Eco-socialism was developed in the 1970s following the rise of the global environmental movement in the 1960s (O’Connor 1998). It was integrated into the IR scholarly discipline by the 1980s as a critical unconventional theory (Saurin 1995). Eco-socialism is critical of capitalism and its intertwined effects on the environment and human welfare. It believes that global environmental degradation is caused by a global exploitative and unequal socioeconomic relationship amongst human beings. Therefore, eco-socialism seeks to transform this global pattern to one that is free from degradation, exploitation, and inequality. This article explores how eco-socialism defines the environment, the negative effects of capitalism on the global environment and human welfare, and how to solve the negative effects.

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Eco-socialism also known as ‘social ecology’ is derived from key thinkers that belong to the Marxist tradition whose attempt is to combine socialist and environmental ideas (Löwy 2021; Saito 2021). This includes popular social theorist Murray Bookchin who formulated and developed the Theory of Social Ecology in the United States as well as American political economist James O’Connor who is known for his famous treatise Nature Causes: Essays in Ecological Marxism (O’Connor 1998). There are scholars from other parts of the world and in developing countries like Ariel Salleh an Australian social ecologist and former Professor of international political economy, and Sabrina Fernandes an eco-socialist activist based in Brazil.

When it pertains to the definition of the environment, eco-socialists believe that there is no fixed or one-size-fits-all definition of the environment because what is considered environmental is socially constructed by who is defining it (Saurin 1995, 88). Eco-socialism is therefore critical of the conventional definition of the environment. Conventionally, the environment is defined as consisting of only physical elements such as air, water, and land, as well as living things like plants and animals. According to eco-socialism, this definition neglects that humans are part of the environment.

Eco-socialism believes that humans are part of the environment and should be the principal object of focus in the study of global environmental politics. The environment in of itself has no value, according to eco-socialism (Saurin 1995, 90). Humans are the ones through their social interactions and relationship with nature that give the environment meaning and value (O’Connor 1998, 54). In sum, eco-socialism, defines the environment as the ‘human environment.’ The human environment encompasses humans and how they interact, affect, and are affected, by the natural and man-made physical surroundings in which they exist, as well as the non-physical immaterial environment shaped by human social interactions such as the social, political, economic, cultural environment that are all connected (O’Connor 1998, 54).

Consequently, eco-socialism emphasises on human agency. Specifically, the shared and diverse social interactions within capitalism that contributes to humans causing global environmental degradation. According to eco-socialism, capitalism is a global structure of wealth accumulation responsible for the systematic and uneven distribution of socioeconomic inequality and environmental degradation globally. This is because capitalism is dependent on both environmental and human resources (O’Connor 1988; Spence 2000). Environmental resources include raw materials and energy sources, including natural sinks such as air, soil, and water that absorb and store wastes and recycle them into new environmental resources. On the other hand,........

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