Leonore Carpenter

Capitalism and unrestrained profitmaking are the driving force behind environmental destruction worldwide, Leonore Carpenter asserts in the following viewpoint. Carpenter maintains that under capitalism, companies are driven to produce large quantities of goods at the cheapest possible cost.This results in the use of inefficient production practices that waste resources and pollute the environment, according to Carpenter. To counteract the destructive effects of free-market business practices, Carpenter advocates the creation of a new union movement and an economic democracy that makes environmental protection its top priority. Carpenter is a pseudonym used by a writer for New Unionist, a monthly publication of the New Union political party.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What has international agribusiness done to peasants, according to Carpenter?
2. In the author’s opinion, why have environmental laws failed...