Placeholder Image

字幕列表 影片播放

  • This video is made in collaboration with  Second Thought. Make sure to check out  

  • their video on capitalism's  climate crisis after this.

  • Death is upon us. The death of glaciers  and ice sheets plummeting into the sea,  

  • the death of great swaths of forests, the  death of reefs bleaching white in pain,  

  • and the death of people killed by  storms, drought, fires, austerity,  

  • and the state. After making over one hundred  videos and reading countless articles,  

  • papers, and books about how human history has come  to this moment, it's clear to me what's driving  

  • this descent into climate chaos: CapitalismToday we wade into the muddy waters of capitalism  

  • in order to understand how our current global  market economy is killing us and the world.

  • Capitalism's Plunder of the Planet: Since its inception in the urban landscapes  

  • of England, industrial capitalism has been  a juggernaut of waste, driving plunder and  

  • reckless production of needless commoditiesBecause of this production it has also pumped  

  • billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the  air. Indeed, were it not for the relentless  

  • drive for increased productivity and growth  of early English capitalists, the use of  

  • coal would not have dramatically increasedCoal allowed capitalists to squeeze more from  

  • their laborers in less time and ultimately  expand their profit margins. This, in part,  

  • is why we start to see the rise of greenhouse  gases coincide with the rise of capitalist  

  • economies. Fossil fuels, with their energy  dense makeup, allowed Capitalism to flourish  

  • by fueling machines and allowing centralization  in factories, and of course, this was all at the  

  • expense of the workers and environment. The  core imperative of Capitalism is to grow,  

  • an imperative which runs in stark opposition to  the realities of what it means to live in balance  

  • with an entire planet. Indeed, as capitalism seeks  to convert ever more of the natural world into raw  

  • materials it does so at a rate far greater than  the natural world is able to replenish itself.

  • The Long Reaches of Capitalism

  • Fast forward to today and the global capitalist  economy has reached its final form. The speed at  

  • which corporations and capitalist markets extract  raw materials has reached extinction-level rates.  

  • Deforestation, fishery decline, and even the  disastrous response to the COVID-19 pandemic all  

  • have been connected back to industrial capitalist  plunder. Climate change represents the final nail  

  • in the coffin for capitalism's insatiable desire  for growth. Since 1988, 100 companies have caused  

  • 71% of greenhouse gas emissions, revealing  the simple truth that capitalist behemoths  

  • are driving climate disaster. And most  of these corporations are multinationals,  

  • or companies that have grown so large, gobbled  up so much, that they seek out new territories  

  • to exploit across the globe. I've donenumber of videos on multinationals like Coke,  

  • Amazon, Walmart, and Exxon, examining how they  use global markets to pay workers starvation wages  

  • while offloading any waste or emissions they  create into the surrounding environment.  

  • And fossil fuel companies are the epitome  of multinational exploitation. As it becomes  

  • increasingly clear that they are wreaking havoc  both on the environment and people, oil and gas  

  • companies seem to be working tirelessly not  to repair the harm they've inflicted on both  

  • people and planet, but to protect themselves  and the growth/profit paradigm they enjoy  

  • by greenwashing capitalism. Since their inception  oil corporations like BP have been at the  

  • forefront of this self-defense mechanism. Greenwashing Capitalism 

  • With the help of expensive public relations  campaigns and solidifying support from politicians  

  • through lobbying, BP has evaded any consequences  for what it has done to us. Its rebrand toBeyond  

  • Petroleumin 2000 and subsequent $200,000,000  marketing campaign claimed they were transitioning  

  • to renewable energy, while they actually were  pouring more money than ever into expanding  

  • their oil portfolio. BP also invented the  idea of the individual carbon footprint  

  • as a way to get consumers to focus on individual  solutions and not corporate activity. And now BP  

  • is once again claiming it's going to invest in  a green economy by achievingnet zero carbon  

  • emissions by 2050.” But net zero really just  means that BP will continue to pull fossil  

  • fuels out of the ground and then just get people  to plant trees for them to cover the carbon cost.  

