The labor of nature/the nature of labor

This article presents a novel critique of ecosystem service valuation (ESV) by problematizing the labor theory of value (LTV) that is inherent to the liberal economic framework from which it is derived. This discussion reveals that ESV and other approaches to valuing nature are based on two faulty and related elements: 1) a Cartesian dualism that posits humans and nature as distinct, which in turn leads to 2) the incomplete application of its own LTV. The result of both is that ESV casts the services that nature provides as “capital assets” rather than “reproductive labor”. Such an error is no minor piece of theoretical oversight. Rather, as this paper posits, this miscategorization of nature within ESV functions to invisibilize nature's vital reproductive labor, a process that parallels the invisibilization of other forms of labor such care, domestic, informal and unpaid labor under capitalism, which ultimately limits ESV's ability to address environmental challenges. The article concludes by exploring the theoretical and practical implications of conceptualizing the labor of nature in the context of climate change and a post-work/post-labor economy. Ultimately, we argue that a politics of redistribution is necessary, one which acknowledges the vital reproductive labor of both humans and nature and which aligns with many indigenous and non-Western conceptualizations of unified nature.