Ancillary #4 Global Capitalism and Climate Change
The topic I choose is “can global capitalism solve climate change”. Climate change is more than the rising of temperature. It is affecting our lives from various different aspects. As I remember from the news, our Earth becomes devastating — recent forest fire, loss of biodiversity, rise in food price, etc. In 2021, the Dixie Fire, the largest single wildfire in Nevada state history, burned nearly 1 million acres. Polar bear populations lost 10% in genetic diversity over the last 20 years. Extreme and unusually cold weather at Jharkhand, India killed the crops in the harvest season. We definitely want a change.
The readings give me different insights. The Guardian article mentions how much people have caused unprecedented and irreversible harm to the Earth and shows the urgency to shift to a low-carbon footing. This is more like sharing the fact, so I do agree with the importance of environmental protection. The CQ Researcher article not only gives background information on climate changes but also introduces methods like climate engineering and carbon tax to solve the problem. I am convinced by the data shown in the article that climate engineering seems to be helpful, but I also see the technical difficulty in understanding our Earth thoroughly that makes it implausible. “Capitalism Can Crack Climate Change” and “Here’s Why Capitalism Can’t Solve Climate Change” articles are competing against each other. The first one also introduces carbon tax, specifically rationing carbon tax that wealthier people pay more to be fair. The latter rebuts these ideas and believes in the nature of capitalism to gain profit, not protect the environment. I am more convinced by the latter article, but I am not 100% saying capitalism does not help. My argument is that it depends.
Capitalism, by its definition, is letting private individuals and corporations own assets for production. The final goal is profits, otherwise, why bother to make efforts and produce something if cannot gain from it? On one hand, if markets find out that climate change will harm their productions and ultimately profits, they will try to solve it. On the other hand, climate change is a long-term process. It is hard to measure how much markets want immediate profits which pollute during production or continual long-term profits by solving climate change. Basically, the question becomes, how much solving climate change now benefits capitalism and firms so that they are attracted to do so.
What I need to figure out more is how to narrow down my definition of capitalism and climate change. I also need to think about a specific reason why capitalism can/cannot solve climate change.
