Environmental Crisis And The End Of Capitalism

Environmental crisis and the end of capitalism

Summary

The environmental crisis that humanity is going through today is becoming increasingly important and relevant in public opinion which blames capitalism for this. However, this essay will not focus on locating a responsible person to blame this crisis, the true objective of this essay revolves around solving the central question of this, which is theoretically speaking, will this crisis sufficient to end thecapitalism? For this, Marxist and neoclassical theory will be analyzed in search of theories that allow us to obtain accurate conclusions that are not based on mere public opinion. And it will also ratify or refute the hypothesis that theoretically this crisis will end capitalism.

Introduction 

The debate of the capitalist collapse fails to introduce a convincing "theory" that capitalism will extinguish for consuming all of its resources.The neoliberal point of view on market balance and therefore the solution so as not to end the environment, is too theoretical and very detached from reality..

The growing concern about the current climatic and future situation is evident, not only of humanity, but of the entire planet. And I say that it is evident, because the attention that public opinion gives to this issue is increasing. An example of this was the summit on climate change held on September 23 of this year at the United Nations, which apart from leaving the bad conclusion that “far from decreasing, the causes and consequences caused by climate change do not stopGrow ”(McGrath, 2019) was particularly very publicized because the teenager Greta Thunberg presented in her who, with her 16 years, gave a speech about this problem, getting the attention of traditional media and social mediaput this issue in public opinion.

However, this public opinion has focused on looking for the culprit behind this crisis. To exemplify the above, I quote an opinion article published in the New York Times where capitalism is clearly blamed on this crisis:

The true culprit of the climatic crisis is not any particular form of consumption, production or regulation, but rather the way we produce globally, which is by profits instead of sustainability. While that norm is in force, the crisis will continue and, given its progressive nature, will worsen. That is a difficult fact to confront. However, diverting the look from a seemingly irresoluble problem does not stop being a problem. We must say it clearly: the fault is capitalism. (Fong, 2017)

It is, therefore, frequent listening in public opinion that the guilt of the current environmental crisis is capitalism and that this will end the planet. However, will this crisis be enough to end capitalism? To achieve this, we will analyze two theoretical views that refer to this topic. We will start citing Soto Huerta and Mercado Ecology of Terry Andersson, which are located within the neoclassical theory and we will compare it with an analysis of the debate of the capitalist collapse, which is part of the Marxist theory, to be able to find a relationshipbetween the environmental theme and the end of this model.

Neoclassical and the environment

The issue of natural resources and its exhaustion is quite recurring when talking about the environmental crisis. The alerts issued in the media on the overcapacity of the Earth (Garay, 2019) are constant and this is quite worrying. However, according to the neoclassical theory and by the hand of Huerta de Soto and the theorists of market ecology:

The best way to preserve the environment is to extend business creativity and the principle governing the free market for all natural resources, which requires its complete privatization and effective definition and defense of its corresponding resources Rights Property. (Soto, 2010, P. 194)

This at first glance can be shocking with what is commonly believed, that is, it seems that capitalism is not as bad as it is believed. But before analyzing Soto’s claims, we will take a look at the market ecology that he mentions, a work published in 1993 by Terry L. Anderson and Donald R. Loyal in order to understand the foundations of this theory.

Market ecology and soto garden

Due to the growing need to protect the environment and natural resources, Terry Anderson theorists and Donald Leal published in 1993 their work market ecology, created a book that adopts a deeply anti -conventional posture before the ecological problem of the planet. In his own words:

Market -free ecology is based on a well -defined property rights system on natural resources. While these rights are in the hands of individuals, corporations, non -profit environmental groups or communal groups, a discipline is imposed on users of resources, because the wealth of owners of property rights is in danger if decisions are madeerroneous. (Anderson and Leal, 1993, pp. 31-32)

This implies that the role played by governments must be quite precise and very important when applying and delimiting property rights in order for the market to stimulate a better administration of natural resources or otherwise overexploitation will occurof these.

But to avoid said overexploitation, business creativity must be encouraged so that it is not motivated to do this. And this is where Soto Huerta enters because he, in his reflections made in "some complementary reflections on the economic crisis and cycle theory" deals precisely on the incentive that the world’s central banks gave to their commercial benches in order toEncourage a credit expansion to overcome the financial crisis of 2008 and that, in relation to the issue of essay, this expansion prevents adequate allocation of resources towards projects that have the best opportunities for triumph, thus encouraging the irresponsible use of our natural resources.

The central point of Soto (2010) regarding this issue is that these artificial expansions generate a financial euphoria that ends up tensioning the real economy, since multiple projects that seem profitable appear but that are not really, and this is what it generates is thatTrees are tied that should not be cut down, air pollution and rivers, manufacture of minerals and oil etc. And the conclusion for him is that the lovers of nature should defend a free monetary system, without a central bank and in which private bankers operate with cash coefficient of 100 percent for sight deposits thus eliminating the incentive it producesThese credit expansions.

