For this brief historical review, we will start with James Watts and his invention of the steam engine. His idea became one of the starting points of the industrial revolution, as it enabled the exploitation of natural resources in the context of industrial production. Arnold Toynbee used the term industrial revolution to describe the economic development of Britain from 1760 to 1840 (although the term industrial revolution was used earlier by French writers). It refers to the process of change from a partially circular agricultural and craft economy to a linear economy dominated by industry and machine manufacturing [37]. The term linear economy today relates to the way resources were harvested and wasted would be called a cradle-to-grave economy, today: Resources are harvested, used, consumed and subsequently become waste. The main features of the industrial revolution were technological, socio-economic and cultural. Technological changes were given in Table 1.1.

Political or economic power structures were initially unaffected by the technological and industrial development. During the time of the industrial revolution, in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, Adam Smith developed the idea of the “invisible hand” – referring to the self-regulating mechanisms in stable economic systems. In his 1776 work An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations [38], he used this idea again to describe the tendency of free markets to self-regulate. According to Smith, the influencing forces that determine market mechanisms are competition, supply, demand and self-interest. Ultimately, self-regulation is about the stability of the economic system to ensure that it delivers the maximum value possible from the point of view of the agents.

To this day, the idea of self-regulation as proposed by Smith is discussed very controversially: In particular, there is one aspect to pay attention to – Smith did not introduce nature as a limited resource as one of the forces involved in self-regulation. Taking today’s point of view, this would have made sense, as such a view would have helped to draw attention to dangers emanating from an overexploitation of nature, that is, non-sustainable action.

These concepts were not new at the time: In this context, it should be pointed out that sustainability-like concepts were already known at the time of Smith, for example, the corresponding German term “Nachhaltigkeit” was used as early as 1713 by Hans Carl von Carlowitz (1645–1714) to describe the need to preserve natural forests for future generations in view of the shortage of the resource wood.

But the school of thought based on Smith’s thinking did not take into account the environmental problems at hand. This was because the need for a stable nature/environment was not seen as a necessary part of the forces influencing the economy; the pre-Romantic period viewed nature merely as a backdrop, not as an economic asset. Although becoming less dominant, the mindset that a free market does not care about the environment can still be seen as more or less mainstream today. Times are changing, however – today it is undisputed that value can be ascribed to the stability of the natural environment. This thinking has prevailed in recent decades.

In this context, market regulation has also been accepted to address environmental concerns through conservative thinking.

The Reagan administration, certainly not to be seen as representing a left-wing movement, countered the desire to build new nuclear power plants with an argument that fits well with Adam Smith’s theory:

If such a plant was safe, the thinking went, then it should be commercially insured. The risk to the environment associated with the operation of a nuclear power plant or nuclear waste repository should not be borne by the general public, but by the owner of the respective power plant. Consequently, the price of such insurance should be added to the price of the electricity produced – an argument which contributed to the reasons why the further expansion of nuclear energy in the USA was subsequently halted.

Although this can be seen as promising from the perspective of nature as a resource, there is no general trend here: In the USA, too, the risk of final destruction of land associated with uranium mining and initial processing was accepted – the so-called National Sacrifice Areas (zones) were declared to state that the respective area may no longer be used by humans. The idea that nature provides value and should therefore be cared for only became the subject of theoretical and political considerations later on (see Chapter 4).

Thomas Malthus published An Essay on the Principle of Population around 1800 [39]. He stated:

Malthus was publishing his insights at the brink of the industrial revolution in England. In the centuries before his lifetime, frequent and widespread famines were the norm. His theory was revolutionary because it explained conclusively why these famines had to occur. Malthus predicted that the next great famine would occur in the then coming decades. But it did not. The European population did not grow as Malthus predicted, and furthermore, improvements in agricultural technology (especially Liebig’s observations that led to the development of fertilisers) allowed food supplies to grow more steadily than expected.

Malthus’ thoughts were crucial for later thinkers such as Ricardo, Marx or Darwin; indeed, his theses continue ...