Georgia Eyerman

Professor Andaluz

English 100

Nov 21st, 2021

Climate Change and Capitalism

Climate change is one of the greatest issues facing our planet today. The threat of

everyday small and large changes looms over everybody’s head. We can see this in everyday life

from sea-level rise to air pollution to food insecurity. We are already seeing changes in the

environment and have been for years. Climate change has always been present, but it is currently

changing more rapidly than ever before. According to the Environmental Protection Agency,

“since 1901 the average temperatures across America have risen 0.16 degrees Fahrenheit each

year, but during the late 1970s temperatures began to rise swiftly to 0.31 to 0.54 degrees

Fahrenheit per year” (EPA.gov). This is an example of how the environment has been changing

more rapidly in the last few decades.

These changes are caused primarily by anthropogenic activity. The use and production of

fossil fuels that are required to mass manufacture products or destroy the land to create space for

farming, housing, and agriculture are all things that weigh into the constantly changing climate.

Climate change results in copious physical environmental impacts. Air pollution is just one thing

that endangers the well-being of both human and environmental health. Temperature rise is also

in direct correlation with sea-level rise. Jillian Mackenzie, a writer for the Natural Resources

Defense Council points out that glaciers and ice sheets worldwide melt into the ocean when the

temperatures around them increase and the ocean’s volume expands when heated (Mackenzie).
Since climate change is human-caused, do the systems around us play a part in the recent

changes in the environment?

America is a capitalist system and its main motive is profit and growth. In its drive for

profit for a certain few people ongoing accumulation, expansion, and growth are required. To

survive, capitalism generates the need to consume. With this need, it often exploits the working

class and natural environment to achieve that specific goal. Is it possible to continue growing?

Capitalism fails without infinite growth but it is not possible to continue growing when using

resources that are very much limited.

Capitalism has a tendency to induce false needs in order to create a consistently profitable

market. Humans need certain things like food, shelter, and clothing to sustain themselves, but for

there to be an ever-growing market, capitalism transforms wants into needs. There’s immense

pressure to live largely and collect a certain amount of materialistic goods and that feeling of

pressure is due to our consumerist society. This feeling of need leads to a cycle of endless

production, consumption, and with that, environmental degradation. Through different ways of

marketing, there’s an always growing amount of products that consumers think they need to

accumulate. The market’s need for infinite growth means the consumers overconsume.

Fast fashion is an example of this pattern of overconsumption and how that

overconsumption leads to environmental problems. Fast fashion is cheap garments that are

manufactured in excess to follow any sort of new trend. The style of clothing changes constantly,

trying to keep up with micro trends and the high demand. Because these clothes are so cheap and

quickly manufactured, its production has to cut certain corners to mass-produce. Princeton’s

environmental group states that the clothing used in the production of fast fashion is often made

of cheap synthetic fabric like polyester that breaks down into microplastics, it also is lower
quality (PSCI). This makes the clothes break faster and they get thrown out instead of reused or

repaired because it’s so cheap and easy to buy them again. A study done by Rachel Brown shows

that about 84% of clothing bought from places that fall into the category of fast fashion ends up

in a landfill (Brown). Fast fashion is an example of a market that is forever growing due to

demand and consumers desperate to be up on the latest trends. The feeling that people need to

keep consuming causes a negative environmental impact. This cycle of overconsumption caused

by capitalism is the reason behind many recent negative impacts on the environment. Can we

change the way we do things without re-inventing our current economic system?

The process of implementing a whole new system would be difficult and unlikely.

Instead, it may be possible to change our current system with mitigation that could be

implemented with the regulation and modernization of capitalism with the hope of preventing

climate change. NASA’s idea of the goal of climate mitigation is to reduce carbon emissions and

stabilize the amount of greenhouse gasses that are trapped in the atmosphere (NASA). There are

many strategies when going about climate mitigation. Mitigation is to ensure control of the

changing climate before the effects are too much for people to handle and adapt to. Climate

mitigation is a plausible solution to an increasingly difficult problem.

