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This paper examines the socio-natural relations inherent in the commodification of carbon reductions as they are generated in energy-based carbon offset project activities, and abstracted to wider market systems. The ability to commodify carbon reductions takes place through a socionatural-technical complex that is defined by the material nature of technology's interaction with the atmosphere, local social processes and the evolving governing systems of carbon markets. Carbon is not unproblematically commodified: some projects and technologies allow a more cooperative commodification than others. The examples of a hydroelectricity plant and an improved cookstove project in Honduras are used as empirical case studies to illustrate the difficulties and opportunities associated with the relational aspects of carbon commodification. Drawing upon select literatures from post-structural thought to complement the principal lens of a more structural, materiality of nature analysis, the paper also outlines the reasons why carbon offset reform is needed if offsets are to more progressively engage debates about climate mitigation and North-South development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the potential of eco-Marxism to enhance understanding of people/nature, or socionatural, relations by focusing on the effect of the so-called natural world on human perceptions of nature and society. Empirical data on hurricane frequency in Honduras suggest that so-called natural phenomena can contribute significantly to human perceptions of their environment. Interview data on an inhabited protected area in Honduras reveal how peasants have been negatively affected by Western-style development. Interview responses suggest that the difficult socionatural conditions in which they are embedded influence both the decisions made by inhabitants and their relation to the environment. The data also reveal that humans are not a homogeneous group but, rather, are affected disparately by socionatural phenomena based on different class and natural/ecological conditions. What emerges from the data are socionaturally determined classes, one of them in a highly precarious socionatural condition that likewise holds the kernel of the desire for social change. The data support a conjunction of political economy's concern with power, social differentiation, and class analysis with concerns about how "nature" inextricably shapes human relations. This article illustrates how efforts made by groups like World Neighbors, a development organization working to make nature a less capricious actor, would be bolstered by an understanding of socionatural class conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]