{"id":35136,"date":"2013-10-21T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T11:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=35136"},"modified":"2015-05-05T22:21:20","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T21:21:20","slug":"irreconcilable-differences-capitalism-and-a-sustainable-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/10\/irreconcilable-differences-capitalism-and-a-sustainable-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"Irreconcilable Differences: Capitalism and a Sustainable Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

People who own the world outright for profit will have to be stopped; by influence, by power, by us.<\/i>
\n\u2014 Wendell Berry1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

The need for more studies confirming that we\u2019re approaching an irreversible ecological crisis, the tipping point beyond human control, is over. James Hansen, the world\u2019s most eminent climatologist is so certain of this evidence that he\u2019s added civil disobedience to his resistance repertoire. Along with legal challenges, expert testimony and lobbying governments, the 72-year-old grandfather advocates direct action by a mobilized citizenry. He\u2019s been arrested several times, most recently in protests again the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline.<\/p>\n

This project would transport raw, toxic tar sands (bitumen) from Alberta, Canada to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. In addition to destroying northern forests and endangering our drinking water, Keystone XL will emit a staggering amount of global warming pollution into the environment. Just a few weeks ago, Hansen and some former NASA colleagues wrote that \u201cBurning all fossil fuels, we conclude, would make most of the planet uninhabitable by humans \u2026 and would leave just a fraction of humanity clinging to life atop Earth\u2019s highest ridges.\u201d<\/p>\n

That the corporate carbon industrial complex remains obdurate in the face of all evidence isn\u2019t surprising but it does reveal the inadequacy of piece meal reform. Simply stated, market based responses won\u2019t save us because there is an irreconcilable conflict between capitalist economic growth ad infinitum and the survival of the planet as we know it. Even the looming prospect of ecocide won\u2019t keep fossil fuels in the ground, resources worth trillions to oil and gas corporations.<\/p>\n

As labor rights activist Shamus Cooke puts it, those capitalists who fail to obtain a return on their investments (growth) lose money. This relentless imperative, \u201cthis holy shrine of growth cannot be surgically removed from the capitalist body; the body itself was born ill.\u201d And because renewable energy isn\u2019t as profitable as oil,\u201d a majority of capitalist investment will continue to go towards destroying the planet.\u201d Recently, when asked about opposition to the XL Pipeline, ExxonMobil\u2019s CEO Rex Tillerson candidly replied, \u201cMy philosophy is to make money.\u201d<\/p>\n

As if to reinforce this point, profiting from global warming is the next big thing. I\u2019m reminded of Bob Mankoff\u2019s 2002 cartoon in The New Yorker<\/i> where a corporate executive declares to an audience of peers, \u201cAnd so, while the-end-of-the-world scenario will be rife with unimaginable horrors, we believe the pre-end period will be filled with unprecedented opportunities for profits.\u201d Mankoff\u2019s clever prescience is perversely confirmed by a recent Bloomberg<\/i> headline<\/a>: \u201cInvestors Embrace Climate Change, Chase Hotter Profits.\u201d Because Wall Street now assumes that climate change is \u201cinevitable,\u201d the only remaining question is how to profit from it?<\/p>\n

This goes far beyond selling more potent sun screens, inflatable rafts and anti-pollution breathing masks. Billions of dollars are being invested in Australian farmland (far from the ocean) and hedge funds trading in something called \u201cweather derivatives.\u201d Investments are flowing into the mining of copper and gold in Greenland where glacier-free land has suddenly become accessible. Arctic tourism, gas exploration and new shipping lanes through melting polar regions are all climate change, money-making ventures. In anticipation of major droughts, Bayer, Monsanto and BASF have filed some 55 patents for \u201cclimate ready\u201d seeds. Green technology is already pass\u00e9 as investors scramble for their final piece of a planet in dire jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Working for reforms is not unimportant but capitalism cannot prevent the ruination of the biosphere. My sense is that climate activists who fail to acknowledge this basic truth \u2014 we might term them \u201ccapitalism deniers\u201d \u2014 have no chance of reversing our slide toward the ecological apocalypse.<\/p>\n

For myself, as a grandfather of two little guys and nearing my retirement from full-time teaching, the prospect of of engaging in civil disobedience, being a serial arrestee on behalf of the environment is appealing for the next stage of my life. I like to imagine Jackson and Zinn\u2019s parents having a true story to tell the boys when they plead: \u201cTell us again about how Grandpa tried to stop the bad guys who didn\u2019t care about all the animals, plants and people on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

NOTE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i>\u201cWriter and Farmer Wendell Berry on Hope, Direct Action, and the \u2018Resettling\u2019 of the American Countryside<\/a>,\u201d Yes! [\u21a9<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n

______________________<\/p>\n

Gary Olson is professor and chair of the political science department at Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA. He is the author of <\/i>Empathy Imperiled: Capitalism, Culture, and the Brain<\/a> (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2013). He can be reached at: olson@moravian.edu<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 dissidentvoice.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Working for reforms is not unimportant but capitalism cannot prevent the ruination of the biosphere. My sense is that climate activists who fail to acknowledge this basic truth \u2014 we might term them \u201ccapitalism deniers\u201d \u2014 have no chance of reversing our slide toward the ecological apocalypse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}