The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability

In the end, then, despite the large volume of bad news, we can conclude with an affirmation […] Yes, we can save what is left. Yes, we can repair and make amends. We can reclaim nature and restore ourselves. There is a bridge at the edge of the world (p. 13).

It is such sublime words that mirror James Gustave Speth's fundamental question whether transformation of capitalism is possible. It is needed because most environmental deterioration is, he thinks, a result of systemic failures of the capitalism we have today and that, therefore, long‐term solutions must seek transformative change in the key features of this contemporary capitalism. Can such transformation be done? If so, how?

In Part I of the book System Failure, Speth describes the scope and magnitude of the challenge: the vast expansion of economic activity as the predominant though not sole cause of environmental decline; the increasingly unregulated globalized world economy; eco‐efficiency which is improving but not fast enough to prevent impacts from rising. (In this context, he is quoting Donella Meadows, p. 51, who once summed it up nicely: “things are getting worse at a slower rate”.) Environmental decline, Speth says, is accompanied by an ongoing political default (failed politics) which exacerbates market failure with environmentally perverse subsidies. In sum, the economic system does not work when it comes to protecting the environment, and the political system does not work when it comes to correcting the economic system (p. 52). The upshot is that societies now face unprecedented environmental threats, with the possibility of economic breakdown and ecological collapse.

Environmentalism that has evolved over time, and of which Speth is a strong part, tends to be pragmatic and incrementalist, dealing with effects rather than underlying causes of decline, accepting compromises, and taking what it can get. “We have been winning battles, including some critical ones, but losing the war” (p. xii). His conclusion: it is time for the environmental community – indeed everyone – to develop a deeper critique of what is going on.

As eye‐openers, and learning examples, Speth describes in some detail the destructive trends in several globally relevant areas, the world we live in – and in this way is looking into the abyss: climate disruption; losing the forests; losing the land; losing freshwater; losing marine fisheries; toxic pollutants; losing biodiversity (sections of Part I). The challenges are daunting, and the reality they reflect is frightening. How do people respond?

No doubt, most of us are solutionists. But there are many varieties of solutionist thinking, which embody quite different worldviews. Speth follows Paul Raskin and differentiates between the “Fortress World”; the “Market World”; the “Policy Reform World”; the “New Sustainability World”; and the “Social Greens World”. In recent decades, Market World advocates have very much controlled the actual levers of power and decision making. Today's environmentalism operates largely in the Policy Reform World. Since this pattern is not yielding satisfying results, Speth suggests that something new is needed. But at this point he is hiding behind a great word of Thomas Berry who once said that the work now “[…] is to carry out the transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner” (p. 45).

In a different chapter, Speth however makes his own point: “Our duty is […] to struggle against the contempocentrism and anthropocentrism that dominate modern life” (p. xvii).

In Part II of the book The Great Transformation, Speth addresses the basic features of modern capitalism and in each case seeks to identify the transformative changes needed: making the market to work for, not against the environment; achieving environmentally honest prices; restraining “market imperialism” and excessive commodification are the topics of Chapter 4. In Chapter 5, the focus is on the “growth fetish”, and the dimensions of a “post‐growth society”, where neither nature nor community is sacrificed to the priority of economic growth. In Chapter 6, he calls for alternative measures that directly address social and environmental challenges, and thus puts into question the gross national product as the major and still dominant performance indicator. As materialism and consumerism still go strong in today's affluent societies, Speth wants to encourage both “green consumption” and living more simply (Chapter 7). In Chapter 8, he depicts the power of the modern corporation, and calls for more and better corporate social and environmental responsibility. In Chapter 9, Speth then puts the system‐question in this way: “Is there something beyond both capitalism and socialism? If so, what are the dimensions of a nonsocialist system beyond today's capitalism?” (p. 183).

Laying the foundations for an all inclusive transformation, the crossing from crisis to sustainability, is subject of Part III of the book Seedbeds of Transformation. According to Speth, there seem to be two potential drivers of transformative change, a new consciousness, and a new politics. In Chapter 10, he focuses on the prospect for profound changes in social values, culture, and worldviews. And in Chapter 11, he addresses the search for a new and vital democratic politics, for a strong local democracy and a strong environmental politics.

Speth – as all other thinkers – cannot foresee the effects of his analysis and his reformative suggestions. He therefore ends with a good and a bad news. The good news is that some impressive thinking and some exemplary actions have occurred on the issues at hand. Proposals abound, many of them promising, others still being neglected. New movements for change are emerging, some already quite strong, others still very week. No doubt, however: the market can be changed through smart regulation; the “ecological footprint” of industrial society can be reduced and the “environmental rucksack” can be lightened; the incentives that govern corporate and management behaviour can be rewritten; growth can be focussed on environmentally friendly products and technologies; and the rights of future generations and other species can be respected, both formally and informally. And that means a bridge to the future can be build.

But Speth, the optimist, cannot rule out the bad news that for many challenges there is not much time left for action. And so he ends with quoting Martin Luther King, who in his speech at Riverside Church on 4 April 1967 said: “Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the words: ‘Too late’”.

James Gustave Speth, in his new book, leads us to a bridge at the edge of the world – an epic transformation of the way, we live, produce and consume. This is a fantastic, highly topical and potentially important book. It should widely be read, and translated into other languages. Some readers might miss that Karl Marx is quoted only once. But all will be rewarded with a comprehensive presentation of critical American voices, and with the reflection of an extremely imaginative environmental literature.