitalism's beginning.
It's important to see how each "cheap thing" worked in Madeira as a real-world example.
Capitalism's ecology is more than just economic; it's political, cultural, and ecological, requiring study from many fields.
Page 38: World-Ecology Framework
World-Ecology: A way to understand human history as deeply connected to the web of life, challenging the idea that humans and nature are separate.
It sees capitalism as an ecology—a system of relationships that links power, money, and nature globally.
Capitalism isn't just markets; it's a historical ecology shaped by frontiers, violence, power, and knowledge used to get nature cheaply.
This approach shows how five centuries of capitalism created unequal power relations worldwide.
It asks how humans and nature co-create environments and identities, challenging the "Nature/Society" split from early modern times.
We need to remember how concepts like Nature and Society were created and used (often for dispossession) and how they were part of colonialism and capitalism.
Page 39: Naming and Action
World-ecology helps us rethink how naming systems (like Nature, Society, Capital) affects power and choices.
Naming matters because it shapes how we imagine politics and policies, pushing for social justice and ecological repair.
Modern ideas of Nature and Society, starting in the 16th century, were used to justify exploitation, making economic violence seem "natural."
World-ecology offers an integrated view where environmental, economic, and political processes are all connected.
To understand today's crises, we must map the power, labor, and nature relations that created them, not see nature as just a background.
Page 40: Afterlives of Cheapness and Hope
The "afterlives of cheap things" refers to ongoing problems, but world-ecology also provides tools to imagine alternative futures.
Traditional environmentalism often focuses only on "green tech" without addressing social justice, labor rights, or reparations.
The authors propose reparation ecology: a broader political project that redistributes care, land, and work for a better, ecologically balanced life for all.
They connect modern political tensions (e.g., leaders like Trump, Putin) to the cheapness logic, where far-right policies often rely on cheap lives and fossil fuels, ignoring ecological links.
They call for strong, democratic movements to challenge cheapness and work for justice and ecological repair, not just small reforms.
Page 41: Critiquing Capitalism
The authors discuss ethical issues in capitalism: low wages, weak welfare, and vulnerable care workers in a system of "cheap lives."
They argue that small wage increases (like higher minimum wage) aren't enough; we need bigger changes that value unpaid (care) labor.
They also critique "cheap fossil fuel" arguments, highlighting the hidden material and human costs of cheap energy.
They advocate for rethinking consumption, farming, and labor to avoid poverty and inequality, prioritizing just and sustainable relations with the biosphere.
They note ongoing biases (e.g., about race and labor) and stress that justice is key for any viable future, emphasizing reparative movements for equality.
Page 42: Movements Challenging Cheapness
Examples of movements challenging cheapness: unions (for higher wages), climate activists (revaluing energy), food campaigns (for healthy, fair food), domestic workers (for rights), and anti-foreclosure groups (for housing).
These movements are connected and form a coalition against cheapness that can create systemic change.
Transformation must start from people's real-life experiences and struggles.
World-ecology helps connect these diverse movements into a common project for a future beyond capitalism.
The authors support an ambitious political vision (Alice Walker's idea of activism as "rent for living on the planet") for a post-capitalist future driven by people's struggles.
Page 43: Reparation Ecology
Reparation Ecology: A practical and ethical plan to fairly redistribute care, land, and work to create just and sustainable life networks.
It aims to remember and fix the long history of violence and injustice that caused today's ecological and social problems.
The authors are cautiously hopeful that world-ecology gives us the ideas to navigate the coming "state shift" by reframing problems and imagining fairer, ecologically integrated futures.
The text highlights the need for remembering history, accountability, and reparations to build democratic and ecologically sound ways of living.
It invites readers to use the seven cheap things to understand capitalism's ecology and work towards action and justice.