Capitalism: The cause of, and solution to, of all of life's problems

MICHAEL SILICZ VOLUNTEER STAF

The gravest threat facing the world is the onset of dire environmental degradation. Our grandparents had the Great Depression and the Second World War, our parents had the OPEC oil crisis and the Cold War, and it looks as though our generation is going to endure the brunt of a different problem of far greater calamity: climate change.

All we ever hear about climate change is what’s not being done. The situation has become akin to a broken record with the same stories and conclusions repeated over and over again. Almost everyone now accepts the science that climate change poses a threat to our way of life and socioeconomic organization. Yes, we do know climate change is happening. Yes, it appears that humans are responsible for most of the problem. And yes, we do know that even the most optimistic reports suggest catastrophic and profound impacts on both the geography of the Earth and the ecosystems that exist upon it. Despite all of these warnings, all of this knowledge, and a near-unanimous scientific consensus, what is being done on a global level about climate change?

Nothing. Imminent danger lies before us and all the international community has mustered is a Kyoto Agreement to reduce emissions to a level that is still ultimately

unsustainable. This begs the obvious question, how is humanity going to stop climate change?

The problem to this quandary is also its solution: capitalism. But how is a broad idea like capitalism possibly going to save the world, you ask, especially after the endless pursuit of profit without regard to external environmental costs has contributed immensely to this dilemma in the first place?

The answer is tragically simple — nothing is going to stop global warming. The sooner we accept this reality the better. People muse over how we should abandon fossil fuels and consume less. But the real problem is intrinsic and entrenched in our very culture — the successes of capitalism itself at producing more goods cheaply, coupled with our desire to consume those goods. The success of capitalism has led to this problem, but to exorcise this success from our culture remains impossible so long as an “invisible hand” shapes our way of life. What then should we do if we accept that we can’t stop climate change?

Looking to governments and international institutions to solve the problem is folly. In realist political theory, the international system of nation-sates operates in a condition of anarchy. This is a fancy way of saying that since there is no coercive military power greater than individual states, those same states are free to act as they wish and are bound only by others in the system. Looking to governments to solve global warming is absurd and ignores the oldest political truism in existence, whereby the strong do what they can while the weak suffer what they must.

Thus, there is no compelling force to coerce nation-states to their obligations but other nation-states, regardless of whether a country’s name is signed on Kyoto, as Canada and the U.S. demonstrate. Even more daunting is the reality that international law is far too underdeveloped to resolve this problem. The UN was designed to save us from hell — war — not deliver us to a heaven — world peace.

Thus, if governments and international institutions are not going to save us, how then will capitalism? Well, capitalism is not going to put an end to the global warming crisis; rather, it is going to help us come to terms with its reality. It will alleviate the problem of global warming by innovating new ideas and technologies to curtail environmental destruction. Entrepreneurship will create opportunities out of losses. The prospect of profiting from the distress of the future will drive enough people to create and sell us new ways to save ourselves, making the world better off through the process. Creative destruction will take some of the negatives of global warming and turn them into potent positives. The cost will be tragically high, but it is better to accept the coming losses and move forward with the greatest utility of the world in mind rather than to mull over the existential hopelessness of being unable to alter what now appears a destined path.

There will be no magic solution to climate change. The seeds of destruction were sown long before most U of M students were even born, yet we will be the ones shouldering the burden. It is our generation’s duty not to sit around and rearrange chairs on the Titanic like governments and international institutions. Instead, we must focus on the long term, and begin thinking about how we can capitalize in a future brave new world that will be alien to the one we live in today.

Michael Silicz is a law student at the University of Manitoba and has a background in history and political studies.