Political ecology examines the political dynamics surrounding material and discursive struggles over the environment in the third world. The role of unequal power relations in constituting a politicized environment is a central theme. Particular attention is given to the ways in which conflict over access to environmental resources is linked to systems of political and economic control first elaborated during the colonial era. Studies emphasize the increased marginality and vulnerability of the poor as an outcome of such conflict. The impact of perceptions and discourses on the specification of environmental problems and interventions is also explored leading on to debates about the relative merits of indigenous and western scientific knowledge. Future research needs also to address issues linked to changing air and water quality, urban processes, organizational attributes and the human body.

This paper examines how political ecology themes of tropical conservation and social justice become representational practices underpinning 'alternative' consumption in the North. The notion of commodity culture is adopted to understand the ambiguous rationalities and ethical assumptions of two sets of consumption practices. The first case considers Edenic myth-making used to assimilate concerns over tropical deforestation in the South to consumption-intensive if conservation-minded lifestyles in the North. The second case looks at fair trade and how concern about social injustice and unfair labour practices in the South is harnessed to solidarity-seeking consumption constitutive of 'radical' lifestyles. The paper suggests these contrasting commodity cultures broadly conform to divergent positions in red-green debates. It argues that both are weakened as a form of social and political 'caring at a distance' due to an uncritical acceptance of consumption as the primary basis of action. key words political ecology consumption fair trade Edenic myths commodity culture

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