"UN Scientific Paper Suggests Capitalism Has to Die in Order for the Planet to Be Saved"
Well, that's the headline. It's a blog entry critiquing a paper for the UN’s 2019 Global Sustainable Development Report. Here is the key sentence:
In order to guarantee that humanity is able to have a good quality of life on earth for future generations, the paper’s authors argued that new economic systems will have to be created, rather than the standard band-aid approach governments have taken in the recent past.
Omigod new economic systems! Don't these people know that capitalism means freedom? (So when climate change, as a product of fossil-fueled capitalism, destroys global agriculture, how are they going to be able to eat any freedom? Don't they know that freedom is totally tasty and nutritious?)
So what are they recommending? The blog entry continues:
While the paper didn’t endorse any specific economic system to be used in lieu of capitalism, scientists said it would necessary to “transform the ways in which energy, transport, food, and housing are produced and consumed” with the goal of attaining “production and consumption that provides decent opportunities for a good life while dramatically reducing the burden on natural ecosystems.”
Easy-peasy, you say. Move to Alaska and watch everyone die, right? I don't think that's what they want. It says "decent opportunities for a good life," not "decent opportunities for an evil life."
Anyway, so the "burden on natural ecosystems" needs to go way down. Perhaps this means an economic model where all the cops, lawyers, guards, bureaucrats, insurance reps, sales reps, pesticide and herbicide dealers, financiers, cashiers, journalists and so on will have to give up those daily sojourns in the local morning traffic jams? Nah, predatory economics is too much fun. So it all ends in global murder-suicide. Did we say life was fair?
Comments
Terrific bit of sarcasm
The whole earth approach to a sustainable economy is a paradigm shift away from the 'resource management' model being held up by our esteemed leading institutions (IMF, World Bank, various Economic Development Associations, and others -- too many to list).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:International_economic_organizations
Seems if there is not a buck to be made, the 99% and our resources are 'market based' ie: screwed.
Or we could go the Golgafrinchan route
And blast all the cops, lawyers, guards, bureaucrats, insurance reps, sales reps, pesticide and herbicide dealers, financiers, cashiers, journalists and so on into space...
" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "
And then all die
From an infection caught from an unsanitised telephone!
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
@boriscleto I just watched an episode
I just watched an episode of Murdoch Mysteries which blew Canada's head intelligence guy into space, after jailing the resident CIA guy, who wanted the U.S. to take over Canada--because he was smart enough to see the coming climate change, and knew Canada would be a better place to live.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I fully expect the Canadians
to build a border wall a la Donald Trump to keep Americans from moving there.
"there's something so especially sadistic about waving the flag of a country that you're actively destroying" -- Aaron Mate
@Cassiodorus I probably would. Our
I probably would. Our relationship to Canada has not been very nice.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Capitalism requires unlimited growth.
It isn't sustainable.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Freedom is cooking over a campfire
That cartoon
says it all.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
I really detest the "shareholder value" bullshit
Even "Neutron Jack" Welch has called it dangerous nonsense.
This cartoon is the short version of my scorn for SV. The long version is from Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (site is wierdly formatted, so I only copied minimally):
Uh...
Maybe Stephenson is being ironic here, but "shareholder value" is not "enhanced" by merely "doing more stuff." Rather, capitalists appropriate and capitalize the world, putting a commodity stamp upon the things of the world so that those things can be made into commodities and sold. It is that particular version of "doing more stuff" that enhances shareholder value. That's how it works. The shareholder is a capitalist in the version promoted in Chapter 4 of Volume 1 of Capital. He's a "rational miser," hoping to increase his monetary stash by making the world into a collection of commodities.
It's the blowback from that endless commodity cycling of Earthly things, M - C - M' unto eternity, that will mean that "the planet got destroyed."
"there's something so especially sadistic about waving the flag of a country that you're actively destroying" -- Aaron Mate
I guess you don't know Stephenson
This entire "business plan" is complete satire. It pops up in the middle of a 1999 novel about starting a crypto-currency backed by gold in an island nation ruled by a rich prince. (The man was nothing if not prescient.)
The man writes great, funny scifi (and a surprisingly good roman a clef that includes Issac Newton and Louis XIV). Too bad he is a hardcore libertarian.
I agree with what you say about capitalism. But, SV is a much easier target to satirize, especially when you can quote Jack Welch. OTOH, straightforward critique of capitalism, despite the increasing horrors it is inflicting, still either gets dismissed as "communist rhetoric" or makes peoples' eyes glaze over.
