Australian Left Review
Article Title
Global Ecology
Abstract
In the developed countries the environmental movement has already attracted substantial popular support, particularly amongst the middleclass, and has already become a liberal reform movement with some impact. The serious political danger in this development is that liberal formulations of the issues often obscure the root causes of environmental problems and imply prescriptions which do not consider such factors as, for example, imperialism, the economic exploitation of the developing countries. The USA possibly could control many of her environmental problems; so could Australia, and both maintain their present high standards of living, often termed ‘the quality of life’. And this is what both countries are endeavouring to do but the success of such a policy is dependent on two conditions: 1. USA and Australia continue to extract much of their mineral resources from the third world . . . that is, continued exploitation. 2. The third world does not develop. Such a concern is therefore superficial.