Theoretical approaches to understand the paradoxical relationship between capitalism and nature from the critique of political economy

When taking a panoramic look at the historical development of capitalism, it is important to question whether the current environmental crisis can be seen as a structural dimension to the current mode of production. In this sense, it becomes necessary to know if the overexploitation, looting, dispossession, and contamination of natural assets are part of the economic and political dynamics necessary for the existence of capitalism as such. The present work sought to critically position itself concerning the hegemonic discourses of sustainability, considering it as a concrete social form and not as a simple concept. Through theoretical analysis of the literature and scientific contributions on the subject, the following results were achieved: 1) the various stages that comprise the complicated relationship between the capitalist mode of production and nature were exposed; 2) based on the theory of formal and real subsumption of the work process and consumption by capital, the contradictory relationship of subordination of nature by capital was presented; 3) The series of geopolitical disjunctives of the development of the capitalist mode of production were presented, about the concrete historical possibilities of reaching a sustainable horizon of social development.