Sadly a day late and a dollar short...
We are probably already past the tipping point, but if not we would have to immediately stop fuel extraction and begin a massive worldwide greening of the planet by planting mainly trees. I just don't see it happening. Do you?
It's been fun while we existed though.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
You know we're fucked
when they have to amend the headline to this.
Tweet
(EDITOR’S NOTE, 8/28/18, 3:34 PM ET: This headline was amended from “UN Scientific Paper Says Capitalism Has to Die in Order for the Planet to Be Saved” to “UN Scientific Paper Suggests Capitalism Has to Die in Order for the Planet to Be Saved.”)
It pretty much took one generation to destroy the
planet's capabilities to accommodate humanity.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Yeast.
The jar is half full, and in one more generation....
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
It wasn't the "instant" yeast?
yes half full but many cracks.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
@ggersh Almost like it was on
Almost like it was on purpose.
The sentence that chilled my blood and transformed my views forever:
(About climate change):
"People will adapt."
I think it was David Koch who said that. Three chilling words.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Somehow they believe they are immune
to what is happening, so since connecting
the dots is way above their paygrade they say the
stupidest shit.
Unfortunately their believers believe also people
will adapt...evolution/evolve is taboo
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
@ggersh Actually, I think
Actually, I think evolution was on Mr. Koch's mind. Remember that his religion is a variant of Social Darwinism. The successful individuals will adapt. The rest....well.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@Lookout Enjoy peak humanity. It
Enjoy peak humanity. It may be sooner than later that humans will look back in both awe and anger that we could just get in our own personal, fossil-fuel powered SUV and drive to the other side of the country or fly halfway around the planet just because we felt like it, or buy foods from every corner of the world in our supermarkets, including bottled water from Fiji. Yes, enjoy these days for they may be as good as it gets. Things are already slipping towards disaster but we're still too fat and full of species triumphalist "success" to know it.
"Peak Humanity"
I like that. Says it all, doesn't it?
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
@Brett Wilkins I think a lot of people
I think a lot of people know it. There was a poll in the last couple of years--gjohnsit posted it--that said that climate change was Americans' number one fear.
Possibly an outlier poll, but that result would never have happened fifteen years ago.
Thing is, it doesn't matter that we're scared of climate change; we don't get a say. We haven't had a say for a long time.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Fiji water pisses me off
The island had a water shortage just so some yuppies can think they are “helping” while they consume.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
@Lookout The problem is power.
The problem is power. Nobody knows how to get the power out of the hands of the people who have decided to murder the globe. I sure don't.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
The Index Fossil
" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "
One of the most important and underreported stories of the day
Thanks for this, I'd have missed it otherwise.
Even in my high school days
of the sixties I realized Capitalism was unsustainable.
I didn't see it as failing in my lifetime.
Whoa, suprise!
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Well, yes.
For the discerning reader, science has been saying that for some time.
A few of us idiots (CSTMS points finger squarely at herself) believed for a time that capitalism could be transformed into something other than a killing machine. She foolishly brought books written by smarter people that proved that capitalists could still buy, sell, trade, and invest, and keep their big piles of money, and still make a profit, albeit a much more modest one, AND save the planet, and showed them to rich people, saying "See? You don't have to kill the planet." She also asked the government to do the same. There were a few idiots inside the government actually trying to do the same thing: "See? You don't actually have to kill the planet. You can stay rich and powerful. See?"
Silly CSTMS. It's not really about being rich and making a profit. It's about controlling economies and having the power of an emperor. Those silly alternative energy systems can't provide the ability to fiddle with oil prices on one side of the globe and make a small or medium-sized government fall on the other side.
Besides, all the important people will survive.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Capitalism is about universal commodification.
The "power of an emperor" is already there in definitions of property. Exchange, though, remains important as the owning entities are no longer individual people -- the emperor could be said to own his domain -- but rather oligarchies of rich people. They own everything -- you, me, everything.
At any rate, the system operates such that everything is a commodity for sale. The buyers and sellers get around the laws against slavery by renting their employees at wage-labor rates -- it's cheaper for them to pay wages than it is to own whole people.
