Climate change is a severe current problem we need to face now and in the near future.
Scientists have warned about it since the 1950s, so if it has been a possible threat for decades, why doesn’t every human being act against it, especially people in higher power like politicians? Because collectively trying to prevent climate change would harm or even destroy our global capitalist system.
The ultimate goal of capitalism is to make more profit. So, on the one hand, it leads to increasing production of goods and services which result in rising greenhouse gas emissions, high energy consumption and the exploitation of natural resources. This system not only supports economic growth but encourages waste generation as well.
While pursuing the goal of profit, most companies like Amazon focus on creating demand for new products. However, this system of overconsumption often causes huge amounts of waste and greenhouse gas emissions during its production, transportation and disposal.
Furthermore, for the most part, western countries benefit from capitalism by using and stealing natural resources from third-world countries; colonialism’s roots are found here.
This leads to massive inequality between countries and societies, making it harder for many marginalized groups to adapt and modify to climate change, for example to weather catastrophes, diseases, et cetera. The rich western countries are not as negatively affected due to their beneficial wealth and only contribute to the problem more.
This persistent wealth by capitalism in western countries tends to lead to the result that politicians don’t focus on long-term solutions for the climate crisis as it would harm their country’s economic growth and supremacy.
Many companies allegedly claim to prevent their greenhouse gas emissions. For example, Nestle plans to use only sustainable and renewable energy until 2050. You can argue about whether companies driven by capitalism indeed care about the climate crisis and take the risk of decreasing profit due to sustainable practices often slowing down the production. Or if it’s just a marketing strategy to sympathize with their customers and still indirectly encourage them to support the capitalist system.
So, the capitalist system and its influence definitely need to be talked about more. We often hear it said that “every human can make a difference” if we reduce our carbon footprint, for example, not travelling by airplane. However, in comparison to a single person, we need to face and reflect the reality that these huge companies largely contribute to the climate crisis, no matter how exemplary they seem on their internet pages.
Sophie Braun is a Brooks Secondary School student.
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