Capitalism vs. The Climate. How is Neoliberalism to blame for Global Warming?

“What is wrong with us?” Klein asks, in the introduction to her book "This changes everything”. Why are we letting our planet, its nature and inhabitants be at risk from a destructive changing environment? Why are we looking away?

Destructive changes to the climate are scientifically-proven to be happening, and global carbon dioxide emissions are 61% higher than they were in 1990. It has been stated that a 4 degree rise in global temperature would see the drowning of nations, wide-raging droughts, flooding, pest outbreaks, hurricanes, wild fires, the collapse of fisheries, extinctions and globetrotting diseases - all at the detriment of our species. One would think this would push global warming to the forefront of society’s mind, but this isn’t the case.

We are witnessing a catastrophic mass-obfuscation and procrastination from issues of climate change, and for Klein it is our current economic system that is to blame.

This current corporate culture, birthed at the end of the 1980’s with the introduction of neoliberal policies has re-made our world to benefit a minority of individuals. Focus on global trade and consumption is causing emissions to rise at a rapid rate, and a radical change must come if we want to do something about it.

The ‘three pillars’ of the neoliberal age – “the privatisation of the public sphere, deregulation of the corporate sector [and] the lowering of income and corporate taxes” have formed an “ideological wall”, shadowing us away from the problems of climate change, blinding us from recognising that it is a result of these economic policies that our climate has been destabilised. Our lifestyles have adapted to a consumer-driven economy focused on trade and consumption, resulting in our species existing with greed as our guide; proving fatal to the future of this planet that has given us life.

Neoliberal ideology is at the root of the problems of global warming, with an export-led globalised market economy focused on the consumption of fossil fuels, catapulting our species towards a 'dystopic future'. Its forerunners are at the forefront of movements against positive climate change - these mostly white, male, privileged, conservatives with ‘higher than average incomes’ are very confidently denying the research of 97% scientists and their “peer-reviewed articles”. Rejecting “every national academy of science, institutions like the World Bank and the International Energy” and their claims that we are heading towards catastrophic levels of global warming; all in the name of money.

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it” stated Upton Sinclair. Accepting the truth of global warming would be costly for the global capitalists, because their focus on economic growth does not coincide with efforts to save us from a destructive changing climate.  The idea that climate change is a conspiracy against capitalism stems from corporate neoliberals who recognise efforts towards saving the planet as a threat to their global economic system, and they are not wrong on this assumption. These “elite masterminds” are paying attention, they know that climate change action would mean changing the very system to which they “owe their very life", but they blanket this paranoia in claiming climate change is a left-wing fantasy.

Tackling climate change cannot be separated from tackling economic growth, and an entire re-working of capitalism would be required to save us from the devastating effects of global warming. We would need to reformat the economy because the way that capitalism is currently constructed is detrimental to our ecology and the environment. The earth is being destroyed, “all at the ‘name of feeding the god of economic growth' (via the altar of hyper-consumption) in every country in the world”.

Despite this, Klein remains hopeful. She describes climate change as ‘the people’s shock’.  Klein believes that if enough of us decide that it is an important issue, the political class will be forced to respond. Climate change could become a “catalysing force” and a positive move towards the reclaiming of democracy. We, the people, if we mobilise, could protect humanity from an “unjust economic system” and from a “destabilised climate system” at the same time.

All we need to do is speak out to the governments, confirm for them that climate change is a problem, for it is they who have the power to halt neoliberal policy and change the profit-seeking orders of capitalism away from the destruction of the planet. 

We must localise our economies, giving jobs back to those unemployed workers and farmers who are “unable to compete with cheap imports” and reestablish communities who have seen their manufacturers move off shore, all replaced by multi-national corporations as a result of neoliberal policies.

Bibliogrpahy

Klein, N. (2014) This Changes Everything
https://thischangeseverything.org/

Thank you for reading

Ciara Baxendale