(Capitalist slavery appears to have been a contingency serving the plantation aristocracies of the South for the growing and harvesting of cotton (see e.g. Edward Baptist's "The Half Has Never Been Told") in an era in which one of the major circuits of global capital ran between East Coast ports, especially Charleston, South Carolina, and factories in or near Liverpool in England. Of course, the plantation aristocracies of the South wanted that contingency to last forever, and so they staged another slaveholder's revolt in 1860 (the first one being the American Revolution, see e.g. Gerald Horne's book "The Counter-Revolution of 1776") to keep it going. Illegal slavery still exists of course -- I'm sure the present-day slave owners have found some way to keep costs down.)
At any rate, we continue to court climate change doom because the oil reserves of the world exist as commodities, and because these commodities serve today as the basis for massive loans which will have to be repaid through the exploitation of those same oil reserves. Even Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, buys climate-change-denier politicians to keep those oil reserves swimming in value. To avoid climate change doom, the value of oil reserves would have to be reduced to zero, and no capitalist economy in the world today is willing to risk doing that, though of course it's all a stupid fantasy -- with climate change itself the value of the whole of the capitalist economy will be forcibly reduced to zero. You can't buy anything when all of the important ecosystems are dead.
(Now of course my good friend Jason W. Moore thinks that capitalism will die before the last tree is cut -- you can debate the rest of it with him.)
I also think that the owning class's expectations of surviving climate change are themselves vastly inflated.
"there's something so especially sadistic about waving the flag of a country that you're actively destroying" -- Aaron Mate
@Cassiodorus It's likely their
It's likely their expectations are inflated. They tend to have inflated opinions about themselves. I don't think they can grasp a time when, as Joss Whedon says, the 1% is not the very rich.
"In the zombie apocalypse, the 1% isn't the very rich. It's the very fast. Anybody who can run, fight, make explosives out of household chemicals...you want to stick with them."
Capitalism, like the alien that was symbolizing it way back when Ridley Scott's Alien was a good story, gestates inside something else and then bursts out, destroying it. The something else in the case of capitalism is civilization. Capitalism, like money, simply has no meaning outside civilization, yet the capitalists have nothing but contempt for civilization, because it implies restraint, and it's apparently part of the capitalist catechism that There Shall Be No Restraint.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@Cassiodorus Thank you for this link
Thank you for this link--very much. Some new things there, and that's a bigger compliment from me than it seems.
However, I haven't, in the first several pages where he lays out his argument, seen yet how the vulnerabilities/sensitivities/dependencies of capitalism change the asymmetrical military equation which, these days, is what essentially holds all these systems in place (with increasing degrees of paranoia and desperation, as more and more other things fall away.) It hasn't been possible to have a populist revolution for a long time, possibly not since World War II. The New Deal and the Great Society covered over that fact for most people, since we didn't think we'd need a revolution anyway.
By this point, if it had been possible to have a successful revolution in the U.S., we would have had one (though maybe a revolution I wouldn't have liked). We haven't had a revolution because too many people have understood for too long that there is no conceivable way that a populist rebellion of any kind could defeat the United States military (much less its metastasized form, spread out through the Five Eyes and Israel and much of NATO...) Even the far-right-wing doofuses who wave guns around and say they're going to rebel against the government have a marked tendency to stay in Nebraska and wave their guns at park rangers over grazing rights, rather than actually challenging real power. They're never going to go to Langley or Fort Meade or even Colorado, because deep inside they know that they would be, in the immortal words of computer gamers everywhere, pwned.
EDIT: because I just realized how Americanocentric this comment sounded. I tend to take it for granted that everybody knows that metastasized American military power is part of a power structure that is running at least half of the planet's economic, financial, and military systems. So obviously American military power has a great deal to do with holding destructive systems in place, to the detriment of the entire globe. And revolting against that power is not going to be any easier in, say, Britain or Uganda or Uzbekistan than it is in Nebraska.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
How many bases across the world?
Half might be short by a multitude.
What they lack though is smarts, they rely on bully
strength and weakness of others, which gives us they
don't believe they can be beaten, that's their weakness.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
What I've been saying all along
Either they die or we do.
No one should harbor any illusions that for capitalism to die, the capitalists will have to die. They won't release their stanglehold on power any other way.
Science has spoken. It's us or them now.
*That* isn't going to go over well with the Anti-Antifans
They're already pointing with horror to the gross and appalling rudeness of the Antifa crowd and expecting them to turn violent any time now. (In fact they're already calling them violent, as though saying so makes it so.)
Jay Gould is laughing in the Pit.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.