Eco-capitalism
"Your 'Carbon Footprint' Is A Scam" by Second Thought |
Eco-capitalism is a term for right-wing voices who believe that a capitalist economy is able to, or already has, overcome its inherent wastefulness and environmental destructiveness in favor of allegedly adopting sustainable practices.[1] Eco-capitalism, namely greenwashing, is often a core part of modern corporate advertising, which usually takes away bourgeois responsibility for ecological destruction and global warming and places it on individual workers.[2] Eco-capitalists, being on the side of large corporations, never propose anything of real meaning to halt the ongoing climate crisis, instead supporting ineffective reforms like carbon taxes.[3]
Criticism
Eco-capitalism often pours the blame on the consumer for buying plastic products, for example, and advocates for one to track their carbon footprint. Eco-Capitalism encourages solutions like carbon-capture technology to fight climate-change, which is remarkably expensive.[4] BP Oil, who in 2010 spilled 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, which was the largest oil spill in history,[5][6] were the ones to invent this term. Therefore, BP Oil blamed citizens for doing harm to the Earth, while they commit more severe environmental damage.[7]
Capitalism is based on eternal growth, and therefore expects it until the end of time. But eternal growth is clearly impossible on a finite world. Capitalism cannot solve the climate crisis as to do that means that one must set limits on capital accumulation, which is not a very good or acceptable idea for a system founded upon that a company or economy must grow or die. One of capitalism's main objectives is to convert natural resources into commodities and commodities into capital, transforming into inanimate wealth. Too, there is really no way the profit motive or for the market to bring real carbon-capturing and the sort technology. The world was in 2017, producing about 40 billion metric tons of carbon emissions a year. At the current prices, stripping out this much emissions would cost about 24 trillion dollars, an amount equal to 133 percent of the annual US GDP.[citation needed]
See also
- Eco-fascism, a particular tendency of eco-capitalism which integrates dishonest environmentalist rhetoric with fascistic narratives
- Pinkwashing, another form of insincere corporate propaganda
- Radical liberal, many adopt the half-hearted measures proposed by eco-capitalists
References
- ↑ eco-capitalism. (n.d.) Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014. (1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014). Retrieved March 24, 2021 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/eco-capitalism
- ↑ Deena Robinson (November 13, 2022). "What Is Greenwashing and How to Avoid It?". earth.org. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
- ↑ Metcalf, G. (2019, May 3). Carbon Taxes: What Can We Learn From International Experience? Econofact. Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://econofact.org/carbon-taxes-what-can-we-learn-from-international-experience
- ↑ Parenti, C. (2017, September 29). If We Fail. Jacobin. Retrieved March 24, 2021, from https://jacobinmag.com/2017/08/if-we-fail
- ↑ Brasileiro, A., & Goodhue, D. (2020, February 14). ‘Invisible oil’ from Deepwater Horizon spill may have reached the Florida Keys. Miami Herald. Retrieved March 24, 2021, from https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article240263391.html
- ↑ Robertson, C., & Krauss, C. (2010, August 2). Gulf Spill Is the Largest of Its Kind, Scientists Say. The New York Times. Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/us/03spill.html
- ↑ Kaufman, M. (2020). The carbon footprint sham. Mashable. Retrieved December 14, 2020, from https://mashable.com/feature/carbon-footprint-pr-campaign-sham/