europe’Crosby(1986)describedecological
imperialism as the environmental destruction
of large tracts of the Earth by European colon-
ization. Crosby chose to emphasize the imperial
project largely in biological terms (rather than,
say, military or economic) and the ‘encounters’
between hitherto largely separated regions of
the earth now linked together by new systems
oftrade, production and forms of cultural
interchange and settlement. As he put it, ‘the
success of European imperialism has a bio-
logical and an ecological component’ (p. 7)
(seeecology). Crosby traced the European
settlement in the ‘Neo-Europes’ (North and
Southamericaandaustralasia), a process in
which their temperate agricultures thrived and
local indigenous systems andecosystemscol-
lapsed. The introduction of Old World patho-
gens decimated native populations (e.g. the
Spanish devastated the indigenous populations
of the Canaries by introducing pneumonia and
dysentery). Smallpox decimated the Americas.
In addition, Crosby charts the impact the
introduction and dispersion of European
‘weeds’ and the transformative effects of, for
example, the proliferation of new domesticated
animals (seedomestification).
The term has been deployed in other more
critical and expansive ways. In the activist
world – and the so-called ‘movement of move-
ments’ (seeworld social forum) – ecological
imperialism is sometimes held to be ‘the
imposition of a set of ecological values held
by one individual or group onto another indi-
vidual or group without their consent’
(Okonski, 2003). In this account the causes
of eco-imperialism are multilateral agree-
ments, foreignaidand the romanticization of
the poor. A different, and more theorized and
rigorous, account draws from Marxian theory,
in which ecological imperialism is the product
of the intersection of an expansionarycapit-
alismon the one side and what Karl Marx
called a ‘metabolic rift’ (Foster, 2000). The
dispossession ofpeasantsfrom the land, the
creation of a pool of landless labourers and the
concentration of the means of production (see
primitive accumulation) historically left a
deep ecological footprint. Land was reduced
to a level of being ‘a venal object’ and this
whole process operated on a global (imperial)
scale. Marx’s notion of a ‘metabolic rift’ was
derived from his analysis of Liebig and other
German chemists of the soil, and the fact that
an expansionary capitalism shipped nutrients
far away, to cities and the imperial centre. A
body of work has attempted to draw connec-
tions between an expansionary world system,
the transition fromfeudalismto capitalism,
the differing forms ofempire(and rule) and
the distribution of ecological costs (Grove,
2003). Ecological imperialism in this sense is
quite different from Crosby’s interpretation,
and turns on the recursive aspect of primitive
accumulationas it takes hold of and trans-
forms different natural systems. In the current
moment, the global search for germ plasm by
private pharmaceutical companies – and relat-
edly the commodification of plant breeding
rights – would be an example of ecological
imperialism in action (cf.bioprospecting).
None of this is to suggest, however, that the
‘older’ forms of primitive accumulation –
peasant dispossession and the ecological
destruction that stems from it (e.g. the Three
Gorges dam project in China) – are not still
proceeding apace. mwecological inference Drawing conclusions
about individuals from data about the popula-
tions to which they belong, in the absence of
any information about the individuals them-
selves. The data deployed almost invariably
refer to population aggregates defined by
territorially bounded areas, such as those used
in the production ofcensusdata. In a classic
case, analysts have wanted to know election
turnout rates by different ethnic groups in
the USA, but the only available information
indicates the total turnout in each area and
its population’s ethnic composition. Various
quantitative methodshave been used to esti-
mate separate turnout rates for each group
from that information, but technical problems
cast doubt on their validity. Recent develop-
ments offer possible solutions in certain cir-
cumstances, with the potential of providing
more reliable estimates of unknown values.
(See also ecological fallacy; entropy-
maximizing models;microsimulation.) rjSuggested reading
King, Rosen and Tanner (2004); Sui et al. (2000).ecology A science primarily concerned
with the non-human world and, more specif-
ically, with the complex relations between
organisms and their environment. As such,
ecology is considered something of a holistic
and synthetic science, drawing on population
and evolutionary biology, soil science, hydrol-
ogy, earth systems, oceanography, chemistry,
conservation biology and other sciences in
attempting to understand how individual
organisms and populations interact with other
species and, more generally, how organismsGregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_E Final Proof page 175 1.4.2009 3:17pmECOLOGY