  • Net zero isn't zero and BP knows it. In addition  to rebranding and polishing corporate images,  

  • corporations are grabbing seats at the tables  of international conferences and organizing  

  • sustainability conferences themselves. The  UN Conference of Parties, which produced  

  • the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol, is  increasingly inundated with corporate interests  

  • hoping to mold our global response to the climate  crisis. As a result, the international doctrines  

  • like the Paris Agreement were significantly  weakened, using non-binding agreements and  

  • employing market-based solutions that represent  nowhere near the action we need to take in order  

  • to stave off the worst of climate change. The  truth is, as Dorothy Grace Guerrero puts it in  

  • a paper on capitalism and the climate, that,  “as the impacts of climate change intensify,  

  • free-market ideology, big business and financial  actors increasingly shape the strategies and  

  • priorities in addressing it.” So, we need to  call these conferences and marketing strategies  

  • what they are: delay and obfuscation tactics  by capitalist institutions that allows them  

  • to continue burning fossil fuels, producing  useless commodities, and pocketing profits.

  • Disaster Capitalism in the Climate Crisis

  • As the world watched Texas and the southern  United States freeze in February of this year,  

  • it was hard not to draw connections. How could  we be so unprepared for such an event? Especially  

  • with the knowledge that climate change will  induce more erratic weather patterns in the  

  • future. Texas is a prime example of the dual  reality of Capitalism in the climate crisis.  

  • It simultaneously creates disasters, hollows  out any form of substantial defense or recovery  

  • method against disasters, and seeks to profit  off of what remains in the aftermath. In short,  

  • climate change-related natural disasters  and the human suffering they cause  

  • are good for capitalism. In 2002, Texas  deregulated its energy sector, purportedly  

  • hoping that if free-market capitalist competition  ran free, electricity prices would drop. But  

  • according to a 2014 report, deregulating the  energy market did the opposite. From 2002-2012,  

  • residents paid $22 billion more in deregulated  areas. And as we saw in Texas during the freeze,  

  • this extra money was doing nothing to increase  the quality of service or infrastructure. Energy  

  • companies skimped on infrastructure service in  order to save a quick buck, and the consequences  

  • inevitably fell on poor communities and  communities of color. For the fortunate few who  

  • did have power throughout the polar vortex, energy  companies ruthlessly ratcheted up energy prices,  

  • with bills sometimes reaching into the tens of  thousands for just a couple days of electricity.  

  • The profit motive of these capitalist institutions  meant a drive to minimize the costs and create  

  • the most profit, or in other words they sought to  simultaneously provide the least amount of service  

  • possible while pushing the limit on how much they  can charge. Which, in the case of an increasingly  

  • disaster-prone world, is quite literally  a deadly combination. On the global stage,  

  • capitalist operators are also using catastrophes  to engrain free-market ideas into the political  

  • structures of whole nations. An insidious  agenda known as disaster capitalism. From the  

  • U.S. backed Chilean coup in 1973 that overthrew  democratically elected Socialist leader Salvador  

  • Allende in order to prop-up an authoritarian  dictator Augusto Pinochet dead-set on implement  

  • the capitalist free-market ideologies of Milton  Friedman, to the wave of mass privatization in  

  • Iraq by U.S. multinationals like Haliburton after  the 2003 invasion, capitalist corporations use the  

  • shock of disaster and war to enshrine free-market  agendas into law. In the wake of Hurricane Maria,  

  • the right wing Puerto Rican governor attempted  to close down hundreds of schools, privatize the  

  • electricity grid, and even sell off some roads  and brudges. Of course, the history of Puerto  

  • Rico is marked with the colonial attacks of the  U.S. and Europe that have worked to hollow out  

  • public safety-nets and institutions in the name  of austerity and the free-market. For example,  

  • under the cover illegitimate debt the US Congress  passed PROMESA in 2016, a law that Naomi Klein  

  • writesamounted to a financial coupthat enacted  harsh austerity measures to supposedly solve  

  • Puerto Rico's debt. It's hard to bounce back from  hurricane winds when your government and colonial  

  • pressures have carved out all self-sufficiency  methods and made you reliant on fossil fuel and  

  • food imports. Yet, Puerto Ricans were resilient  in the face of disaster, much like the mutual  

  • aid groups that provided lifelines for those in  the frozen Southern U.S. The stubborn solidarity  

  • of these communities reveal that people, not  companies are the answer to climate chaos.

