Capitalism and the Global Environment

Capitalism and the Global Environment A framework has been formed by capitalism according to which the world is not responding to the environmental changes. Capitalism produces (or is formed by) a number of environmental changes and lays down the foundation for the social relations and for all the political institutions. This thus demonstrates our potential to respond to the changing environment very efficiently. But still the learners of global environmental change do not frequently pass on to capitalism directly (Newell, 2011).

Capitalism, although unrevealed mostly, dominates in almost all academic discussions related to global environmental change. However, in spite of all this development of rhetoric and policy considerations concerning new green deal known as the 'greening' of capitalism, the need is of a variant capitalism which has the potential of handling the climate change specially (Porritt, 2007). At the same time, the one which is less susceptible to instability and crisis. Referring to this journal, none of the article titles of the survey talk about capitalism.

However, two articles debate on the Capitalism issue, which are present in a leading journal of the field, Global Environmental Politics (Humphreys, 2003; O? zler and Obach, 2009). This does not convey that Capitalism is not absent rather it is present under pretenses and in different forms such as 'globalization' (Sonnenfeld, 2008) or it exists in correspondence to certain attributes of capitalism i.e. growth (Pelletier, 2010), 'consumption' (Spaargen and Mol, 2008) or 'property rights'.

The mainstream global environmental change community hardly writes on capitalism and ecology in detail although a lot of work has been done on certain related issues like payments for ecosystem services and attempts have been made on recognizing and commercializing forests, carbon and water (Bakker, 2004; Corbera and Brown, 2008). Thus, this deficiency of talks on capitalism calls for the need for this paper. The later part of the essay is divided into 2 parts.

The 1st part will discuss and support the view that capitalist structure can address the environmental problems quite successfully. The part following it will negate this statement by stating that environmental problems cannot be catered by a capitalist structure. Traditional Perspective Werbach (2004) critically emphasizes that two schools of thought emerge as a response to modernity. Conservationists ask for more nature whereas the conservatives demand for more market.

This contrast of opinions continued and the ideology evolved from attempts of developing a healthy relationship between man and nature started ditching nature against man. This effort was much appreciated by the conservatives as it would fulfill their interests. The ideology took a materialistic shape for all the conservationists and Americans which previously focused on inter-relationship of all things. The concept of environmentalism has a bright and a dark side.

So if there is a side of interlink between nature and man opposed to the side which deviates nature from man, then it can be concluded undoubtedly that it is the things which have been learnt by the Americans to relate with the terminologies such as "the environment": redwoods, seal pups, clean air, clean water, Yosemite, and toxic waste (Werbach, 2004).

Certain issues are asked and taught not be discussed when the environment is concerned such as the war in Iraq, AIDS in Africa, the tax code, homeless people, asthma, highways, and good jobs. All of these things, whether they have an origin in environment or not, been exposed under the American environmentalism as well as by its homologue, liberalism, their network of connections and native habitat. Each of the issue has an individual identity and requires its resolution through a separate movement and individual expert.

All the terminologies and categories should have a status of tools rather than symbolic representation of realistic things. This idea was presented by Ferdinand de Saussure almost 50 years ago at the dawn of the semiotics movement and this perspective is simply undeniable. The theory of environmentalism which was about to lay the foundation of environmental law in 1970, was based on categorization like toxic waste, clean air and water, package seal pups, redwoods and Yosemite.

But this classification did not appear to be favorable as it restricted the level of success which could be achieved otherwise if environmental boundaries permitted the completion between American conservatives and progressives (Werbach, 2004). The fundamental concept of economic is based on resource availability. There was a time when resources were considered as abundant and economics flourished during that period. As the situation changed, the resources also declined in quantity and the old theories were no more valid and effective.

It was difficult for economists of previous time to understand the downfall and plan the development in the light of new circumstances. With the passage of time, eco systems changed and the change was also reflected in living systems. The modern trend in living systems and other social conditions is based on the assumption that old economic concepts of growth will be effective enough to overcome the shortcoming in present circumstances.

