Introduction
Climate change is real based on overwhelming and irrefutable scientific evidence. Every year, the world leading scientists release reports that show the effect of high carbon dioxide levels and other greenhouse gasses on the environment. They suggest the need to pursue immediate actions to address the catastrophe because of the severe consequences on man and other living creatures on the earth. Increased cases of weather events such as floods, deadly storms, droughts, and other disasters confirm the effects of climate change. Surprisingly, a clear contrast exists between the urgency to address the issue and the absence of significant support from the political establishment. The political leaders do not consider the reports of the scientists seriously to help tackle the challenge of climate change and global warming. The absence of a significant response is due to the assumption that it is hard to avert climate change and other environmental problems by using the capitalist system. The private ownership of the production means by the capitalist billionaires, and the division of the world into different rival capital states presents a challenge to address environmental problems effectively. The traditionalists argue that the capitalist market system can help to tackle environmental issues such as global warming. They believe that a free capitalist society can pursue its activities in a responsible manner that can contribute to environmental sustainability. In contrast, the opponents argue that capitalism cannot adequately address environmental challenges. They explain that capitalists mainly focus on increased profits and the accumulation of capital, which shows the difficulty of pursuing environmental conservation measures. It is important to consider both sides of the argument to make an informed decision on the best system that can help avert environmental problems.
Traditional Perspective
Traditionalists such as Homer-Dixon, Wallis, and Hardin believe that capital structure can help solve global environmental problems. They argue that capitalism has dominated the world, which shows the need for its application to address the pressing issue facing society. According to Urie (2014), poor people have inherited the status of their parents. He believes that there are plenty of resources for exploitation, thus refuting claims of the poor concerning scarcity of resources. Urie (2014), believes that poverty should not exist because society has adequate resources, which can serve all its inhabitants. Therefore, a capitalist market system will not have any significant effects on the resources.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The society should encourage increased production to help improve the living conditions of its members. By exploiting more resources to increase production, there will be more employment opportunities. Hardin argues that we can nurture and preserve freedom if we relinquish it to breed (Urie, 2014). He believes that society should provide freedom to enable people to recognize the necessity. They can acknowledge the effective measures they can use to conserve the environment, thus showing the need to provide a capital free market as a way of addressing the environmental problems.
Scientists believe that capitalism can help solve environmental problems because every citizen will pursue responsible activities because they care about tomorrow. He argues that capitalists are more likely to comply with the legislation regarding environmental conservation to enable them to earn the maximum value possible in the future. His argument seems to differ with the opinion of other authors who believe that capitalism can have severe consequences on the environment because capitalists will not follow the laws that encourage environmental conservation (Dale, 2016). Global Experts believe that people cannot be that irresponsible up to the extent that they do not care about their tomorrow. He supports the need to provide capital market systems to promote economic development, rather than opposing the concepts because of the few individuals who will not observe the legislation regarding environmental pollution.
Homer-Dixon claims that people should not subordinate environmental scarcity to the existing policies and institutions because the physical context also plays a role. He argues that the physical system in which the society entrenched partly contributes towards the scarcity in the environment. Homer-Dixon cites an example of Israeli aquifers that are vulnerable to salt intrusions due to physical characteristics. He confirms that human social institutions or behavior do not contribute to this scarcity, which shows that environmental problems should not be associated entirely with systems and policies. (Lilley, 2011). According to Homer-Dixon, the capitalist market system should not be blamed for the environmental problems facing society, but it can be useful to address these challenges. He believes that the capitalist can still maximize their interest in achieving increased production while adopting the strategies that reduce environmental pollution because they are cautious about tomorrow. Homer-Dixon claims that people cannot deplete all the sources at once because they will require them in the future. Lilley (2011) seems to echo Homer-Dixon’s sentiments by arguing that the capitalist system can encourage people to use environmental resources to make the maximum profit possible. This shows that people must ensure that their activities and behaviors focus on sustaining the profits they obtain from the environment.
Hawkin believes that social stratification is essential for the smooth operation of society. Social stratification refers to the practice whereby the society categorizes people into different socioeconomic strata based on their social status and wealth, occupation and income, or derived power such as political or social (Hawken, 1997). Hawkin supports the division of society into different layers or strata because he believes that human society is heterogeneous and not homogeneous, which indicates that people differ from each other based on sex, gender, and personal characteristics.
According to Hawkin, a capitalist structure can help to tackle global warming and other environmental challenges because children will have a similar class to their parents. The class does not change from one generation to the next, which seems to echo the position of Hardin concerning poverty. Hardin claims that the poor inherit the condition from their parents, thus showing that the situation remains constant from one generation to the next. Hawkin also argues that class remains constant from generation to generation, which indicates that a system that supports environmental conservation can be helpful in socially stratified societies (Hawken, 1997). He believes that a capitalist structure that focuses on maximizing profits while conserving the environment can be passed from the parents to the children to ensure that the cycle continues. The children will follow the moral values and principles laid down by their parents, and this could play a significant role in promoting environmental conservation from one generation to another.
