Capitalism and climate change have been topics of discussion capable of both inspiring and overwhelming the masses. After numerous discussions, political meetings, proposals, and planned actions humans still stand at “work under progress”. Climate change can be considered as a sum total of all environmental problems that humans have to deal with in current times. With the early news of ice-free arctic by 2050, the question for immediate and radical steps towards the issue arises.
Naomi Klein, a journalist, an author, and social activist argues that the proper reaction to the climate crisis is to overhaul global capitalism and the free-market ideology. She had visited and spoken at Northeastern University. She argued that the climate crisis is a part of the result of “a catastrophic case of bad timing,” noting how the public discussions of climate change that began taking shape in 1988 coincided with anti-regulation, globalisation, and privatisation, trends in global business.
She believes that climate change can back the various social movements that have recently popped up in the midst of society. She also points out that this might be the time to be inspired rather than being scared. History is a witness of radical changes taking place due to mass movements and co-operative functioning of diversely debated issues. Naomi Klein suggests individuals to question capitalism.
Karl Marx was one of the early thinkers to elaborate on the conflict between capitalism and nature. He attempted to explain this by referring to an example of “soil robbing”, he also states that preponderance of population interferes with the natural process of restoring the fertility of the soil. The argument that capitalism cannot completely adjust itself in line with the boundaries of the natural world can be agreed upon, however, the argument that it cannot address climate crisis could be debated.
Mayuri Talgaonkar