It is in this way as according to neoclassical theory demonstrates that, contrary to what is thought, it is the capitalist model to the solution to the environmental problem that humanity lives and, therefore, this crisis will not be the reason why it endssuch a model. However, in my opinion, it seems to me that this vision on the privatization of the property rights of natural resources, and the correct delimitation of these is utopian, first because it is quite complicated to account for the monetary value of all the resources of the planet,And second because the behavior of the human being is complex enough to ensure that, once these rights are appropriate, the resources are not wasted.

Sweezy and Marxist theory

In relation to the problem question and Marxist theory this is not a recent issue and is almost as old as Marx himself. A long time ago, shortly after the death of Engels and by Eduard Bernstein, the debate of the capitalist collapse began, a debate that treats the controversy about how this production model will end and will give way to socialism and that Paul M. Sweezy analyzes in his book "Theory of capitalist development", which will be used to find the results of the debate, as this model will end and if in this debate it is related to the environmental crisis.

In the first place, this debate is initiated by Bernstein who, moved by his fear of violence, the disdain of the theory and concern about the practical details of daily life finds one of the most convenient attack points, the “collapse theory"Which argued that the collapse is unsustainable and must be abandoned because there is a trend of improvement in capitalist development (Sweezy, 1942). This is how a long succession of answers and theories begins to that argument giving this debate.

Subsequently, Conrad Schmidt would make a valuable contribution to the debate arguing that due to the opposition of the capitalists to increase salary and reduce the purchase capacity of the sale of the goods would be increasingly difficult, capitalism would tend to create in itself and of itselfsame a stateless state of overproduction (Sweezy, 1942). In this way, I consider that the debate is very indirectly, the issue of overproduction and this is where it relates to the environmental issue. However, since the relationship between environmental crisis and capitalist collapse is not direct enough todebate to obtain a more general response from the theory.

Then and later to World War I, the Social Democratic Party that had fallen into a reformist point of view and whose Kautsky and Hilferding theorists formed a front against collapse theory. The argument that these wielded was that: the overthrow of the capitalist system should not be expected as a thing that has to happen fatally, nor will it occur by the work of internal laws of the system, but must be a conscious act of the proletariat (Sweezy, 1942, p. 230). Finally, Sweezy (1942) concludes this evaluation to the debate of the collapse saying that the results are not conclusive and that there is still much to establish, leaving the possibility that there is no clearly direct relationship between the environmental crisis and the end of capitalism.

conclusion

On the capitalist side: for neoclassical capitalism will not end following the environmental crisis and on the contrary this is necessary for environmental protection.

On the Marxist side: it is not possible to find a theory that directly relates the fall of capitalism because of an environmental crisis and on the contrary and according to Sweezy, there is no conclusive result on how capitalism will end.

Neither of the two theories has points in common and differ quite a lot on the environmental theme. My conclusion is that the posture of neoclassical theory seems utopian and very difficult to achieve, because that would imply applying property rights over all the natural resources of the planet, in addition to also assuming a balance in the markets that, given the human condition,is very difficult to guarantee. In addition, on the side of the Marxist theory, when failing to find a relationship directly, in which this crisis, like many others, will end capitalism, is very difficult to assert or deny that this happens. Personally, I like the social democratic position of the time of the post war which says that it is the proletariat that decides when and how capitalism is over, because I see necessary a change in our way of life, both to protect the planet and toour society. However, this does not guarantee a solution to the problem that humanity currently lives.

In summary, since there is no coincidental point in both theories, the answer to the central question of the essay cannot be given a categorical way with a simple yes or no. On the contrary, the answer to this question is that theoretically there is no consensus on whether this will happen or not, economists do not agree on how this environmental crisis will affect our production and current society model, on the one hand you havethat capitalism on the contrary is beneficial to the environment, but on the other it is not affirmed that this crisis will end it and that it is not known for sure how this will end, so also the hypothesis of this essay alsoIt is refuted, because a consensus is not achieved between the two theories.

Bibliography

• Anderson, t. L. (1993). Market ecology. San Francisco: Editorial S Union S.A.
• Fong, b. Y. (November 20, 2017). The New York Times. Obtained from The New York Times: https: // www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/opinion/climate-capitalism-crisis.HTML?Ref = nyt-es & mcid = nyt-es & subid = article
• Garay, c. C. (July 30, 2019). National Geographic. Obtained from National Geographic: https: // www.National Geographic.It is/half-environment/2019/07/la-humanity-angota-ira-who-never-the-recursions-of-planet-for-2019
• McGrath, m. (23 of 09 of 2019). BBC. Obtained from BBC: https: // www.BBC.com/world/news-49791588
• Soto, j. H. (2010). Some complementary reflections on the economic crisis and cycle theory.
• Sweezy, p. M. (1942). Theory of capitalist development. Mexico.