'Eco-capitalism' is a delusional fantasy that will never work-here's why
Over the past few years, I have heard about 'responsible capitalism', 'green capitalism', and related terms.They all point to the idea that it is possible to be environmentally friendly and still maintain a capitalist system where profits and growth continue to be possible despite environmentally protective controls.
However, eco-capitalism is in fact impossible because of capitalism's fundamental and fatal flaws, which mean that capitalism cannot be trusted to preserve our environment or ourselves.
All forms of capitalism are based principally on the idea that profit and growth should take precedence, overall, above other priorities. In fact, capitalism would not exist without growth, and therefore it will inevitably damage the planet and human society whatever it did. Also, for capitalism to keep continuing in our society ad infinitum, infinite resources and an infinite population are needed-neither an infinite population nor an infinite amount of resources exist on Earth, or ever will.
The serious effects of neoliberalism, which has been the dominant type of capitalism across much of the world for 30 years ever since Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Helmut Kohl (the last of these three is the only one still living today) gained and consolidated power in the UK, the USA, and West Germany (as it was then) in the early 1980s, has in particular exposed capitalism's inability to protect (or at least not harm) human society and nature no matter how much pro-environment legislation is enacted.
For an environmentally friendly society to exist, we not only need to conserve resources but we also need to share them and distribute them fairly so that preservation and conservation, both fundamental to environmentalism, can be maintained. Capitalism is by contrast fundamentally built on selfishness and greed, and thus can never be relied on to conserve resources.
In conclusion, for we, the human race, to be truly environmentalist, we also must be socialist and democratic at the same time.
Alan.
However, eco-capitalism is in fact impossible because of capitalism's fundamental and fatal flaws, which mean that capitalism cannot be trusted to preserve our environment or ourselves.
All forms of capitalism are based principally on the idea that profit and growth should take precedence, overall, above other priorities. In fact, capitalism would not exist without growth, and therefore it will inevitably damage the planet and human society whatever it did. Also, for capitalism to keep continuing in our society ad infinitum, infinite resources and an infinite population are needed-neither an infinite population nor an infinite amount of resources exist on Earth, or ever will.
The serious effects of neoliberalism, which has been the dominant type of capitalism across much of the world for 30 years ever since Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Helmut Kohl (the last of these three is the only one still living today) gained and consolidated power in the UK, the USA, and West Germany (as it was then) in the early 1980s, has in particular exposed capitalism's inability to protect (or at least not harm) human society and nature no matter how much pro-environment legislation is enacted.
For an environmentally friendly society to exist, we not only need to conserve resources but we also need to share them and distribute them fairly so that preservation and conservation, both fundamental to environmentalism, can be maintained. Capitalism is by contrast fundamentally built on selfishness and greed, and thus can never be relied on to conserve resources.
In conclusion, for we, the human race, to be truly environmentalist, we also must be socialist and democratic at the same time.
Alan.
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