Capitalism is an expansionary economic system - Capital Accumulation is a core feature. Markets grow by commodifying ever new spheres of human activity. Resource depletion and environmental degradation is part of the process. Capitalist pay no attention to these by themselves, only if governments constrains their behaviour, else accumulation will go on untill nature itself strikes back.

The Environmental Dimension

Destroying Climate

Will Capitalism stop when Wall Street is underwater?

Ruining Environment

With this speed of increase in plastic production there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050

The Rebound Effect - Jevons Paradox

The paradox is that we tend to assume that the more efficiently we use a resource the less of it we will use. This efficiency-for-conservation logic appears correct for most subsets of the economy. But at the level of the whole economy, the reverse is true. These efficiency gains contribute to increasing production and consumption, which increases the extraction of resources and the generation of wastes… Environmental policy focused on efficiency gains does not by itself benefit the environment. Economies grow by developing and deploying increasingly efficient technologies… The real paradox: the ability to use a resource more efficiently makes it both cheaper and more valuable at the same time… In an economy designed to grow [i.e. Capitalism], the Jevons paradox is all but inevitable… The focus on making energy use more efficient is paradoxically worsening the problem [of Climate Change], as efficiency gains facilitate increasing, not decreasing, carbon burning… Collectively limiting ourselves offers [the only] escape from capitalism’s endless loops of efficiency and growth… Limits do not mean reductions or sacrifice but an opportunity to pursue goals other than growth. Efficiency makes growth - Limits make creativity.,, Society can purposefully choose less-efficient production processes, setting the paradox in reverse by [deliberately] constraining the scale of the economy. Bliss (2020)

Sustainability

Affluence drives environmental degradation

For over half a century, worldwide growth in affluence has continuously increased resource use and pollutant emissions far more rapidly than these have been reduced through better technology. The affluent citizens of the world are responsible for most environmental impacts and are central to any future prospect of retreating to safer environmental conditions.

Any transition towards sustainability can only be effective if far-reaching lifestyle changes complement technological advancements. However, existing societies, economies and cultures incite consumption expansion and the structural imperative for growth in competitive market economies inhibits necessary societal change.

Wiedmann (2020) (pdf)

Brundtland illusion

Economic externalities

Impacts on a geological scale

Tradegy of Commons

Klein-Alt

Bivirkningsnemda