Abstract

This chapter presents an argument against the core features of ‘ecomodernism,’ i.e., a school of thought which presents itself as a form of sustainable/environmental philosophy while being in reality the new Trojan Horse of neoclassical economics in the field of environment. In effect, ecomodernists offer a new momentum to the capitalist agenda, its rejection of ecological limits, and its support to the techno-optimist and neoliberal rearrangement of the world. The first shortcoming of this theory lies in its denial of ecological boundaries which makes ecomodernists support a robust conception of substitutability (substitution of human capital for natural capital) and a correlative weak version of sustainability. Secondly, ecomodernism is flawed in its conception of unlimited economic growth (supported by the myth of decoupling) as a sustainable pattern for human societies, as well as in its conception of human nature understood under the reductionist concept of Homo Oeconomicus. Contrary to those views, this chapter presents the reconstructive components of a sound ecological economics (strong sustainability, weak substitutability, degrowth/post-growth and post-capitalism) as being the only sustainable alternative to the dominant forms of ecological modernisation (e.g., ‘green capitalism’). This new ecological economic paradigm considers the economy, broadly defined as the system of management and allocation of existing resources, as a dependent subsystem of earth’s ecosystem and emphasizes, therefore, the irreplaceability of the natural capital, as well as the pressing necessity to restore/protect/preserve natural processes wherever and as much as possible. The general aim of this chapter is to propose a constructive agenda for an ecological economics in the Anthropocene.