Critical Perspectives
According to Beder (1997), firms usually use their power and financial resources to counter the efforts of the environmentalists. They reshape the opinion of the public and influence the politicians to implement alternative policies, which encourage them to continue polluting the environment. The fundamental interest of these businesses is to achieve their selfish interest in making more profits from increased production. This indicates that capitalism cannot address environmental problems such as climate change and global warming.
By encouraging private ownership of productive resources, there will be increased environmental problems such as pollution. Beder (1997) explains that the concept of capitalism mainly developed due to the efforts of businesses to obtain a conservative approach to managing pollution and other environmental challenges. The public had lost trust in these corporations and their influence greatly reduced, hence affecting their level of profits (Beder, 1997). They had to develop strategies and championed their efforts to regain the public trust. The environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act encouraged the business to cooperate in an unprecedented manner, building alliances and coalitions without considering their competition rivalries.
The laws posed a significant threat to their interests, although the environmentalists believed that it was the bold step to address the environmental problems. The businesses had to form ad hoc committees and organize their efforts to help fight for common ground that could support their interest (Beder, 1997). The efforts and actions of these corporations indicate that policies that put restrictions on the production process affect the interests of these businesses. Therefore, creating a capitalist market system will have significant effects on the environment. The businesses will only concentrate on achieving their interest in making high profits with little or no concerns for the environment.
Beder (1997) explains that governments should regulate environmental protection and gives it a priority over economic development. The government can implement legislation that can monitor the activities of the corporations, thus ensuring that they reduce environmental pollution. However, it has not always been the case because of the efforts of the large companies, which seek to influence or subvert the popular will. The industry groups in some countries such as the United States use their political contributions, lobbyist, coalitions and front groups to influence the position of the government (Beder, 1997). The large corporations need to advance their interests, thus encouraging them to support the policies that support their position. This implies that capitalism will encourage businesses to make decisions about the production process, which will promote environmental pollution. The government should be firm in its policies to support environmental protection even at the risk of curbing economic growth.
Magdoff and Foster (2011) support the position of Beder concerning the best approach to address climate change and other environmental problems that affect society significantly. They argue that capitalism cannot provide an effective solution to the environmental challenges, and the people or groups that support the concept have vested interests. Magdoff and Foster (2011) believe that capital markets and green consumptions cannot provide miraculous ways to solve environmental problems. They argue that degrading the life support systems is catastrophic because the action can affect human beings and other living creatures on the planet.
Many people recognize the dangers of environmental pollution, and they are pursuing measures of different magnitudes to prevent such problems from occurring. Magdoff & Foster (2011) support the actions of like-minded people who focus on preventing environmental pollution and calls for society to break with the capitalist market system. Capitalism mainly focuses on continuous capital accumulation, which leads to economic growth without an end. The system encourages large corporations to accumulate capital continuously to achieve economic growth without emphasizing the need to conserve the environment. Therefore, the idea that capitalism can help to tackle the challenges facing the environment such as climate change and global warming is baseless and does not warrant any adoption in a society that values the environment.
Capitalism is anarchic and unplanned, which shows that it cannot be effective in addressing environmental challenges. Capital systems employ less social regulations and controls, which increase the occurrence of many unintended consequences when producing and distributing goods and services (Magdoff & Foster, 2011). Companies and corporations put little efforts to avert the environmental problems because of the weak existing policies and regulations. The mainstream economists believe that having such systems in place can result in many consequences, including pollution of air, soil, water, and failure to provide the essential needs of all people. Therefore, the capitalist market system cannot provide effective solutions to address environmental problems, and society should adopt alternative systems.
Magdoff and Foster (2011) explain that capitalism threatens environmental sustainability because of two factors, which confirm that the concept cannot provide practical solutions to the problems in the environment. First, the motivating and moving force behind capitalism is the need to generate profits and accumulate resources continuously. Because of this quest, it will be difficult for corporations and other businesses to take environmental conservation seriously. They will focus less on environmental pollution because their principal objective is to accumulate capital by increasing their production.
Competition threats in the global business environment will encourage companies to increase their sales continually and enhance their market share to thrive well. Wallis (2008) explains that the capitalists focus on producing and selling as much as possible although the ecologists advocate for significant cutbacks in ecological consumption. However, the market fails to offer the opportunity to obtain such cutbacks based on any rational evaluation of needs. In contrast, it continuously encourages firms to create new demands to enable them to maintain a continuous cycle of obsolescence, innovation, and upgrading (Wallis, 2008). Therefore, the capitalists may find it difficult to implement strategies necessary to achieve environmental sustainability. These concepts are supported by Lilley (2011 who argues that the capitalist system is the cause of problems facing the society. He suggests that the best strategy to deal with these issues require the society to address the entire structure of capitalism and its transcendence. Environmental pollution is one of the problems contributed by capitalism, thus showing the need to change the ideology. Instead of focusing mainly on the accumulation of capital, we should reorganize the system to include aspects of environmental pollution.
