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<title>D.4 What is the relationship between capitalism and the ecological crisis?
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<H1>D.4 What is the relationship between capitalism and the ecological crisis?</H1>
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Environmental damage has reached alarming proportions. Almost daily there
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are new upwardly revised estimates of the severity of global warming,
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ozone destruction, topsoil loss, oxygen depletion from the clearing of
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rain forests, acid rain, toxic wastes and pesticide residues in food and
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water, the accelerating extinction rate of natural species, etc., etc.
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Some scientists now believe that there may be as little as 35 years to act
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before vital ecosystems are irreparably damaged and massive human die-offs
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begin [Donella M. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, and Jorgen Randers, <b>Beyond
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the Limits: Confronting Global Collapse, Envisioning a Sustainable
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Future</b>, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 1992]. Or, as Kirkpatrick Sale
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puts it, <i>"the planet is on the road to, perhaps on the verge of, global
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ecocide"</i> [<i>"Bioregionalism -- A Sense of Place,"</i> <b>The Nation</b>
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Many anarchists see the ecological crisis as rooted in the psychology of
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domination, which emerged with the rise of patriarchy, slavery, and the
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first primitive states during the Late Neolithic. Murray Bookchin, one of
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the pioneers of eco-anarchism (see <a href="secEcon.html">section E</a>), points out that <i>"[t]he
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hierarchies, classes, propertied forms, and statist institutions that
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emerged with social domination were carried over conceptually into
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humanity's relationship with nature. Nature too became increasingly
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regarded as a mere resource, an object, a raw material to be exploited as
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ruthlessly as slaves on a latifundium."</i> [<b>Toward an Ecological Society</b>
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p. 41]. In his view, without uprooting the psychology of domination,
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all attempts to stave off ecological catastrophe are likely to be
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mere palliatives and so doomed to failure.
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Bookchin argues that <i>"the conflict between humanity and nature is an
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extension of the conflict between human and human. Unless the ecology
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movement encompasses the problem of domination in all its aspects, it
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will contribute <b>nothing</b> toward eliminating the root causes of the
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ecological crisis of our time. If the ecology movement stops at
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mere reformism in pollution and conservation control - at mere
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'environmentalism' - without dealing radically with the need for an
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expanded concept of revolution, it will merely serve as a safety
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value for the existing system of natural and human exploitation."</i>
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Since capitalism is the vehicle through which the psychology of
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domination finds its most ecologically destructive outlet, most
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eco-anarchists give the highest priority to dismantling capitalism.
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<i>"Literally, the system in its endless devouring of nature will reduce the
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entire biosphere to the fragile simplicity of our desert and arctic
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biomes. We will be reversing the process of organic evolution which has
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differentiated flora and fauna into increasingly complex forms and
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relationships, thereby creating a simpler and less stable world of life.
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The consequences of this appalling regression are predictable enough in
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the long run -- the biosphere will become so fragile that it will
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eventually collapse from the standpoint human survival needs and remove
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the organic preconditions for human life. That this will eventuate from a
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society based on production for the sake of production is . . .merely a
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matter of time, although when it will occur is impossible to predict."</i>
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It's important to stress that capitalism must be <b>eliminated</b> because it
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<b>cannot</b> reform itself so as to become "environment friendly," contrary to
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the claims of so-called "green" capitalists. This is because <i>"[c]apitalism
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not only validates precapitalist notions of the domination of nature, . . .
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it turns the plunder of nature into society's law of life. To quibble with
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this kind of system about its values, to try to frighten it with visions
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about the consequences of growth is to quarrel with its very metabolism.
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One might more easily persuade a green plant to desist from photosynthesis
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than to ask the bourgeois economy to desist from capital accumulation."</i>
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Thus capitalism causes ecological destruction because it is based upon
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domination (of human over human and so humanity over nature) and
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continual, endless growth (for without growth, capitalism would die).
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<a name="secd41"><h2>D.4.1 Why must capitalist firms "grow or die?"</h2>
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Industrial production has increased fifty fold since 1950. Obviously such
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expansion in a finite environment cannot go on indefinitely without
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disastrous consequences. Yet, as the quotation above suggests, it is
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impossible <b>in principle</b> for capitalism to kick its addiction to
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growth. It is important to understand why.
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Capitalism is based on production for profit. In order to stay
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profitable, a firm must be able to produce goods and services cheaply
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enough to compete with other firms in the same industry. If one firm
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increases its productivity (as all firms must try to do), it will be able
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to produce more cheaply, thus undercutting its competition and capturing
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more market share, until eventually it forces less profitable firms into
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bankruptcy. Moreover, as companies with higher productivity/profitability
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expand, they often realise economies of scale (e.g. getting bulk rates on
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larger quantities of raw materials), thus giving them even more of a
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competitive advantage over less productive/profitable enterprises.
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Hence, constantly increasing productivity is essential for survival.
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There are two ways to increase productivity, either by increasing the
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exploitation of workers (e.g. longer hours and/or more intense work for
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the same amount of pay) or by introducing new technologies that reduce
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the amount of labour necessary to produce the same product or service.
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Due to the struggle of workers to prevent increases in the level of their
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exploitation, new technologies are the main way that productivity is
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increased under capitalism (though of course capitalists are always
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looking for ways to increase the exploitation of workers on a given
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technology by other means as well).
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But new technologies are expensive, which means that in order to pay for
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continuous upgrades, a firm must continually sell <b>more</b> of what it
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produces, and so must keep expanding its capital (machinery, floor space,
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workers, etc.). Indeed, to stay in the same place under capitalism is to
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tempt crisis - thus a firm must always strive for more profits and thus
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must always expand and invest. In other words, in order to survive, a firm
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must constantly expand and upgrade its capital and production levels so it
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can sell enough to <b>keep</b> expanding and upgrading its capital -- i.e.
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or die," or "production for the sake of production."
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Thus it is impossible in principle for capitalism to solve the ecological
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crisis, because "grow or die" is inherent in its nature:
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<i>"To speak of 'limits to growth' under a capitalistic market economy is as
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meaningless as to speak of limits of warfare under a warrior society. The
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moral pieties, that are voiced today by many well-meaning environmentalists,
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are as naive as the moral pieties of multinationals are manipulative.
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Capitalism can no more be 'persuaded' to limit growth than a human being
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can be 'persuaded' to stop breathing. Attempts to 'green' capitalism, to
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make it 'ecological', are doomed by the very nature of the system as a
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system of endless growth."</i> [Murray Bookchin, <b>Remaking Society</b>,
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As long as capitalism exists, it will <b>necessarily</b> continue its <i>"endless
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devouring of nature,"</i> until it removes the <i>"organic preconditions for human
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life."</i> For this reason there can be no compromise with capitalism: We must
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destroy it before it destroys us. And time is running out.
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Capitalists, of course, do not accept this conclusion. Most simply ignore
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the evidence or view the situation through rose-coloured spectacles,
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maintaining that ecological problems are not as serious as they seem or
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that science will find a way to solve them before it's too late. Right
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libertarians tend to take this approach, but they also argue that a
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genuinely free market capitalism would provide solutions to the ecological
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crisis. In <a href="secEcon.html">section E</a> we will show why these arguments are unsound and why
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libertarian socialism is our best hope for preventing ecological
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