The history of capitalism viewed through the economic prism of the destruction of natural resources, from the distant past to our immediate future.

Capitalism has expanded by exploiting nature as a free gift. Yet this aspect of capitalism remains invisible in our understanding of it. Highlighting capitalism’s physical and natural foundations and exposing the conditions that make it viable is an essential step toward building a political ecology.
This fascinating and highly ambitious book begins by showing how the processes of capital accumulation have historically disrupted ecological balance and the livelihoods of societies. It analyzes the successive historical regimes of sustainability and reveals the true dynamics of capitalism in terms of limited natural resources and the continual need to find new ones.
The book then examines what political ecology could look like.
Authors Espagne and Aglietta call for a gradual increase in carbon tax and the implementation of green assets based on the effective destruction of carbon, whose introduction into the financial system should profoundly revolutionize it.