It is not necessary to be a communist to recognize that Karl Marx is undoubtedly one of the greatest theorists and critics of capitalism. At the beginning of the industrial-area, the German philosopher already warned us of the dangers of capitalism for the planet and human’s vital environment.
Capitalism can be defined as an economic and social system based on the private ownership of the means of production and the permanent search for profit in order to accumulate capital. Capitalism has a history and like all systems, it has known various evolutions. However, the Industrial Revolution that spread in Europe in the 19th century constitutes the real beginning of capitalism. It is not only an upheaval of techniques with the introduction of machines, it is also about deeper changes, whether demographic with the explosion of the population in Europe or even institutional with the lifting of regulatory barriers hindering economic activity.
One hundred years later after Karl Marx, the Club of Rome took up the same critique as Marx with its 1972 report : The Limits to Growth, also called the Meadows report. This club, made up of economists, scientists, industrialists and senior civil servants from all over the world, has been publishing reports for 50 years now questioning the link between the endless search for economic growth inherent in the capitalist system and the sustainability of our planet. In the long term, this represents an existential threat to the human species and therefore raises the question of the compatibility between capitalism and the protection of the environment. More clearly, how can one seek infinite growth in a world of finite resources?
A good example of the difficulty of solving this equation is the overshoot day indicator. Overshoot Day is the date from which humanity is assumed to have consumed all the resources that the planet is capable of regenerating in one year. After this date, humanity would therefore draw irreversibly from the "non-renewable" reserves (on a human time scale) of the Earth. From year to year, this day continues to recede.
Starting from this, many economists or philosophers postulate the radical incompatibility between capitalism and the environment, our economic system leading irreversibly to the destruction of our planet.
This is all the more true with the last transformation of capitalism, at the turn of the 1970s, the economic crisis caused by the oil shocks led to a transition to neoliberalism. Capitalism is based on the perpetual search for growth, if it is in crisis, it must therefore find new sources of wealth or change its mode of accumulation of wealth. This transition to neoliberalism resulted in the abolition of all economic regulations, considering that “the state is the problem, not the solution” (Ronald Reagan). Following this, the fall of the USSR and communist ideology together with the neoliberal ideological revolution and a technological revolution concerning transport as well as the means of communication and information brought about economic globalization such as we know her. This is characterized by the connection at the global level of all economic actors or the deregulation of economic and financial activities and has been made possible by the digital revolution and that of transport.
According to the journalist Naomi Klein, this new form of capitalism behaves like a “drug addict” who can never be satisfied and always wants bigger doses. Cela a entraîné un nouveau regain de la croissance économique et donc une destruction encore plus profonde de l’environnement. Aujourd’hui, le secteur des transports est le premier responsable des émissions de gaz à effet de serre, la délocalisation des activités dans des pays avec une main-d'œuvre à bas coût a certes permis de réduire le prix des produits mais, en contrepartie, cela a décuplé le coût écologique de la production.
As you will have understood, the negative and deeply destructive impact of the capitalist system on the environment no longer needs to be proven. However, it is possible to qualify it. Indeed, one of the characteristics of capitalism is its great plasticity, or its ability to transform itself. This is why some still defend capitalism and want “green capitalism”, “green growth” and “green finance”. However, the transformation of capitalism into an ecological system compatible with the sustainability of our environment is not easy and will require profound reforms.
In conclusion, as Karl Marx said, “philosophers have only interpreted the world, it is now up to us to transform it”.