The assumption coupled with circumstances has led to creation of complicated policies and systems to ensure success in the modern era (Hawken, 1997). It is important to understand that success is possible even without relating the methods with classical concepts, as logically they cannot be related. There is strong need to view the capital with perspective of environment and this concept is not present in the classical theories. The present situation is referred to as global ecological crisis which is the result of sovereign state system.

This concept is promoted by many researchers including Garrett Hardin (1968) who considers it a tragedy. Many researchers believe that global factors have no power to change the state conditions. The World Environment Organization's proposals are aligned with Hardin's (1974) views as he states that authorities should play active role in controlled use of common resources which are available free of cost to human beings. However, there is a group of researchers who believe that agenda of World Environment Organization is totally opposite to that of World Trade Organization.

In the perspective of environmental economics and its relationship with resources, both scarce and abundant, researchers have conflicting views. Many researchers explored the subject and presented their own findings, however, there is lack of consensus in the findings. The most important name among the researchers in this domain is of Thomas Homer-Dixon (1991, 1994, 1999) whose evidence enjoys portion of eminence in literary circles. His work was further analyzed by Richard Matthew and Ted Gaulin (2001) but in the same period, many researchers nullified the existence of any such relationship.

At the same time, Homer-Dixon was focusing his research upon new topic and he enjoyed much fame as The Ingenuity Gap was ranked as the bestseller in Canada. The researchers who opposed the views of Homer-Dixon include Nancy Peluso and Michael Watts (2001), Simon Dalby (2002), and Indra de Soysa (2002 and Chapter 10 this volume). Critical Perspective Environmental economists colonised sustainable development plans and the methods. Their views were focused on market mechanism which could be held responsible for environmental problems (Savage and Hart, 1993).

There are certain researchers who have not supported the view but environmental economist have firm support for it. They assume that market mechanism is responsible to add value to the environment through utilizing the profits they earn from business in the society. This is the same environment which plays vital role in profit generation for business organizations; hence its care is due on the same entities. Commercial organizations must take into consideration the element of cost incurred on acquiring the commodities which are used in market.

For instance, fish, minerals and timber are traded on much lower prices than the cost incurred to obtain them. The cost must include the cost of environment as these resources play certain beneficial role in the environment and their shortage causes certain environmental degradation. There are certain elements that clean and fresh air which are used in abundance but have no cost association in the market mechanism.

Environmental economists assume that these are ignored heads because of their availability and because mankind does not have to pay anything to acquire them. It is, therefore, strongly recommended that natural resources should be valued in terms of price and market method should add them in its calculations (Beder, 2004). The most common perception about globalization is about promotion of free movement of labor, goods and capital among the countries. In other words, it is about removal of trade barriers like tariff and quotas.

It is also characterized by smaller governance and market deregulation. These two factors lead to production methods that lead to enhancement of comparative advantage. It is interesting to mention that many people believe that advantages promised by globalization are over stated (Bultler, 2007) and in fact they exist at much lower scale. Globalization implies benefits from the factors like market deregulation and production methods. It does not have its own direct benefits though it claims to offer many advantages to many entities.

Butler (2007) is of the view that globalization affected global health negatively. The authorities are trying to improve social and environmental conditions which lead to boost the factors affecting global health. The subject of this paper is also the same. It discusses various factors which belong to political and economic conditions which lead to change in global health. The recent trend of globalization and neo-liberalism has changed the pattern of change causes by them.

According to Foster (2005), one of the most effective foundations for the analysis in the environmental sociology within United States has been laid by Allan Schnaiberg's model that is treadmill of production. Efforts done by Schnaiberg's are frequently defined as Neo- Marxist, though its real relation with the Marxian political economy remains unclear. This article analyzes the treatment of Marx's treadmill as a rough historical interpretation of capitalist mode of production.