It should be noted that mitigation strategies do not have to be complex. While they may

take time and effort, the ideas can be rather straightforward and doable. Development and use of

renewable energy sources are a good start when discussing mitigation strategies and are one of

the most well-known examples of climate mitigation. Wind, solar, and geothermal energy are all

common examples of renewable energy. Renewable energy sources use the energy potential of

natural infinite resources. These energy-efficient resources produce no greenhouse gas emissions

and reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. Stopping all use of fossil fuels and completely
replacing them with renewable alternatives would take a lot of effort. The likeliness of fully

transitioning to clean energy immediately is low so there needs to be a way of controlling carbon

emissions; like a carbon emission tax.

Carbon emission taxes are a form of mitigation that policy advisors and climate activists

are still going back and forth on; there are doubts on both sides. Emission taxes place a tax on

merchandise and services with high carbon emissions, such as gasoline. They provide a cost

penalty and the goal of it is to reduce emissions. A carbon tax would be relatively simple to

administer and would provide an extra source of income to the government. Those funds could

go into the purchase of renewable energy or community sustainability projects.

This shift to renewable sources is an important part of mitigation and having the funds to

do so would be beneficial, but the negatives of carbon tax must also be discussed. A carbon tax

doesn’t promise a specific emission reduction outcome, to be truly effective it must work with

other ways of reducing emissions. The main concern when talking about emission tax is how it’s

likely to affect low-income groups unfairly. The corporate class may find loopholes and ways to

pass these extra taxes onto the working class. Low-income communities are not the ones most

responsible for climate change but emission taxes may fall directly to them. There are pros and

cons when discussing whether or not to implement a carbon tax.

Another key part of climate mitigation would be to re-think the current agricultural and

food production and turn it into something more sustainable. On a more personal level,

vegetarianism or veganism is one of the most sustainable things a person can do. All farming of

course requires water, but the amount of water necessary for the production of livestock is much

more than what is needed for the growth of crops. The author of “Global Capitalism and Climate

Change” Hans. A. Baer, points out the differences when discussing livestock and crop
production. For example, about two and a half pounds of wheat requires about 3,400 ounces of

water, while two and a half pounds of meat needs almost ten times that, 34,000 ounces of water

(Baer). There is a significant difference in levels of sustainability when comparing the

production of crops and livestock. Water isn’t even the most detrimental aspect of meat

production, as it depends greatly on the use of fossil fuels.

The current means of production for meat products have a heavy reliance on fossil fuels.

Baer says the process in which livestock is currently farmed on a large scale requires a large

amount of oil, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides. Small-scale farming is more fuel-efficient than

industrial agriculture, especially if it only produces food for local consumption (Baer). The

energy needed for growing the food is already lower in small-scale farms, and if the cost of

transportation is reduced because it’s nearby the number of emissions is quite a lot lower high

scale farming. Small-scale farming is also a necessary component in a “green city”.

A green city is a city designed with consideration for social and environmental impact.

Currently, cities are shaped to meet certain financial, commercial, and industrial goals with little

consideration for much else. In chapter seven of “Global Climate Change and Capitalism” Baer

indicates that cities cover merely 2% of the Earth’s surface but are accountable for 75% of global

energy demand and produce 80% of greenhouse gasses (Baer). Cities have such little landmass,

but such a large effect on the rest of the planet. Cities are responsible for the devastation of

forests and ecosystems as well as water and air pollution. Despite their environmental impacts,

cities are here to stay. Cities house over 50 percent of the world’s population. Because people

depend on cities, there needs to be a way they can continue to thrive without the negative

ecological impact. That’s where the idea of green cities comes in.
 A green city includes an abundance of green spaces, which are areas where nature can

exist in a regularly urban environment. A green city also utilizes inexpensive public transport.

Public transportation would be a necessity to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels in a big city.

