Capitalist profit control of resources harmed environmental quality versus peasant subsistence control.

Evidence

Only an ecosystem approach to early modern Europe can deal adequately with the question of how changes arising within human culture affected and were affected by the natural environment. The important cultural changes in this case were the rise and fall of population, the conflict between landlord and peasant over control of natural resources, technological innovation, the spread of the capitalist market, and changing attitudes toward nature and the earth. Particularly important is the question of how environmental quality was affected by the transition from peasant control of natural resources for the purpose of subsistence to capitalist control for the purpose of profit. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 254

Categorization

• XREF: The peasant-substance vs. capitalist-profit axis of resource control connects directly to eco-justice and political-ecology threads across the polyad. — connects to: Disregard of environmental costs is structural to profit-seeking, not individual bad character — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 1052; Free markets shift environmental costs onto communities whoever produces — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 1051; Capitalism’s shift from renewable to mineral energy degraded forests at scale. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 323 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism’s market expansion inherently disrupts soil and displaces subsistence farmers #expands (0.90) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 278
• Capitalism’s growth fetish inherently opposes ecological sustainability #expands (0.88) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 41
• Short-term profit incentives override distant and slowly accumulating environmental harms #expands (0.85)
• Utopian use of nature for community need contrasted with capitalist profit-driven exploitation #corroborates (0.85) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 403
• Capitalism’s shift from renewable to mineral energy degraded forests at scale. #exemplifies (0.82) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 323
• Abuse of land stems from regarding it as owned commodity rather than community #exemplifies (0.82) — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 10
• Entrenched property-ownership ideals defeated the effort to treat land as a social resource #exemplifies (0.80) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 1077
• Class and unequal political power also drive where environmental harms land #qualifies (0.78) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 209