Can Capitalism Ever Be Environmentally Friendly?

Capitalism is an economic system based predominantly in western, developed and industrialised countries; it is a system that most of us live within. It is also a system based on numerous assumptions.

We should note however, that nature has usually been viewed in two ways, either holistically or dualistically. Holism views nature as being ‘‘‘all that is’’, at least on earth.’ (McLaughlin, A., 1993, p.2) Capitalism views nature dualistically, which simply means that there is a clear distinction between humanity and all of nature.

The Beliefs of Capitalism

One of the first principles of capitalism is the belief that everything can be owned; this idea is applied most frequently with regards to the ownership of areas of land. Nature is harnessed and owned by an individual, or group of individuals.

When land is owned by an individual it tends to be abused; the individual will reap the benefits and the community will suffer the costs. It is very rare that owners of land will use it responsibly.

The reason for this is that the natural resources are, in the eyes of capitalism, resources that should be exploited in order to create goods that will in turn create profits:

‘Forests are thought of as so many board feet of lumber; lakes, rivers and oceans are viewed as fisheries or sources of water or dumps, in which case they are analysed in terms of their ‘‘assimilation capabilities’’ to absorb pollution.’ (McLaughlin, 1993, p.67)

Once nature has been converted into resources, capitalism will then turn it into waste, which is damaging to the environment.

Conservation

Recycling is one way that we are encouraged to reduce the amount of damage done to the environment: across the UK the amount of waste recycled since 1991/1992 to 2006 has slowly increased.

But despite our best efforts to conserve and protect the environment, the capitalist system is against us. Capitalism will always demand increased economic growth and profits. It is for this reason that our best efforts will never be enough.

In order to prevent more environmental destruction economic growth would have to be slowed dramatically or stopped all together. Capitalism will never allow this to happen because it requires constant growth to succeed. This is an enormous problem, because while growth can be achieved, it cannot be achieved forever.

Capitalism is guilty of having short-term ethics. Consider nuclear power stations; nuclear energy is harnessed despite the fact that the waste left behind has a half-life of hundreds of years. We can see here that capital is worth more than ecological sustainability for future generations.

We can only hope that public protest globally will force Governments, corporations and businesses worldwide to act accordingly before it is too late.

References:

McLaughlin, A., ‘Regarding Nature; Industrialism and Deep Ecology,’ New York: State University of New York Press, 1993

Nature

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