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Capitalism can never be green
By Barry Weisberg |
December 17, 2009, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE last 30 years of climate science has consistently under estimated both the extent and the pace of global warming.
The carbon "cap and trade" proposals will not stem the tide of climate change because they rely on the same market that produced the crisis.
Globalization has resulted in 81 percent of the world's population living in a dozen mega population places that consume more resources than are produced within their own turf.
New York, for example, probably imports food products from more than half the nations on the planet. This non-sustainable system of production for exchange rather than use value is at the core of climate change.
Today the carbon footprint of even the most "sustainable" American is twice the global average. The United States, with four percent of the world's population, has produced at least 29 percent of the global carbon excess. While China is today producing more carbon emissions than the US, because it has four times more people, its historic global contribution is only eight percent.
Reversing carbon emissions has nothing to do with individual consumer patterns, which are structurally prohibited from dropping below a certain level. The primary battlefield for reducing global warming is at the country, corporate and city level.
For this to happen would require a profound reversal in the global patterns of inequality that underline the existing system of production, distribution and consumption.
Capitalism has not and cannot be sustainable, as the recent economic crisis vividly demonstrated. Scarcity turns out to be an impetus, not an impediment, to private accumulation at public expense.
The only plausible path out of the planetary peril is if the United States pursues a responsible reduction of consumption, a military and a carbon disarmament, while others such as China, who have been historically prevented from growth, decide to manage and curb their footprint.
Unfettered production and consumption - a "free" market - is not an acceptable option.
(The author lives between Shanghai and Chicago and was the author of "Beyond Repair, The Ecology of Capitalism. Contact: barryweisberg@att.net.)
The carbon "cap and trade" proposals will not stem the tide of climate change because they rely on the same market that produced the crisis.
Globalization has resulted in 81 percent of the world's population living in a dozen mega population places that consume more resources than are produced within their own turf.
New York, for example, probably imports food products from more than half the nations on the planet. This non-sustainable system of production for exchange rather than use value is at the core of climate change.
Today the carbon footprint of even the most "sustainable" American is twice the global average. The United States, with four percent of the world's population, has produced at least 29 percent of the global carbon excess. While China is today producing more carbon emissions than the US, because it has four times more people, its historic global contribution is only eight percent.
Reversing carbon emissions has nothing to do with individual consumer patterns, which are structurally prohibited from dropping below a certain level. The primary battlefield for reducing global warming is at the country, corporate and city level.
For this to happen would require a profound reversal in the global patterns of inequality that underline the existing system of production, distribution and consumption.
Capitalism has not and cannot be sustainable, as the recent economic crisis vividly demonstrated. Scarcity turns out to be an impetus, not an impediment, to private accumulation at public expense.
The only plausible path out of the planetary peril is if the United States pursues a responsible reduction of consumption, a military and a carbon disarmament, while others such as China, who have been historically prevented from growth, decide to manage and curb their footprint.
Unfettered production and consumption - a "free" market - is not an acceptable option.
(The author lives between Shanghai and Chicago and was the author of "Beyond Repair, The Ecology of Capitalism. Contact: barryweisberg@att.net.)
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