Global Capitalism and the Biosphere: Our Future in Jeopardy

Abstract

Most scientists now agree that human activity is changing earth’s biosphere and geology. Climate change caused by global warming is accelerating along with rising sea levels, extreme weather conditions and diminishing biodiversity. All these are set to worsen, hitting unborn generations and poorest people hardest. The chapter first assesses the mounting scientific evidence, helped by satellite data, computer modelling and ice core samples. These reveal that CO2 equivalent concentrations in the atmosphere were around 280 parts per million in 1750 but reached approximately 430 in 2011. Given economic and population growth and without massive attempts to cut fossil fuel consumption, this figure will soon rise above 500—triggering average global temperature rises above the 2C level compared to 1990 and bringing further increases we cannot accommodate without great danger. Second, the chapter explores the dependence of industrialization on fossil fuels and the rise of the carbon economy from the mid-twentieth century. Both are grounded in our conviction that modernity entitles us to exploit nature in perpetuity: factory farming, unlimited access to private vehicles and air flights, cheap and unseasonal world products, and the destruction of wildlife on land and in the sea. Third, we assess the various technical ‘fixes’ that some argue will allow material ‘progress’ to continue indefinitely while reducing our dependence on fossil fuels: for example, vast programmes of carbon storage, nuclear power and converting farm land to the cultivation of crops that absorb CO2 on a colossal scale. All involve vast expense and huge risks and may leave millions without crop land when there is a growing world food crisis. Finally, the chapter investigates the claim that market or capitalist solutions to the environmental crisis will generate the profits needed to finance greener technology without hindering economic growth. So far attempts to follow this path have mostly proved unconvincing.