  • Paths Towards the Future

  • The path towards the future has to be  post-capitalist. We know this when we  

  • look at the dismal responses to Covid-19, to  natural disasters, and to capitalism's inability  

  • to curb emissions over the last 40 years. We  know this because that is also what science  

  • demands. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate  Change calls for societal transformation  

  • on a scale never-before-seen in order to  stave off the worst of climate change.  

  • The last time we had this much carbon dioxide  in the atmosphere, global temperatures were 3  

  • degrees celsius warmer and sea level was 30-40  meters higher. We're already in a climate crisis,  

  • and I'm scared. Business-as-usual is a recipe for  extinction, as is a slow and steady approach. Both  

  • uphold a status quo that for hundreds of years has  plundered the planet and destroyed or attempted to  

  • destroy Indigenous communities and ways of lifewhich means that the only path forward is radical  

  • transformation. Revolution. The paths towards an  environmentally ethical existence must draw upon  

  • the power of the people. Movements are already  building, especially in the Majority world. La  

  • Via Campesina and The Landless Workers' Movement  are flexing their collective muscles working to  

  • dismantle the capitalist growth paradigm and  hoisting up alternatives like championing food  

  • sovereignty and indigenous land rights. There  is no shortage of exciting, visionary ideas  

  • on how we can forge a better, more just worldPrinciples like democratic eco-socialism moving  

  • into higher stage communism, degrowth, buen vivirsocially-owned decentralized electric grids,  

  • plant-based and hemp-based production, just to  name a few, are showing us that capitalism is not  

  • only not an answer but also is far from our only  answer. These frameworks are being tested around  

  • the world, but all of them must consider that  a true transition to a zero carbon world, must  

  • be a just one. In order to be effective, and to  actually have staying power, our world must change  

  • not from the top down, but from the bottom up. The  red-green revolution must foreground the majority,  

  • the oppressed, the marginalized, the laborers  and not the ruling class and the well-being  

  • of corporations if it is to truly establish an  ethical world. At the end of the day there is  

  • no one solution to the climate crisis but paths  marked by struggles that push us toward a new  

  • post-capitalist, post-climate-crisis reality. That  world is possible, and united we can create it.

  • If you're looking for a broader overview  of capitalism and its many implications  

  • for climate change, definitely make sure  to check out Second Thought's video over  

  • on their channel! It's a great  episode for understanding some  

  • of the basics as to why Capitalism  can't handle the climate crises.

  • Unfortunately, videos like these, while  very important, do terribly with the  

  • YouTube algorithm and sponsors don't want to  touch them. But there is a way you can help.  

  • Becoming a patreon member helps  Our Changing Climate stay afloat  

  • and independent. As an OCC patron, you'll  not gain early access to videos, but also  

  • special behind the scenes updates, andmembers only discord channel. In addition,  

  • each month my supporters vote on an environmental  group that I then donate a portion of my monthly  

  • revenue to. Patreon supporters are the financial  backbone of the Our Changing Climate operation,  

  • without them I wouldn't be able to take creative  risks and dive into difficult topics. So if you  

  • want to help keep this channel alive  or are feeling generous, head over to  

  • patreon.com/ourchangingclimate or use the link  in the description and become an OCC patron. If  

  • you're not interested or aren't financially ablethen no worries! You can help by subscribing,  

  • liking the video, and commenting. I hope you  enjoyed the video, and I'll see you in two weeks!

This video is made in collaboration with  Second Thought. Make sure to check out  

字幕與單字

單字即點即查 點擊單字可以查詢單字解釋

B2 中高級 美國腔

为什么资本主义正在杀死我们(Why Capitalism is Killing Us (And The Planet))

  • 23 6
    joey joey 發佈於 2021 年 06 月 12 日
影片單字