[lbo-talk] capitalism ecologically unsustainable

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Wed Feb 8 06:50:51 PST 2006


Bill B:


> I recall several years ago discussing this problem of
> infinite growth in the context of a finite planet with a
> capitalist mate of mine.
> Colonising space was the answer he came up with in the end as well.
>
> To be honest, I was staggered and appalled. In theory perhaps
> that may save the capitalist system, but as I pointed out it
> would also spell doom for most of humanity. Obviously it
> would be impractical to send billions of people into space,
> even in the unlikely event that there was somewhere to go, or
> some way to get them all there. So destroying the planet we
> actually have, in the hope that we might move to another one
> when this one is buggered is the ultimate genocidal strategy.
>
> Of course, as he admitted, only the rich could hope to afford
> a ticket on that escape. Even on those terms it is complete madness.
> And Wojtek accuses ME of being utopian!

Not at all. I was saying that the developed capitalist countries have all the ingredients that are needed to switch to a zero-growth model - including technology, organization and effective population control - they simply chose not to use those ingredients for political reasons. OTOH, the less developed countries do not have those ingredients. Therefore, I suggested working to reform capitalism instead of trying to implement third-world utopias which seem quite popular among many environmentalists (an extreme example is shown in Werner Herzog's documentary _Grizzly Man_ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427312/).

Furthermore, the "colonization" solution mentioned by your friend is not as wacky as it may initially seem if you take into account history. Europe faced continuous overpopulation in relation to its resources problem and outmigration and colonisation was the only solution of that problem until the 20th century -when significant production growth was coupled with effective means of population control. For most medieval Europeans, outmigration of America or Australia must have sounded as wacky as outmigration to Mars to us.

TO be certain, I do not endorse the colonisation of space solution - I think it is utopian, especially that now we do have the means of implementing the zero growth model - all that is lacking is political will.

Wojtek



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