Oh man, I have another idea: end capitalism. We already produce all we need, just got to dump the powerful few that put their power and profit over people’s lives.
That’s the only sane solution going forward.
With climate change, there’s a good chance we will no longer be able to meet humanity’s needs. Besides, better yields means that we could be converting land back to nature, much like with reduced meat consumption.
Climate change, another consequence of capitalism that capitalism is standing in the way of solving.
Communism is perfectly capable of ruining the environment. See: the Soviet Union sucking the Aral Sea dry.
This isn’t the gotcha you seem to think it is. Mistakes and disasters will happen under any system because it’s impossible to definitively predict what will happen when dealing with complex systems.
The difference however is that capitalism necessitates growth by its very nature, and encourages businesses to externalize their costs such as environmental destruction in order to maximize profits. Capitalism is fundamentally built on the idea of endless consumption, and has created lots of innovations like planned obsolescence to keep producing things as quickly as possible.
On the other hand, communism doesn’t hinge on growth and constantly producing things in order for the economy to function. In fact, work is actually seen as a cost to the state. There is an incentive to produce goods that last and can be repaired.
Systemic pressures are very different between the two systems.
Just because a country is communist doesn’t mean they will automatically be better for the environment. However a communist country is better equipped and more willing to take actions to solve these real problems.
Right, a political system alone can’t guarantee that things will be better. What the system does is create selection pressures that drive behavior.
On the other hand, communism doesn’t hinge on growth and constantly producing things in order for the economy to function.
Theoretically, sure. Realistically, see China.
You mean the same China that’s currently the only major nation with an actual plan to transition off fossil fuels that’s being implemented at scale as we speak?
- https://www.visualcapitalist.com/chinas-energy-transition-in-5-charts/
- https://www.carbonbrief.org/chinas-2060-climate-pledge-is-largely-consistent-with-1-5c-goal-study-finds
- https://www.greenbiz.com/article/these-are-strategies-behind-chinas-ambitious-clean-energy-transition
- https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/11/16/china-and-solutions-to-climate-change/
- https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2021/10/chinas-solar-powered-future
- China has more than 400,000 electric buses, about 99% of the world’s total.
- https://sccei.fsi.stanford.edu/content/greening-peoples-republic-chinas-investment-conservation-0
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-02/china-climate-goals-hinge-on-440-billion-nuclear-power-plan-to-rival-u-s
- https://www.csis.org/east-green-chinas-global-leadership-renewable-energy
- https://apjjf.org/2022/18/Mathews-Huang.html
China’s also doing most of reforestation in the world
Meanwhile US/EU overwhelmingly responsible for emissions despite outsourcing a bunch of their production to countries like China.
True! But only capitalism is destroying humanity’s ability to survive on this planet. And profiting off the destruction. And incentivizing it to continue, to the detriment of everyone I know and love.
