Article by Oliver Fawcett

Photo by fikry anshor on Unsplash

In the modern age there is a plethora of big issues, all which threaten the well-being of humans. Whilst there may be a debate around which is the most dangerous, for me and many sociologists, climate change is the most concerning (world economic forum, 2024). In this blog I will be discussing climate change and the negative effects capitalism has on the climate.

Since 1978 there has been a 1.07^oc rise in global average surface temperature (0.11^oc to 1.18^oc). The rate of temperature increase is also going up which means we are fast hurtling towards the danger zone (climate.gov, 2024). In just ten years from 2013 to 2023 temperatures have increased by 0.5^oc (climate.gov, 2024). Whilst this may not sound like a large increase, NASAs climate report states that a rise in global average surface temp of just 1.5^oc would cause about 14% of Earth’s population to be exposed to severe heatwaves at least once every five years (climate.nasa.gov, 2019).

While this may seem scary just another 0.5^oc rise to 2^oc would be even more catastrophic. Again, there are many devastating predictions of the negative impacts of a global average surface temperature reaching 2^oc for example NASA predicts that 2^o c increase would cause 37% of earth’s population to be exposed to severe heatwaves at least once every 5 years (climate.nasa.gov, 2019). A massive increase of 23% more that would be exposed. NASAs report also projects entire ecosystems will transform, with about 13 percent of land areas projected to see their ecosystems shift from one type of biome to another at 2 degrees Celsius warming (about 50 percent more area than at 1.5 degrees warming) (climate.nasa.gov, 2019). This section of the blog sums up and shows the magnitude of this issue even from a 0.5^o c rise.

It is clearly paramount that global carbon emissions are slowed to an eventual near 0 to avoid the catastrophic effects that reaching 1.5^oc or 2^oc average global surface temperatures would cause.

However, under the current capitalist system is that possible?

Capitalism is the private ownership of the means of production within a free market. Its biggest goal is profit and, in many cases, companies will do anything they can get away with in order to maximise their profit. This has an adverse effect on going green initiatives as they tend to be more expensive than the current un-ecofriendly methods thus eating into the profits of companies.

There are many initiatives and agreements all focusing on the reduction of carbon emissions, such as the Paris agreement and the move towards electric cars, which seem to show a willingness to change and prevent more warming. This may show a solution to the problem of climate change which can work in a capitalist society, but I would argue as long as there is profit to be made from natural resources such as oil, coal, gas and other carbon releasing processes and resources, then capitalism will not change enough to stop global warming.

My evidence for this claim comes in many forms most of which show the ineffectiveness of these initiatives and agreements.

For example, the Paris agreement was a landmark agreement in which 195 countries pledged to keep global warming to 1.5^o c above pre-industrial levels, by achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2050. This may seem like a huge success however since that agreement carbon emissions rose, and the IPCC now reports we will reach 1.5^o c as soon as 2030 (ipcc.ch, 2018). This is likely due to the work of large fossil fuel extraction companies, for example in July 2023 the PM Rishi Sunak granted hundreds of new North Sea oil and gas licenses (www.gov.uk, 2023).

John Urry argues that mobility of people, goods and services is so key for the modern economy that “to slow down, let alone reverse, increasing carbon emissions and temperatures requires the reorganization of social life, nothing more and nothing less” this shows the importance of transport (John Urry, 2009). The most common solution people think about is electric vehicles and more public transport yet “In comparison to an NGV, manufacturing an EV releases 25% more CO2” (Monta, 2024).

The most striking statistic I saw was that at COP26 in Glasgow, there were more lobbyists from the fossil fuel (503) industries than representatives from any single nation (global witness, 2021). I believe this perfectly sums up the fierce opposition from many companies towards green initiatives.

The issue of climate change is massive, and this blog barely scratches the surface, however I believe it shows in brief, the clear opposition capitalism has towards climate change initiatives. As people, we need to do more to ensure that those with the power to bring about large changes towards a green future do so.

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