Carbon Metabolism: Global Capitalism, Climate Change, and the Biospheric Rift.

Natural scientists generally agree that observed increases in average global temperatures over the past century are due in large part to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Many social processes have been identified for their contribution to climate change; however, few conceptual models have been proposed for framing the social relationship with the biosphere. Our goal is to contribute to the development of a coherent theoretical framework for understanding human influence on the carbon cycle and its consequences for the global climate. We extend the discussions of metabolism and metabolic rift to the biosphere in general and to the carbon cycle in particular. We situate our discussion of the metabolic rift in the historical context of an expanding, global capitalist system that largely influences the organization of human interactions with the environment. The general properties of a metabolic rift include the disruption or interruption of natural processes and cycles, environmental degradation at one end of a cycle, and the accumulation of waste at the other end of a (productive-consumption) cycle. Given the dynamics of capitalist expansion, capital?s dependency on fossil fuels, the current level of carbon dioxide emissions, and records of climate change, we conclude that metabolism and rift are the proper conceptual tools for understanding how human society, via the operations of the capitalist system, contribute to the systematic degradation of the biosphere. Transcending this system, which is inherently in conflict with nature, is necessary for mending the metabolic rift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]