As previously mentioned cities also need food sustainability. Small-scale farming near cities is

one way of going about that. Cities need to be where food is produced, lowering the amount of

transportation needed to bring food to the city. These changes in cities are the pathway into a

cleaner place of residency.

Climate mitigation itself is doable but will it work with our current system of capitalism?

Many people on the moderate left of the political spectrum believe that climate mitigation under

capitalism if implemented correctly, is the key to preventing the further destruction of the

climate. People on the far left argue that to properly mitigate the climate, capitalism must be

transcended. It’s thought that this version of green capitalism is not sustainable and must change

to truly have a positive environmental impact. The idea is that even though these actions are

sustainable, they could fall back into the cycle of production and consumption, and it could lead

back to causing environmental degradation. Renewable energy, for example, is a necessary part

of climate mitigation, but when not coupled with the idea of breaking the cycle of

overconsumption, it could still have a negative environmental impact. Ted Trainer, a social

scientist and advocate for economic degrowth said, “Very high levels of production and

consumption, and therefore, of energy use that we have in today’s consumer-capitalist society

cannot be sustained by renewable sources of energy.” It is possible that these examples of

mitigation are not an effective solution when used under capitalism, so what is the alternative?

Anthropologists have observed that social systems do not last forever, they have their

time limit. Capitalism has been around for about 500 years, and it may be time for an alternative
world economic system, especially considering the changing environment and society around us.

Baer’s definition of “Ecosocialism” or “green socialism'' is an ideology that combines the aspects

of socialism with green politics (Baer). There are a few core principles when discussing an

eco-socialistic society. There would be simpler material living standards and less of a

dependence on consumer goods. This alternate economy wouldn’t depend on infinite growth and

would require less production that leads to consumption. Self-sufficiency within households and

small communities would be important. The things a small-scale community needs would be

produced mostly from local labor and resources. Without the constant demands for expansion

and growth that a capitalist society requires, the pressure to accumulate is gone and a pathway to

sustainability is provided

Abolishing capitalism as a whole may be unlikely, but we must find a way to change our

means of production to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and endless growth. If the cycle of

ceaseless consumption and production continues so will environmental degradation. We must

find ways to prevent and restore the changing environment and the answer may be through

mitigation strategies.

Word Count: 2108

Works cited:

“Climate Change Indicators: the Climate mitigation under capitalism may be U.S. and Global

Temperature.” US EPA (2016)

‌https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-us-and-global-tempera

ture

“Local Renewable Energy Benefits and Resources.” US EPA (2017)

https://www.epa.gov/statelocalenergy/local-renewable-energy-benefits-and-resources

“How Climate Change Is Fueling Extreme Weather.” Earth Justice (June, 1st, 2021)

https://earthjustice.org/features/how-climate-change-is-fueling-extreme-weather

Hassan M. Heshmati. “Impact of Climate Change on Life.” Environmental Issues and

Sustainable Development (Nov, 25th, 2020)

https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/74077

Hans. A. Baer. “Global Capitalism and Climate Change: The Need for an Alternative World

System.” Proquest Ebook (June, 28th, 2012)

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/mcc-ebooks/reader.action?docID=977251&query=

Climate+change+and+capitalism#

Jillian Mackenzie. “Air Pollution: Everything You Need to Know.” NRDC (2021)

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/air-pollution-everything-you-need-know#whatis

“Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation.” NASA's Global Climate Change website (2021)

https://climate.nasa.gov/solutions/adaptation-mitigation/

Ngan Le. “The Impact of Fast Fashion On the Environment.” PSCI Prinston (2020)

https://psci.princeton.edu/tips/2020/7/20/the-impact-of-fast-fashion-on-the-environment
Rachel Brown. “The Environmental Crisis Caused by Textile Waste” Roadrunner.com

(Jan, 8th, 2021)

https://www.roadrunnerwm.com/blog/textile-waste-environmental-crisis