When discussing the climate crisis many optimists will point out that the costs of doing nothing is in the trillions of dollars (69 trillion by 2050 which is only 26 years away) and that there are opportunities for innovative companies to make billions providing clean energy, waste reduction and similar services.
However, in all of these discussions no one addresses the elephant in the room. Capitalism. If we are going to tackle the climate crisis we need to address the issues with capitalism, consumerism and inequality. It is pretty obvious that companies will not make changes unless they can increase their bottom lines. Whether it is saving money or increasing profit the motivator is money, not species survival. And that is literally where we are at, a fight to survive and I think we are losing. Sadly because of the delay effect we will not know it, but our grandchildren will.
I don’t think we can ‘tech’ our way out of this crisis. I think it will require a complete shift in our mental approach to life.
During COVID, when everyone was in lockdown around the world some amazing things happened. In many places water began to run clearer, animals returned to parks and open spaces, and the air became cleaner. And people were hanging out at home!
I often think about what would happen if money was not the measurement of success. What if we had a guaranteed minimum of resources? If you had food, shelter, and clothing. Most of your basic needs were met and you had a thousand dollars a month disposable income what would you do? Would you be comfortable doing nothing?
Can we imagine a world were a successful company is measured by something more than its share price?
We could come up with some complicated formula involving the number of people employed divided by share price times years in business divided by the amount of pollution produced by scope 1,2, and 3 emissions. But that doesn’t really fix the issue.
In Star Trek society has evolved into a post-consumerist society where everyone has all they need. But in our current one some of us have more than we need. And we keep accumulating more because there is a fear if we don’t there is a chance in the future we will not have enough. In Star Trek they have replicators which can produce any kind of food you want. You just ask the computer to make whatever you like. Obviously that technology is a long way off but what would our society look like if everyone had enough food? We are going to pass 9 billion people by 2030. That is 6 years away. And crucial resources such as food and water are becoming scarcer. Yes, tech is improving and new farming approaches are producing bigger yields, but nine thousand million people is a lot of mouths to feed every day. I fear it is going to take an environmental collapse, followed by mass starvation, war and societal collapse before we get the hint.
We keep working, keep pushing, keep producing because it’s a race and God help you if you’re last. I think the only way to win is to change the race.