As Guattari argued in his book, Capitalism is the probable cause to most global issues. This can also be applied to the Anthropocene, as he goes on to say
“There can be little doubt that around the world increased pollution, global warming, deforestation, desertification and the loss of biodiversity are anthropogenic, or that the motor of this generalised impoverishment of the biosphere is capitalism” (Guattari, F, 2008, p4)
Although all the issues in the environment are ‘man-made’, the reason they have escalated to this level of discomfort, is due to the driving force that is the capitalist system.
Capitalism is the economic system operated by most countries throughout the world. This system provides two major ‘classes’ within society, the ‘Capitalist class’, who own the means for producing and distributing goods and the ‘Working Class’, who sell their labour for a salary. Capitalists sell the product/service that the working class produce for profit, exploiting them in the process.
“The capitalists live off the profits they obtain from exploiting the working class whilst reinvesting some of their profits for the further accumulation of wealth.” (worldsocialism.org)
This division of poor and rich, is becoming more pronounced as time goes by. The motive for most of Capitalism is profit. The love of money, wealth and power has caused an imbalance between not only communities, but between countries. This is evidenced quite clearly in the developed and developing world.
“The world is profoundly unequal, despite half a century of formal ‘development’ efforts… the hope that such development might create a world where all countries are experiencing economic growth and gains in quality of life proved an illusion” (Adams, W.M, Jeanrenaud, S.J, 2008, 22)
Our efforts to try and make the world a more balanced place, has fallen short of our collective ideology. There is still a division between rich and poor, developed and developing.
In his Keynote Lecture, Dipesh Chakrabarty explains that the anthropogenic climate change is intrinsically linked to capitalism.
“While it is contingently and historically true, that climate change has happened while we are in a fossil fuel based, largely capitalist structure and therefore the climate crisis will accentuate the inequalities of capitalism” (HKW Anthropocene, 2013).
Chakrabarty offers his thoughts on the alternative. Talking about the Capitalist system restricting the amount of carbon emissions produced, he states that if we were living in a fairer system, then the outcome could have been a lot worse as we would all be able to abuse the fossil fuels equally.
In this sense, although the current Capitalist system is exploiting the working class, it was a key component in climate change being dramatically better than the alternative proposed by socialist ideals. Realising that we may have already entered the Anthropocene epoch, developed countries could help to bridge the gap between the developed and developing countries if not, by economic equalities, then by technological and scientific ways.
As discussed before, there are issues in providing the developing countries with technologies such as mobile phones. However, if we provide them with the technology to develop more efficient, cleaner energy, that would enable them to come up with solutions to the issues at hand in an eco-friendly way.
When asked Chakrabarty offers an interesting view on how to solve such economic issue,
That the [Capitalist] system may have also contributed to the problem in the first place only makes the process of finding solutions complicated and time-consuming since some sectors — the oil industry, for instance — may be interested in resisting some of the available options. (Chakrabarty,D & Kemp. J, 2017)
Our lives, controlled by the capitalist system has provided us with hardships to find solutions to our economic and financial situations, making it hard to shift cultures to a new way of system and thinking as some sectors are against any system where they do not reap the profit that they desire.
Whilst mentioning Capitalism, we cannot leave out the economy. The economy is the trade, distribution and consumption of goods and services through different agents in any given geographical location. Usually divided into national and global, the economy is a fragile system. As seen in 2008, the economic crash left the world in despair. Most economists agree that the global economy needs to grow by around 3% every year to keep it afloat.
This concept, although not too terrifying, implies that the economy needs to grow consistently; otherwise, it could lead to another crash. “It doesn’t take much to realise that this imperative for exponential growth make little sense given the limits of our finite planet”. (Hickel, J, 2016) We live in a biosphere on a planet, which has a limit, it cannot grow any bigger, and we cannot accumulate more natural resources than on this planet. We could and should recycle objects and reuse them to slow the rate in which we consume.
Economic growth stems from debt. As for with debt, interest is applied and grows exponentially as more time goes by. This, along with capitalism, proves that what drives our species is the love of money.
To cancel out this inequality of money, debt and the economy, we must seek to realign the banking systems in the world. If we rely less on debt and have a more positive money system, it will lessen the stress and implication of exponential growth. This will in turn help reduce the gap between the classes in the Capitalist system and therefore, provide an ecological balance between the developed and developing worlds.
This will only work if all humans change the way they consume products. “The movement must develop its capacity to drive consumers to consume differently and to consume less.” (Adams, W.M, Jeanrenaud, S.J, 2008, p79) If we all consume differently, and ultimately less, then the carbon footprint we have will be reduced and ultimately change the future of the planet.
Sadly, if we were to change the economic system to a positive one that is not so dependent on debt, then big banks will have no power to make money and “the rich will no longer reap millions from asset bubbles” (Hickel, J, 2016). If there were a majority of people that wanted change, it could happen.
“… it is only the behaviour of billions of people as citizens and consumers that can give our institutions the mandate and means to lead the changes needed.” (Adams, W.M, Jeanrenaud, S.J, 2008, p74)
As seen previously in the ivory trade, many people demanded it stopped and this brought about a positive change. The same result could be achieved with our financial systems, leading to a healthier economy that does not rely on exponential growth.
Furthermore, if we apply this ‘citizen movement’ to the capitalist system, we would be able to remove our reliance on products that are not essential to live lives, but are made for vanity and convenience, rather than profit. This culture shift, from the ‘throw away’, money driven society, to a more sustainable life, would lead to a better environmentally friendly future. For now, some of the products that are mass produced to meet consumer demand are discarded in sea as waste at the end of their use.
If we stopped producing products for profit and vanity, we would be able to create products in the circular design lifecycle. This would solve multiple issues raised within the Anthropocene. For a healthier planet, we must solve our global economy to provide equality within nations and the world.