In addition to this, this article also sheds light on the Schnaiberg's study regarding conception of monopoly capital by Baran and Sweezy and conception of political capitalism by Gabriel Kolko; alteration of the Marxian political economy and treadmill theory; and the vanishing of specific criticism regarding capitalism within the combined efforts of Kenneth Alan Gould and Schnaiberg .The reunion of the following culture in the present stage of environmental sociology is a matter of debate with modernizing ecology.

As Cited in Foster (2005), the treadmill model indicates that the option between civilization and barbarism is not just a discussion of formation of human relation in society but it's questioning of relation between human and their environment. According to Foster and Magdoff (2011), though champions of capitalism declare that the egoism which is responsible to move the system causes its maximum efficiency and makes it extremely fair, but this in evidently not true.

Capitalism is neither planned nor organized that's why at one place it resembles a boat that is drifting while at another place it is like a running train. There is minimum social control and regulations. Thus, it results in many unavoidable consequences in the delivery and production of services and goods. The prevailing economist usually defines these as externalities, that they are the reaction of realistic and socially beneficial system.

This includes the water, soil and air pollution, discrepancy of wealth, prolonged period of unemployment and together with total failure of fulfilling the basic demand of all the individuals. Although environmental and social cost represents its presence but it is excluded from the structure of profits and economic costs of the system (Magdoff and Foster, 2011).

There is no limit to capitalization that is why it would not be wrong to say that there is no quantity of wealth, no total of profit and no amount of consumption that could either be called "more than the limit" or "enough." The economic expansion is taking place on such a high pace that the human beings are not giving a thought towards the environment in fact they are exploiting it without even giving any further consideration.

According to the ongoing competition a business should either continue to grow or otherwise accept defeat and die (Magdoff and Foster, 2011). The global and economic governance, which is basically structured to govern the environmental matters, is ignoring or probably side lining the ecological considerations and even the understanding of social and environmental relations seems to be weak. From this we can conclude that the global mechanism of governance does not have proper knowledge regarding the relationship of social and ecological factors.

Thus, this becomes evident that global economic governance is more pinpointing towards global environmental governance rather than on the international agreements on drafting. This drafting was due for those issues which were discussed within the constraints of global institutional economic framework. The policies which are formulated by World Bank and IMF (International Monetary Fund) lay down great emphasis on the environmental regulations, and the policies specifically mention that all the development works should incorporate within themselves the consideration that they have to give towards environment.

Despite of the fact that environmental policy is rated at a high level in the agenda but still the businesses consider growth to be limitless and they do not give much attention towards the certainty of environment and the availability of natural resources (Williams, 2001). Capitalism has gone through many challenges in the past and so would do in future as well.

In the past it has cut down the wages just to balance the market expansion that was taking place at that time, in the similar way it should balance the growth of the businesses with the necessities required for survival. It is high time now, and capitalism should try and bring both these goals under contrast. Even though green capitalism is referred as an oxymoron, but this is just a policy objective.

The supporters of capitalism receive pressure from two sides, one is from the advocates who are short sighted and the other is from the demand of far reaching economically grounded adaptation of production as well as consumption (Wallis, 2009). The vision of green capitalism is often linked with the small companies.

These companies can unswervingly put into practice the green policy, like for instance by using recycled materials, by abstaining the use of toxic materials, by making maximum usage of renewable sources and placing lesser reliance on long distance shipments for sales and purchases. But these practices are made limited by the market pressure. Food services sector is the only one, under which self sufficiency was widely observed, particularly among farmers who went through a resurrection phase in the recent years within almost all the industrialized countries.

This was referred by Marx as a simple commodity production rather than a capitalist venture (Wallis, 2009). One can define Eurozone crisis as the predicament of global neoliberal capitalism. This disaster was prominent due to the augmented discrimination and societal depression, much greater freedom towards capital, economic insecurity and lesser political democracy. The Greek problem is also termed as a European problem just like Ireland problem which is also termed as a European one.

