Capitalism and Sustainability

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.

               While it sounds great on the surface, the effect of a constant drive for increasing profit is an ever-growing market for production in order to achieve these higher profits. Capitalists and those against them could spend days debating about whether or not this is beneficial for the economy or well-being or any other issue. What is important in this article is the sustainability of capitalism. Referring to figure 2, a graph that depicts total CO2 emissions since the Industrial Revolution (the expansion point of modern capitalism). Since 1750, emissions have increased from .1 gigatons of carbon dioxide per year to a whopping 37.79 in 2023, double 1980’s number and about seven times as much CO2 as total production in 1950.

               These numbers alone mean nothing; we must first understand why CO2 production is important to consider as a threat to the environment. Well, even a Trump government explains this on the “climate.gov” website. CO2 absorbs heat emitted by the Earth’s surface and releases it back towards Earth. In fact, the government website claims that “carbon dioxide alone is responsible for about 80 percent of the total heating influence of all human-produced greenhouse gases since 1990.”

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.

               Degrowth can be defined, loosely, as “a democratically deliberated absolute reduction of material and energy throughput, which ensures well-being for all within planetary boundaries” (“Degrowth and Strategy”). A plurality of approaches is needed to achieve a world where production is decreased by the volume necessary to prevent, should prevention even be possible at this point, climate collapse. One degrowth proponent and anthropologist, Jason Hickel, wrote in his 2020 book, Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World, that degrowth should be a slow, transitional period. He focuses on reducing waste (ie. Right to repair, no more warranties, and prevent food waste), changing the economic structure to expand public services, and eliminate substantial portions of wasteful industries (arms manufacturing, fossil fuels, and advertising).

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.