Capitalism is an ideology that fuels growth, described in the Oxford English Dictionary as “an economic system … for the purpose of profit.” This sounds all well and good; profit is how businesses run, profit prioritization means more businesses doing well, it means more money gets made.
But wait! That isn’t all. Limiting CO2 emissions are also important because it helps prevent a phenomenon referred to as “ocean acidification.” A process in which CO2 dissolves in the ocean, creating carbonic acid. This excess oxygen has, “since the start of the Industrial Revolution, [caused] the pH of the ocean’s surface waters [to drop] from 8.21 to 8.10,” directly leading to harm on marine life’s ability to perform basic life functions (Climte.gov).
So, CO2 emissions cause the world to heat up, and maybe that’s bad, but what could do better?
Boy, am I glad that someone asked!
Often capitalism is postured to be the perfect strategy for climate change prevention. Capitalism is said to increase innovation which can help create more climate friendly models of production and green technologies that can prevent the effects of the impending climate crisis.
This is another example where, as great as this sounds on paper, in reality, capitalism only ever stifles the long-term solutions required to prevent global warming.
The model of increasing production in order to eventually decrease it is referred to as “green growth.” Green growth is not a theory, but the reality of the status quo. For example, in the years after the 2008 recession a small portion of stimulus packages were put towards climate investment, a move that justified the expansion of practices such as fracking that further the deterioration of the global ecosystem (Taherzadeh).
Green growth is a short-sighted and temporary goal. The Biden administration LOVED green growth, investing hundreds of billions of dollars into proposed climate solutions like extending EV tax credits, energy tax credits, and loans for the Department of Energy (“Factsheet”). Each of these reforms, and more, have been overturned by the Trump administration.
The result of Biden’s policies was a flimsy justification for increased production because climate spending was higher than ever, only for the climate spending to halt and production to increase even further. Short term liberal policies only pander to voters, achieving little change that lasts; instead, the only long-term solution is a multifaceted strategy for degrowth and an increase in technology that mitigates the coming impacts of climate collapse.
The transition from a profit society to a degrowth economy is not easy, but it is one that is necessary in the face of ever-expanding global warming. Just this week, news outlets reported that “The World’s First Climate Tipping Point Has Been Crossed” (Shah, Readfearn). It is too late to try and fix capitalism; we need an alternative—we need to take risks.
Hickel’s solution might have been reasonable a decade or two ago, before we exceeded the 1.5°C mark, but I am calling for more radical action. In order to prevent climate collapse there needs to be a drastic restructuring of our priorities, degrowth alone will only slow the doom that humanity is heading towards. In addition to slowing production and decreasing waste, we need to undo centuries of damage in a fraction of the time.
As previously mentioned, carbon monoxide is THE pollutant. Removing the gas is unavoidable, and the earlier we transition to using resources to develop climate removal technology, the sooner the world can begin to heal. These solutions are numerous, some involving technology, others involving natural solutions, and others combining the two (Naimoli).
To conclude, capitalism is a system that directly leads to environmental harm, with its proposed solutions bringing about no needed change. We live in a world on its death bed and capitalism is its weird holistic medicine daughter who won’t let the doctors do the job that needs to be done. Degrowth and carbon dioxide reduction are the doctors we need.
This post is limited in detail in many of its elements, so I encourage the reader to expand their knowledge, read the sources linked or do further research in how capitalism is killing the planet.
Before we discuss how seaweed reduces methane emissions, it is essential to understand how greenhouse gases, like methane, cause global warming. Greenhouse gases heat up the atmosphere by trapping heat from the sun, warming the planet, and driving climate change. We can see the impacts of the greenhouse effect in the increasingly erratic weather patterns across the globe, loss of polar and glacial ice, and rising sea level. Carbon dioxide is the most well-known greenhouse gas because it is released in large quantities from burning fossil fuels, cement production, and deforestation. It remains in the atmosphere for centuries, causing long-term warming. On the other hand, methane is much more potent in the short term, over 25 times stronger than CO₂ at trapping heat, but it persists for a shorter time in the atmosphere. 
It may be easy to blame the fashion industry for all of the excess clothing being produced, but it’s also important for us as consumers to take ownership of our fault in it as well. Consumers on average own 60% more clothing than they did 15 years ago, but each item is only worn 50% as often as we used to. This excessive consumerism and overproduction has long-lasting effects on the environment around us, as many of these garments contain fossil-fuel heavy synthetic garments (plastic, polyester, nylon) which don’t break down naturally in the environment. Instead they end up as microplastics, which when ingested can cause DNA damage, reproductive harm, and can change your gene activity, which increases the risk of cancer. As a whole, the overproduction and overconsumption of clothes and other garments has nothing but negative effects for our environment and for us.
