The System is Hurting the Planet

This paper is a contribution to the introductory paper by Bulcsu Bognár entitled “Possibilities and Limitations of Ecological Communication in Modernity: Theoretical Remarks on the Topic of Environmental Protection”. While the original paper analyses the reasons for the relative failure of ecological communication and green movements, this paper seeks to answer the additional question of what non-communicative mechanisms create ecological problems. In search of an answer to this question, in addition to Luhmann’s theory of social systems built from communication, this contribution presents an interpretation that derives the emergence of ecological problems from the systematic processes of the reproduction of human life. Namely, from the processes of producing cheap nature (food, energy, raw materials and labour-power). By comparing the two conceptions of the system, two complementary explanations can be obtained. In addition, the paper examines in detail Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems and offers an answer to the question of why he was opposed to the “new social movements” of his age. The main reason for this opposition is that the construction of Luhmann’s theory is incapable of interpreting human labour and capital formation, and consequently cannot interpret the contexts that lead to ecological problems as a result of man’s nature-transforming activity. However, the ecological communication of green movements seeks to draw attention to precisely these relations.