Magdoff explains that global warming is the largest environmental problem in the contemporary world, although states do not make deliberate efforts to address the issue adequately. The developed countries, which make significant contributions to the pollution of the environment, do not support policies that threaten their interests (Magdoff & Foster, 2011). The nations believed that laws that focus on environmental conservation would affect their economic activities and power status. Therefore, they must adopt systems that encourage them to pollute the environment but accumulate capital. According to Magdoff, the capitalist states converge at Kyoto with the objective of providing a solution to address global warming. Unfortunately, the United States opted out because the policy threatened its interests (Magdoff & Foster, 2011). By being party to the Kyoto Protocol, the government believed that it would not be able to advance its interests.
America’s population is less than 5% of the world’s total population. Surprisingly, the country emits about a quarter of the total carbon in the universe hence confirming that the policy could have threatened its interests. Moreover, the majority of the states that agreed to comply with the Kyoto target have not even implemented the first step of the process (Willis, 2008). Williams adds that capitalist nations find it difficult to control the operations and activities of many capitalist companies that are responsible for the emission of carbon dioxide into the environment. Butler confirms that the Kyoto agreement cannot address the global warming issue because it threatens the interests of the capitalist states (Wallis, 2008). He argues that some parties to the agreement have not implemented step one for fear of losing their interests. Based on this evidence, it is illogical and baseless for one to purport that capitalism can efficiently solve the environmental problems.
Foster explains that capitalist nations are captives to the vested interests of capitalists, which makes it difficult to control and regulate their activities. For instance, deforestation has many environmental side effects, but these countries value the profits they obtain from timber more than the environment. They can hardly implement measures to minimize illegal cutting down of trees because it will affect their revenues. Lewis (2015) supports this point by arguing that capitalist nations are in conflict with each other over the limited resources that have occurred because of their selfish interests. Therefore, it becomes difficult for the capitalists to conserve the environment at their best interest because they will not increase profits and accumulate capital. Obtaining an alternative to the capitalist system could be appropriate to tackle the environmental problems to help avert the severe consequences on the current and future generations.
Conclusion
Environmental problems such as climate change and global warming are serious issues affecting all societies across the world. Human activities and other factors have impacted the earth’s life-supporting system, leading to severe consequences. Climate change has significant effects on human beings and other living creatures in the universe, which shows the need to provide appropriate strategies to address the problems to save the current and future life. The traditionalists believe that capital structure can be useful in dealing with environmental challenges. They argue that capitalists can responsibly pursue their actions, considering that they will require the earth’s resources in the future. In contrast, critical perspectives show that capitalism is not a good system to solve problems because the capitalist will only focus on their interests at the expense of environmental conservation. Based on the reading of the critical interpretation, it would be difficult for the humanity or environment to survive capitalism. A capitalist society is interested in making more profits and amassing capital, which shows that the motivation to adopt environmental conservation could be lacking. In this case, it will be difficult to achieve to conserve the environment because the move will threaten the selfish interests of capitalists. Therefore, it would be necessary to adopt a viable alternative such as global Ecosocialism. This system will encourage people to value the environment, and they are likely to implement practices that promote environmental conservation. The society is also likely to comply with the laws that prohibit pollution and focus on achieving a sustainable environment.
References
Beder, S. (1997). Global Spin: The corporate assault on environmentalism. New York: Chelsea Green Publishing Company.
Dale, G. (2016). Origins and delusions of gree growth. Retrieved May 14, 2016, from http://isreview.org/issue/97/origins-and-delusions-green-growth
Hawken, P. (1997). Natural capitalism . Retrieved May 13, 2016, from http://www.kropfpolisci.com/environment.hawken.pdf
Lewis, A. (Director). (2015). This Changes Everything [Motion Picture].
Lilley, S. (2011). Capital and its discontents: Conversations with radical thinkers in a time of tumult. Oakland, CA: PM Press.
Lilley, S. (2011). Capital and its discontents: Conversations with radical thinkers in a time of tumult. Oakland, CA: PM Press.
Magdoff, F., & Foster, J. (2011). What every environmentalist needs to know about capitalism: A citizen’s guide to capitalism and the environment. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Urie, R. (2014). The Climate Crisis is Capitalism. Retrieved May 14, 2016, from http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/11/21/the-climate-crisis-is-capitalism/
Wallis, V. (2008). Capitalist and Socialist Responses to the Ecological Crisis. Monthly Review, 60 (2), 25.
