Economic Growth and Climate Change Gianluca Dragone

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Gianluca Dragone @GianlucaDragone

Continuous economic growth is viewed by politicians as a beneficial and unquestionable aspect of our economy, yet this growth is leading us on a path of environmental destruction that exposes the links between capitalism and the climate crisis.

The world is being taken on a path of environmental jeopardy, with the impending crisis of climate change becoming more visible every day. Fundamentally, we understand why climate change is happening; greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trapping excess heat and ignorant politicians denying well-established science. Yet, there’s little consideration of the processes that allowed climate change to occur in the first place and it’s often portrayed as though it was inevitable. Economic growth is one of these processes, and understanding how it relates to climate change is integral to creating effective climate action.

Economic growth describes increases in the amount of goods and services a nation produces, as well as the size of a nation’s economic output. It is treated as sacrosanct by the world’s major political parties, and it is what has driven political decision making since the dawn of the industrialised, global economy. In contemporary climate action plans there lies an implicit consideration that growth will continue as normal. Whether it is renewable energy subsidies, investment in ‘green’ companies, or financial marketplaces to trade carbon, growth can’t be hindered. This obsession

with growth isn’t completely irrationational however; growth is necessary for nations to fund new infrastructure, provide public programs like universal healthcare, and keep the economy from falling into a recession. Stable growth is so integral to Australia’s economy that during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the government spent $42 billion on stimulating the economy which was at risk of recession. Why then might this fundamental feature of economies around the globe be setting us on a path of destruction? Because despite the supposed benefits of an economy that can seemingly produce more every year, there is often little consideration of what is fuelling the economic machinery that produces growth.

If our economies are to produce more then they must consume more, and with every year of growth our planet’s resources grow closer to depletion. On a world with finite resources, continuous growth can be nothing more than an impossibility. Our clean air, water, minerals, biodiversity, and stable climate are being treated as though they are a neverending pool to draw from. The reality of economic growth is that it requires constant transformation of the natural world into marketable products that generate profit. Even ‘socially conscious’ or ‘green’

corporations must produce more (and consume more) every year to satiate investors. If they don’t, they’ll only be outdone by even more unscrupulous corporations. How then in a globalised system tied to constant economic growth can there be any hope for effective action on climate change? In his 2009 book ‘Capitalist Realism’ The late cultural theorist Mark Fisher describes this conundrum as dreamwork, a “confabulated consistency which covers over anomalies”. This encapsulates contemporary attitudes towards climate action, where the inconsistency of continued economic growth and a stable climate is ignored. This societal dissonance arises not because of any malicious intent however, but simply because people have resigned themselves to the idea that there is no alternative… But, that’s not quite true. Our economy was built on an order of subjugation and intimidation of anyone who opposed it. Whether is be workers, indigenous peoples, or anyone standing up against entrenched power. This system is not inevitable, and at every stage of its development people have fought against it. This system has a name: Capitalism. Capitalism and climate change are inextricably linked, because capitalism is a system that necessitates constant growth, and economic growth is the result of environmental destruction. Capitalism itself grew out of the fossil fuel revolution, as fossil fuels provided dense forms of energy that were easy to manipulate and control. Coal (in the process of producing steam) was vital to establishing the power of a new capitalist class, as it unlocked the ability to concentrate wealth in the hands of a minority who owned the complex machinery needed to utilise it. This was a drastic change from when power took the form of wind, running water, wood, and the sun. Common resources that could not be controlled by industrialists. Coal created the conditions for the contemporary capitalist economy and thus a system that had an insatiable hunger for fuel in order to grow, or otherwise collapse. policy through donations and lobbying to parties who support continued fossil fuel reliance. In 1994 the philosopher Slavoj Žižek declared in his introduction to ‘Mapping Ideology’ that “it seems easier to imagine ‘the end end of the world’ than a far more modest change in the mode of production”. He may very well be right and yet our future relies on him to be wrong. To take genuine action against climate change we must envision a future beyond capitalism, beyond a system whose existence requires that our shared environment be destroyed so that wealth can be created for its own sake. Economic growth is a fundamental aspect of capitalist economies and the two are inseparable. If we want to end the destruction that growth is causing, capitalism can’t survive. Instead, we must look towards creating democratic economies and a society based on fulfilling the needs of our communities without sacrificing our environment. Imagining a brighter future is daunting, but it is necessary if we’re going to free ourselves from an economy that is forcing us into environmental destruction. In a system where the control and exploitation of fossil fuels is central to economic and political power, climate change was always inevitable. In coming years climate activists will have to recognise the need to sever capitalism from climate action, discarding the need for constant growth and preventing an irreversible climate catastrophe.

As time went on coal was succeeded by oil as the dominant fuel of the industrialised world, an even denser and more malleable form of energy that could be controlled by international corporations. In recent decades the necessity for plentiful oil reserves to allow growth has seen imperialist interventions in oil-rich nations and widespread destruction of the natural environment. The immense power that fossil fuel granted corporations is recognised through their influence over politics, able to dictate national

39