Year: 2023

Capitalism is the root cause of our ecological crisis and the key barrier to solving it.

There are two reasons for this. Firstly, capitalism cannot exist without economic growth, and economic growth is the main reason why our emissions have been increasing over the last 30 years and further growth will make it impossible to decarbonise in time to avoid activating tipping points.

Secondly, our minds have been shaped by capitalism and it is stopping us from seeing both the role capitalism plays in the cause of climate change and the full scope of solutions available to address the crisis. Social psychologist, Professor Harald Welzer, sums this up well, describing economic growth of industrial societies as “enshrined in business and politics, but also in the psychological structure of the people who grow up in such societies.”

https://erinremblance.substack.com/p/decapitalising-our-minds-the-key

There are six key ways in which capitalism shapes our minds. Under capitalism we, collectively, believe:

1. Nature is nothing more than a ‘resource’ to be exploited
2. Our power lies in either our consumption habits or our employment
3. Success lies in evermore material items and novel experiences
4. People are a ‘resource’ and must earn their living
5. Money is scarce and the government must make choices
6. We must compete with others

This ‘capitalisation’ of our minds creates a barrier to solving the climate crisis in many ways, including:

• denial that the crisis exists because the solutions don’t fit one’s capitalistic ideology;
• disinterest and disengagement with the crisis because nature is for others to focus on;
• unconscious of how our minds are shaped by capitalism, we:
  • champion solutions that are well-intentioned but inadequate because they assume mythical ‘green-growth’;
  • implement targets that aren’t supported by policies to achieve them, instead relying on technology that doesn’t currently exist to cover the gap.

Unsurprisingly, the mindset we need to address the climate crisis is the exact opposite of the mindset described above.