Capitalism will not save the world
The market doesn’t reward “doing the right thing”
Capitalism will not save the environment. People will.
The market definitely won’t stop companies from polluting or slow down global warming through self-correction. Even with all the government regulations, enterprising individuals and organizations always find a way to get around environmental restrictions — from Volkswagen rigging emissions tests to the city of Flint, Michigan trying to save a few bucks by drawing water from the heavily corrosive Flint River. What carbon emissions? We buy offsets.
Markets are built to reward saving money and making profits, and not “doing the right thing.”
“Economics are the method, the object is to change the heart and soul.”
Some argue that the best way to steer the economy and save the environment is to put a price on nature. To literally force us to “value” it. Natural Capital, they call it. Proponents of this idea say that we’re failing to protect our natural world because we “aren’t valuing it enough.” They argue that we should a price on the “green infrastructure” and asset classes within an “ecosystems market” — such as water, air, or soil. This isn’t bad, in and of itself, as Natural Capital could potentially help businesses quantify and value their impacts on the environment.
Take the case of the mangrove forests and the shrimp farms in Thailand. Commercial shrimp farms can generate returns of approximately US$1,220 per hectare by clearing out mangrove forests (mainly from subsidies). But for each hectare cleared, local communities lose an estimated US$12,000 associated with forest products, fisheries and other coastal services. Using similar cost benefit analyses, it’s argued that by adapting a Natural Capital system, ecosystems and biodiversity will no longer by economically invisible, and that with a little governmental intervention, we’ll be able to move from “short-term opportunism to long term stewardship.”
Except where in this system of valuation does is show how it’s changed the hearts and minds of people? Where does it show that this system that appraises nature so highly now won’t crash or be subject to economic downturn and vicissitudes of fortune? What happens if it’s no longer “worth” enough money? Will we start destroying it again?
How can we honestly put a monetary value to something that’s essentially priceless? George Monbiot answered that question in his July 2014 SPERI Annual Lecture at the University of Sheffield, that “efforts to price the natural world are complete and utter gobbledygook.” Not to mention the fact that these proponents of Natural Capitalism are essentially saying that the very system that has to date been so damaging and devastating to the living planet — commodification, economic growth, financialization — will be the very thing that will save it.
It just doesn’t add up.
Economic and political systems are tools, they’re just a means to an end, not an end in and of themselves. Capitalism without any morality or ethics or purpose behind it won’t solve anything. It’s a system built on profit. It’s a ship that needs a captain — and we need to steer it in the right direction. The invisible hand doesn’t have a conscience, but we do. We need to, as Monbiot states so matter of factly, “get off our bottoms” and mobilize. We need to make changes for the better and push for global, sustainable action. Economics can certainly play a part in it, but we — as human beings who want to continue living on this planet — need to be start making changes, and coming together to save our home.
Oddly enough, famous conservative Margaret Thatcher said it best when it comes to making changes: “Economics are the method;” she said, “the object is to change the heart and soul.”
The question then is, how do we get more people to invest in doing the right thing?
