Ecological Rent: Toward a Formal Theory of Ecological Degradation in Human Social Evolution.

This paper attempts to formalize a theory of ecological rent applicable to human social evolution. Ecological rent, here defined as gain achieved through the importation of "clean" goods and resources produced using ecologically-degrading processes in distant locations ecologically. Ecological rent-seeking, undertaken by a more powerful society against a weaker one, has been taking place throughout much of human history, but the opportunities and effects have expanded for rent-seeking by states with the globalization of trade and the intensity of capitalist accumulation in the modern world system. Building on the work of Andre Gunder Frank, Christopher Chase-Dunn, and others, I formalize a theory that explains ecological degradation within human social evolution in general and ecological rent in particular. The theory suggests, agreeing with Marxist ecology, that the global ecological depletion and pollution that is an outcome of capitalist accumulation is a contradiction creating selection pressures for reaching a sustainable level; the failure to do so will lead to conflict and ultimately a major collapse of human society. The formal theory, then, can be useful for understanding the past with an eye toward predicting the future ramifications of paths taken in the present. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]