{"id":67443,"date":"2015-12-14T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T12:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=67443"},"modified":"2015-12-10T15:36:55","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T15:36:55","slug":"rearranging-the-deck-on-capitalisms-sinking-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/12\/rearranging-the-deck-on-capitalisms-sinking-ship\/","title":{"rendered":"Rearranging the Deck on Capitalism\u2019s Sinking Ship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sinking<\/a><\/p>\n

8 Dec 2015 – <\/em>David Harvey famously stated, \u201ccapital never solves its crisis tendencies, it merely moves them around\u201d [1]. As capital\u2019s crisis is also ecological, one of the problems it moves around is environmental destruction. And because capital has only moved its problems around, over the course of the last 50 years the Unitedstatesian and European environmental movements only won the pollution of the Global South under the auspices of globalization and development. We just kept piling up our dirty laundry in the closet of horrors being brutally made since 1492. The lack of internationalism in confronting the \u2018tragedy of the commodity\u2019 [2], has meant that what were perceived of as gains were actually the infliction of harm. Without internationalism, there is no socialist solution to capitalism\u2019s environmental crisis.<\/p>\n

For instance, certain apologists point to reduction in CO2 <\/sub>or ecological footprint in the Global North as capitalism incorporating ecological externalities into its normal functioning. However, several leading researchers, like Richard York, Thomas Dietz, and Eugene A. Rosa, have shown that reduction to be a sham once we take a global-comparative look [3]. As Jorgenson and Clark put it, there is a \u201cstark global North\/ global South environmental inequality divide\u201d and we need to consider that any perceived incorporation of ecological rationality is \u201cpartially attributable to the growth of carbon-intensive manufacturing in less developed countries via the transnationalization of production\u201d [4] Like the initiating Harvey quote states, we are just moving our problems around.<\/p>\n

In another important study, Clark and Jorgenson point out that the treadmill of production and destruction, the economy and military respectively, are based on \u201cmore economically developed and militarily powerful nations [who are] able to secure and maintain favorable terms of trade, allowing them to over utilize global environmental space, which suppresses the domestic consumption levels of many less-developed countries, well below globally sustainable levels\u201d [5]. In street terms, the oppressors fuck over the oppressed to benefit themselves causing ever more ecological destruction along the way. Sadly, a statistically demonstrable fact, and due to the history of colonialism, primarily inflicted on the victims of imperialism.<\/p>\n

So, when world leaders met in Paris at COP21 to talk about marketized plans for ecological sustainability, we know that the proposed solutions are bogus. Taxing carbon and other \u201cincentive\u201d policies are nothing more than propaganda to avoid admitting the truth, capitalism will never be ecologically sustainable. Its functioning has always been based on a parasitic relationship with nature leading to a social metabolic rift that eventually causes civilizational collapse [6]. Does anyone really think that a finite planet can sustain the extractivist onslaught? Eventually entropy sets in [7]. And drawing out the ramifications of the problem means that post-colonial countries will continue to bear the brunt of capitalism\u2019s environmental devastation.<\/p>\n

As such, the title\u2019s clich\u00e9 is not only pertinent, but perfect. We accept the superficial argument that the system is reforming itself only because we neocolonially fucked the nations we originally colonially fucked. By ignoring the scientific studies and their implications we are just rearranging the deck chairs on capitalism\u2019s sinking ship. Civilizational collapse is not only real, but a problem accepted by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists [8]. If you doubt we are heading there, you might be trapped in a liberal-reactionary fantasy that this system can save us.<\/p>\n

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

[1] Harvey, David. 2010. \u201cThe Enigma of Capital and the Crisis this Time\u201d prepared for American Sociological Meetings in Atlanta, accessed here http:\/\/davidharvey.org\/2010\/08\/the-enigma-of-capital-and-the-crisis-this-time\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[2] Longo, Stefano B. and Brett Clark. 2015. \u201cEcological Crisis and the Tragedy of the Commodity\u201d at CounterPunch<\/em>, July 21st<\/sup>, accessed here: http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2015\/07\/21\/ecological-crisis-and-the-tragedy-of-the-commodity\/<\/a><\/p>\n

*See also Clausen, Rebecca, Stefano B. Longo, and Brett Clark. 2015. The Tragedy of the Commodity: Oceans, Fisheries, and Aquaculture<\/em>, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press<\/p>\n

[3] see York, Richard, Eugene A. Rosa, and Thomas. 2003. \u201cFootprints on the Earth: The Environmental Consequences of Modernity\u201d in American Sociological Review 68(2):279-300; Dietz, Thomas, Eugene A. Rosa, and Richard York. 2012. \u201cEnvironmental efficient well-being: Is there a Kuznets curve?\u201d in Applied Geography <\/em>32:21-28<\/p>\n

[4] pp. 30-31 in Jorgenson, Andrew K. and Brett Clark. 2012. \u201cAre the Economy and the Environment Decoupling? A Comparative International Study, 1960-2005\u201d in American Journal of Sociology <\/em>118(1): 1-44<\/p>\n

[5] p. 642 in Jorgenson, Andrew K. and Brett Clark. 2009. \u201cThe Economy, Military, and Ecologically Unequal Exchange Relationships in Comparative Perspective: A Panel Study of the Ecological Footprint of Nations, 1975-2000\u201d in Social Problems <\/em>56(4):621-646<\/p>\n

[6] Foster, John Bellamy. 2013. \u201cMarx and the Rift in the Universal Metabolism of Nature\u201d in Monthly Review <\/em>65(07), accessed here: http:\/\/monthlyreview.org\/2013\/12\/01\/marx-rift-universal-metabolism-nature\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[7] Delgado-P, Guillermo. 2014. \u201cLand, Territory, Entropy\u201d pp. 125-135 in Grabbing Back: Essays against the Global Land Grab<\/em>, edited by Alexander Reid Ross, Oakland, CA: AK Press<\/p>\n

[8] visit the Bulletin for Atomic Scientist\u2019s website to see the Dooms Day Clock at 3 minutes to Midnight here: http:\/\/thebulletin.org\/#<\/a><\/p>\n

________________________________<\/p>\n

Andrew Smolski <\/em>is a writer and sociologist.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

We need to consider that any perceived incorporation of ecological rationality is \u201cpartially attributable to the growth of carbon-intensive manufacturing in less developed countries via the transnationalization of production.\u201d We are just moving our problems around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67443","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=67443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}