It is no news that growth in capitalism based on the expansion of commodity realm. Nature plays an important role in this expansion. Call it accumulation by dispossession as Harvey conceptualised on primitive accumulation or not, recently we see the extreme attempt of commodification.
The last one is the commodification of air, fresh air. In recent commodification practice, one important thing is using the recent problems capitalist urbanisation is creating is the reason for these new commodification attempts, and commodification of fresh is one extreme example for this.
A Canadian start-up company bottling fresh air from the Rocky Mountains has seen sales to China soar because of rising pollution levels. Vitality Air was founded last year in the western Canadian city of Edmonton but began selling in China less than two months ago. (Telegraph)
Vitality Air sells bottled fresh air and oxygen across North America, to India and the Middle East. But China remains its biggest overseas market. (Telegraph)
China’s polluted air is a known fact. Selling air to Chinese people who cannot breathe as a result of mass manufacturing is pretty much like selling pricey organic food.
“In China fresh air is a luxury, something so precious,” says Mr Wang. (Telegraph)
If the fresh air, which is naturally our right as human beings, has been turning to a luxury, then Huston we have a huge problem.
(Image: Banff National Park, Canada Image Credit: Telegraph)
Urban Issues 