INFORMATIONALISM AND ECOLOGY by Tim Luke The disruption of the ecological balance sustaining human life has become one of the major products of advanced industrial society. Nature has been despoiled at the expense of all life for the benefit of a handful of recent generations who have been "fortunate" enough to enjoy the role of con- sumers in the 20th century.' This consumerist model thrives upon the waste- ful production of private goods by destroying the collective resources of the natural habitat. Having overloaded the ecological system of North America, American firms have shifted capital and jobs to other continents, forging a transnational industrial regime out of their untapped ecological potential. In turn, the character of American capital has shifted profoundly as its traditional indus- trial goods-producing activity has fallen behind informational knowledge- producing activities in economic and political importance. Ironically, however, the interests of American informational capital in this de- industrializing trend now parallel those of ecological activists, who seek to build new ecologically sound communities to coexist with Nature in diverse habitats without qualitatively lowering standards of living. By elaborating the impact of this informational revolution on America's industrial economy, one can explore the possibilities for an ecological transformation emerging out of the contradictions between informational and industrial society. Already, some observers — like the "Atari Democrats" — see a post-industrial informationalized society as an environmentally sound economic order. 2 Still, their hi-tech solutions for the current industrial malaise, like the construction of massive solar collectors in earth orbit to generate electricity or the relocation of America's polluting industries abroad, must not be mistaken for an authentic ecological revolution. The ecological crisis is a global problem. It can only be aggravated by internationalizing industrial pollution or microwaving megawatts of electricity through the 1. For a further discussion in this vein, see Barry Commoner, The Closing Circle: Man, Nature, and Technology (New York, 1971); Barry Commoner, The Poverty of Power (New York, 1976); Rene Dumont, Utopia or Else (London, 1974); Ivan Illich, Toward a History ofNeeds (New York, 1978); and Harry Rothman, A Murderous Providence: A Study of Pollution in Industrial Societies (London, 1972). For a critique of consumerism, see Jean Baudrillard, For a Critique ofthe Political Economy ofthe Sign (St. Louis, 1981); Ivan Illich, Energy and Equity (New York, 1974); and, William Leiss, The Limits ofSatis- faction (Toronto, 1976); and, Timothy W. Luke, "Regulating the Haven in a Heartless World: The State and Family Under Advanced Capitalism," New Political Science, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Fall, 1981), pp. 51-74. 2. See Lester C. Thurow, The Zero-Sum Society (New York, 1980) for the classic example of neo- liberal thought. Also see Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison, The Deindustrialization ofAmerica (New York, 1982); and Hazel Henderson, The Politics ofthe Solar Age: Alternatives to Economics (New York, 1981), for the neo-liberal program for a cybernetic "reindustrialization with a human face."