Velden ’21 [John van der and Rob White; 2017; Leader of Global Sales & Technology at Linde Engineering, former Vice President of Business development at Chicago Bridge and Iron company, former researcher at Unilever; The extinction curve : growth and globalisation in the climate endgame, “THE EXTINCTION CODE WITHIN THE CAPITALIST GROWTH PROTOCOL,” Ch. 3, p. 33-34] SPark
In its fundamentals, extinction-level ecological degradation and transformation are specific features of capitalist economic growth imperatives. These are inseparable from the cyclical expansionary and contractionary dynamics in accumulation, and divergent class structures of power and interests. There is no shortage of commentaries that argue this integrated ecological crisis is a consequence of industrialisation, unregulated capitalism, neo- liberalism, free-market fundamentalist ideology, extensive fossil fuel use, excessive consumption and/or population explosion. What is striking about these is that the problem is not necessarily equated to capitalism and its core growth imperative per se. It is features of the system, not the system itself, that tends to be targeted for criticism. The growing conundrum is that even the everyday Jo on the street intuitively grasps (like the School Strikers for Climate) that an endless growth economy is at odds with finite resources, that an endless expansion of consumption is required to absorb an endless growth in production, and that endless expansion of production and consumption means, if nothing else, endless by-product expansion of waste from planned obsolescence and pollution, even with diligent re-cycling. Also, intuitively grasped, is that the rich invest in order to get richer. The key puzzle demanding explanation is why anyone thinks that an economic system based upon endless growth on a finite planet, and a tiny rich minority getting richer relative to the vast social majority, somehow will not be punctuated by recurring crises and systemic collapses - economic and ecological. This is the great myth/silence that emanates from the corridors of power and their spin merchants. We are sleepwalking to catastrophe pursuing ‘endless growth and affluence for all’. It’s a fairy tale that school children openly and publicly acknowledge in their social media posts, rally speeches and placards. Yet it’s a fairy tale that seemingly infects many seasoned reform eco-capitalists: that a green capitalism, or a no-growth capitalism, or a ‘we are all in this together’ more altruistic and benign capitalist system and ruling class, is possible. There is an extinction code of exploitation that lies at the core of contemporary capitalist economy. This capitalist relation of exploitation with regard to labour and the natural world is poorly understood or acknowledged. Partly, this misunderstanding flows from pejorative connotations of the term ‘exploitation’. Yet, this form of appropriation of the social surplus remains central to understanding how capitalism as capitalism actually works
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