The Research On Foster’s Critique Of Environmental Economics

Facing the increasingly serious environmental problems, people have given kinds of explanation. As a Western Ecological Marxism scholar, Forster’s research of the ecological problems appeared to be the most systematic and comprehensive. He was not only an opponent of the Ecocentrism which rely on the moral concept to overcome the ecological crisis, but also opposed the environmental economists who give natural overmuch economic value and solve the environment problem by market system. Forster believes that the ecological crisis of capitalism is rooted on the "deadly conflict between the nature and the capital", so the ecological crisis and the struggle against capitalism cannot be separated, in order to solve the ecological problems, we have to change the existing capitalist system.Forster thinks that there are many problems existing in the concrete measure and the purpose of the environmental economics theories, we cannot rely on it to solve the ecological crisis. But there are still some problems in his theories. Although we can’t depend almost completely on environmental economics to solve the ecological problems, but some of its basic principles and methods it provides have gained wide acceptance. Most of the domestic scholars appreciated Forster’s ecological Marx theory, but seldom of them make careful examination of his difficulty. This paper intends to examine the Forster’s critique of environmental economics, because this view not only can better reflect on ecological problem, but also get more clearly understanding of the dilemma in Forster and other ecological Marxism theories.