We are seeing the death of glaciers, forests, coral reefs, wildlife, and people. Ultimately, we are the problem. Our habits and practices are leading to the death of our earth. When we look into our past to see how these habits have been developed and allowed to stay in practice, the issue is clear. Capitalism is driving our descent into climate chaos. The issue is very complex, but we must understand how our current global economy is killing the world and us. An understanding of this could lead to a solution.
The Industrial Revolution in the early 1900s led to a global practice of continuous production of needless commodities, leading to a devastating amount of waste. Starting with the relentless demand from English capitalists for increased growth and productivity, the use of coal increased. This phenomenon is explained by Andreas Malm, a Swedish ecologist who wrote the book ‘Fossil Capital.’ He explains how English capitalists originally used water wheels as an energy source to run huge factories. The problem with this was that hydropower is not a reliable resource. Rivers change due to weather conditions and are not located in optimal areas. Malm explains how engineers facing these issues plan to overcome them. However, the early English factory owners did not want to invest time and money into building reservoirs. Malm argues that the Industrial Revolution in Britain began our addiction to fossil fuels. The introduction of coal allowed capitalists to squeeze more from their laborers in less time and ultimately expand their profit margins, and since then we see a rise in greenhouse gas emissions. Through industrial capitalism, we have emitted 1.5 trillion metric tons of CO2 since 1751 according to The World Economic Forum. Fossil fuels have dense energy makeup and allow capitalism to flourish. Capitalism’s ambition is to grow, even if it opposes the health of our planet. It leads to destruction as it intends to convert Earth’s natural resources into raw materials at a far greater rate than the Earth can make them. We as people are the ones demanding this speed of production. We are the consumers encouraging capitalism and therefore encouraging an unsustainable extraction rate. We understand the effects this will have but not to the full extent. What we are demanding leads to irreversible and malignant environmental effects.
The speed at which large corporations extract raw materials has led to extinction-level rates. Climate Change is a representation of capitalism’s glutenous need for growth. According to the Carbon Accountability Institute, since 1988, 100 companies have caused 71% of greenhouse gas emissions. Most of these companies have grown so large that they exploit territories globally. They use global markets to pay workers starvation wages while finding countries with minimal regulations on pollution emissions. Fossil Fuel companies are the epitome of global market exploitation. Oil and gas companies work tirelessly to avoid taking accountability for the destruction they’ve caused to the environment and people to continue to maximize their profits. They do this by manipulating the consumer and defending their case by greenwashing capitalism.
One of the ways corporations do this is by bringing attention to individual carbon footprints and distracting from their existing problematic practices. Rebecca Speare-Cole writing for the Independent explains how companies like BP are an example of this. Their claim that they will achieve net zero carbon emissions by 20250 says that they will continue to burn fossil fuels emitting multitudes of greenhouse gasses into the air and then having people plant trees elsewhere to cover their carbon cost. Fossil Fuel companies are taking seats at international conferences hoping to mold global solutions with their interests in mind. The Paris Agreement is another example, with a Shell oil executive boasting about his company’s influence on the solutions opposed in the agreement. “We can take some credit for the fact that article 6 [of the Paris Agreement] is even there at all.” They encourage the use of nonbinding agreements and market-based solutions that limit the amount of action being taken. These conferences and marketing strategies are a manipulation tactic capitalists use to continue burning fossil fuels and produce useless commodities.
We have seen the effects of climate change already this year, and we know that we should expect more erratic weather patterns in the future. We saw the intense winter storms Texas experienced in the winter of 2021, the midwest experiencing a severe drought, the record-breaking heat waves on the east coast during the summer of ‘23, and the drought on the west coast that led to extreme floods. These are just examples in the US from the past couple of years. We are witnessing the effects of climate change in real time. These disasters should motivate you to fight and advocate for action.
Capitalism has found a way to exploit these disasters and profit off what remains. This practice, called disaster capitalism, refers to corporations taking advantage of a crisis or disaster situation to further economic and political interests. It involves exploiting the chaos and vulnerability caused by a disaster to implement policies and reforms that may not be possible under normal circumstances. Examples of this include companies taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic, by price gouging essential items like hand sanitizer, soap, and other toiletries. Or when Texas was facing a record-high freeze, deregulated energy sectors did not protect residents against extreme weather and hundreds of homes went without heat. Deregulating the energy sector hoping free market capitalists would run free and electricity prices would drop, but power companies in Texas raised their prices. The prices went up 22 billion dollars in ten years according to the Texas Coalition for Affordable Power. During the freeze, the lack of power cost the lives of 111 people, primarily those living in poor neighborhoods. Those with power faced bills that were tens of thousands of dollars. These power companies were not found guilty of wrongdoing before the First Court of Appeals in Houston. Because of the deregulated market, they cannot be held liable for failure to provide electricity during a crisis. This an example of how greedy these companies are willing to do anything for profit even if it costs lives. They cannot even be held accountable for their actions under the court of law. We as consumers and US citizens hold power with our dollar and our vote, and we must fight for action against these injustices.
Consumers have allowed capitalist corporations to continue these practices. For the past hundred years, we’ve established a status quo killing our planet. The path towards the future is anti-capitalist. We desperately need a green revolution to create an environmentally ethical future. Movements around the world are already advocating for this change, and in our democratic country, we, the citizens can use the power of our vote and our dollar to combat the climate catastrophe. We need to advocate for more ethical work and reconstruct the way that we go about business. We can do this by advocating for food sovereignty and indigenous rights, making sure that the labor we are utilizing is getting paid. Capitalism is not our only option, and it is not our answer. We can look into plenty of ways to shift our principles to create a more just world, some include: degrowth, buen vivir, community and socially-owned power grids, and plant and hemp-based production, which are all frameworks currently being tested around the world. We can change our world from the bottom up. The majority, the laborers, marginalized, and oppressed can make change, not in the interest of the ruling class and well being of corporations. We can work to establish an ethical world.