How can two countries with such different economical background be subject same kind of problems, is still confusing to understand. Within this neoliberal universe, the political parties have left the state to suffer at the hands of the voracious capitalists, who have brought the national economies at their mercy. Therefore, it is less likely for the policymakers to interfere and make changes in the outcomes.

No one can deny from the suffering and misery of millions of people which is caused by the global capitalism and this capitalism has positioned the world to state of an unprecedentedly proportionate crisis. Several advanced capitalist countries are now facing with the issues like social decomposition marginalization, crime, poverty, fear, declining wages, mass unemployment and insecurity.

Due to the biasness in the growth of financial activities and continuous decrease in the wages, the wealth is distributed among the rich and underprivileged that it broadens and to some extent destroys the historical and social boundaries. The scenario of poverty and wealth is also present in the advanced societies same like in the developing countries (Polychroniou, 2011). A Really Inconvenient Truth Global warming, a continuous threat for our planet and its living beings, is increasing at a rapid growth.

'An Inconvenient Truth', a documentary film by Al Gore, cleared that this global warming will not be gone without creating a problem for us and it also portrays the effects of Global warming to the world (Bunch, 2008). There are parts of government and few scientists are hiding the truth about the problem that can be caused by global warming from the people (An Inconvenient Truth).

The documentary helps us to understand that we need to trust ourselves rather than the government for any type of change because it is us who can make the changes happen and the government is dependent on the people. For instance we can produce and buy more fuel efficient cars rather than going for any high profile-extra fuel consuming vehicles. By this we can save a lot of money, our natural resources and help the environment.

Another way of reducing the effects of Global Warming is to utilize more recyclable and recycled products in our daily personal and professional lives. We need to take action rather than debating long hours on the topic of global warming, why to waste the time as every second counts. The start with we all need to watch the 'An Inconvenient Truth' with our families (Bunch, 2008) as this film also reveals many examples of symbols.

Sadly, there are several people in the press and public (government) sectors do not realize that global warming is approaching fast and is a real threat, so we need to make sure everyone understands its importance and act to prevent this major issue. The ideas are just taken as myths. However, An Inconvenient Truth ascertained some findings in a survey which was conducted by 928 peer-edited scholarly journals. The articles mentioned the impact of global warming. Out of these 928 articles none were contradicted by the scientists who read them.

Another survey regarding global warming was conducted by 628 articles within public press and about half of those who read the article for one or the other reason were not sure about the effect of global warming. The people who disagreed with the concept of global warming do not belong to trained scientist category and therefore they should not to be believed. For instance, ten years out of last fourteen years have been the hottest period on the earth.

According to Bunch (2008), The United State is by far the largest contributor of global warming due to large amount of water and food required by a huge population. Another reason for global warming is the burning of large number of forests which releases up to 30% of CO2 in atmosphere each year, thus more CO2 in air causes the temperature to rise.

The precipitation have increased due to more absorption of moisture in regions like China and India which receive up to 3 feet of rainfall and also due to extreme droughts in areas like Darfur and Niger. Technological and scientific revolution has affected global warming to a great extent. Two formulas were demonstrated in the movie Gore, which can be expressed as: Old Habits + New Technology = Dramatically Altered Consequences and Old Habits + Old Technology = Predictable Consequences. The U.S. And China are using primitive technology which is a core reason for pollution.

Cars tend to be a major problem in U.S., as U.S. has a lower rank in the list of fuel-efficient cars. China doesn't accept cars made in U.S., as they fail to meet the standards specified by the Chinese government. This poses as a critical issue, as U.S. has failed in initiating appropriate efforts for reducing the after effects of global warming. On the other hand, several other countries are quite active in taking measures to reduce the effects of global warming (Bunch, 2008).

An Inconvenient Truth is a film of 90 minutes duration based on a slide show by the former Vice President of United States, Al Gore, regarding global warming (Al Gore, 2006). This is instrumental in understanding the human contribution towards.