Temporalities of Environmental Degradation
How does our preoccupation with the present inhibit effective action to mitigate environmental degradation?
Environmental degradation is commonly perceived as a negative externality of economic growth. Redressing such externalities is problematic because their effects are long-lived and oftentimes invisible to the naked eye, reducing their salience in current affairs. Moreover, the duration over which they manifest exists in tension to economic growth which is temporally rooted in the present. These differential timescales mean that economic policies aimed at remedying environmental degradation are beset by time lags. Whereas economic policies are immediate in effect, their environmental impact is delayed.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is an artificial measure of progress that abstracts value through commodification. By valuing natural entities in terms of price, their qualitative cultural and evolutionary heritage is foregone in favour of quantitative measures. Price is determined by the dynamics of supply and demand in the present. Since the aim of economists is to sustain growth, progress is attained when GDP operates according to a linear trajectory, albeit with minor fluctuations.
“An ecosystem is a rich tapestry of biodiversity, intelligence and relationality. Left undisturbed, it is a site where the past, present and future interact”.
The way GDP functions conflicts with the cyclical temporality of nature. Seasonally, nature moves through periods of fruition, decay and regeneration. An ecosystem is a rich tapestry of biodiversity, intelligence and relationality. Left undisturbed, it is a site where the past, present and future interact. Constituents of an ecosystem are the embodiment of millions of years worth of evolution, and their interactions and symbioses create an endless array of potential futures.
To describe environmental degradation as a ‘negative externality’ is to inflict a secondary level of violence for the way in which it designates the primary violence (environmental damage) necessary to sustain the conditions of the present. By doing so, it overlooks the way in which self-regenerative and cyclical systems have greater adaptive capacity to respond to sudden shocks, incorporating them into the natural cycle of succession. Instead, it imposes a linear model that disregards the importance of historical context and lacks the nuance to consider the long-term. The effect of this is to undermine the ecological conditions for life, which is justified on the premise that the economy is separate from nature and therefore immune to the effects of its destruction.
An illuminating example of this is oil. Oil is a fossil fuel made from the remains of ancient marine organisms. Viewed through an economic lens it is a non-renewable, and hence valuable, commodity. So prolific has its usage become that Timothy Morton describes it as a ‘hyperobject’; something existing in such a spatially and temporally large arena that it is unknowable. The extent of its use disrupts the carbon cycle, distributing carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons and microplastics in such a way that ecosystems cannot process and recycle. The environmental degradation resulting from the use of oil both shrinks and flattens the temporal landscape. The price of oil does not reflect the time it took to form, nor does it consider the irreparable damage it does to the oceans, atmosphere and land. Rather, the price is determined by the supply and demand of the present. Its impacts are considered negative externalities, justified by the pursuit of linear GDP growth. As these effects proliferate they become more visible and the conditions for continued living are threatened.
"The environmental degradation resulting from the use of oil both shrinks and flattens the temporal landscape”.
However, the reckoning this poses for the economy is yet to fully materialise. Robert Nixon argues that it is the spatial-temporal denial ‘out of sight out of mind’ that facilitates the continuation of neoliberal modes of production in spite of visible environmental degradation (p. 20). To counter this, it is imperative that we bring sites of environmental degradation and the communities affected by it, back into sight and mind. This requires dynamic systems that can respond to environmental problems that can manifest subtly over multifarious timespans. There are two critical spheres for this transformation: the economic and the legal.
Economically, pathways that encourage de-growth can help the economy become more in tune with natural cycles. ‘De-growth’ is an umbrella term that incorporates a broad and diverse movement; however its overall ambition is to reduce the level of material production and consumption. Through doing so it relieves the pressure on planetary boundaries and seeks to reduce inequality. By moving away from growth as the primary goal, the economy can focus on providing long-term planetary and human well-being. Another important development is an ecocentric legal system that grants rights-based protection to those most affected by environmental degradation. Current legal responses to environmental problems take the form of command-and-control models or market mechanisms, the latter increasingly favoured since the 1990s. These legal tools lack the nuance to account for future generations as well as the cultural heritage and evolutionary intelligence of natural entities. Randall Abate proposes a stewardship-focused and rights-based model that factors in the concerns of ‘voiceless’ groups such as future generations, natural resources and wildlife.
Thinking of economics and law in a way that transcends anthropocentrism and the myopia of the present forces us to respond to the slow violence of environmental degradation. De-growth economics would align economics more closely with the cycles and limits of nature. Stewardship-focused legal models could help capture the evolutionary and cultural heritage found in nature that cannot be accounted for in valuations based on price. Both these developments would be instrumental in preventing environmental degradation and sustaining the conditions necessary for the continued flourishing of ecological life.
