Is capitalism compatible with the conservation of the planet? – Central Valley Business Journal

12/31/2021

Act. At 10:16 CET

Joan Llus Ferrer

A multidisciplinary scientific team from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) and the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA) has published an article in the scientific journal Conservation Biology in which they present the empirical evidence that show that Unlimited economic growth is the main driver of biodiversity loss and they defend and propose measures towards sustainable degrowth.

The article involves a critical analysis of the loss of biodiversity and its causes, as well as the contradictions on which the current political agenda for biodiversity conservation is built.

The socioeconomic metabolism of capitalism (that is, the flows of materials and energy that move human societies) is based on an ever-expanding economic growth & rdquor;, indicates the first sentence of the study, whose first author is Joan Moranta, researcher at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography and first author of the work.

To meet these material and energy requirements, according to the article, an important part of the planet has been profoundly transformed, with the consequent negative consequences for biodiversity.

Coal mining in India | Altaf Qadri / AP

The expansion of intensive agriculture, forestry, fishing, aquaculture, industry, urbanization and motorized transport are just some of the economic activities that are altering terrestrial, aquaculture and marine ecosystems, which has resulted, among others , in the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the article, the authors show the relationship between economic growth and biodiversity and propose, within the framework of a sustainable degrowth strategy, some measures to tackle the socio-ecological problems derived from it.

It so happens that a large part of sustainability experts argue that economic growth is necessary to protect biodiversity, considering that such growth manages to increase benefits through improvements in technological efficiency, while reducing the consumption of materials. , energy and greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the researchers, the defenders of this position suggest that in this way it is possible to dissociate economic growth from environmental degradation., an idea on which the so-called green economy or green capitalism is based.

However, the study recalls that new evidence continues to appear showing the devastating impacts on biodiversity derived from the extraction of natural resources associated with the expansion of economic activity. Despite this, the most recent ideas around sustainable development continue to suggest that economic growth is compatible with planetary biophysical limits and advocate for the conservation of biodiversity through unlimited growth.

The authors point out that current conservation policies follow, almost exclusively, the postulates of conventional economics, and give rise to international programs for the conservation of biodiversity whose focus is on conservation measures based on promoting new protected areas and on the amount of land and sea that must be kept isolated from production systems. It is what some authors have defined as islands of conservation in an ocean of degradation.

Cargo ship | Shutterstock

The article summarizes the main results of the existing studies on the contradictions between growth and conservation of biodiversity. After decades of defending the compatibility between conservation and growth, the scientific evidence points towards a true emergence of biodiversity.

Thus, the work concludes that capitalism is not compatible with the protection of biodiversity and that current growth-oriented conservation programs are highly ineffective, since growth is at the root of biological collapse.

The metabolism of capitalism is not compatible with an economy that respects the limits of the biosphere. Environmental and biodiversity conservation programs based & NegativeMediumSpace; & NegativeMediumSpace; on economic growth are ineffective. To ensure growth, the continuous extraction of value and the commodification of nature are required to safeguard capital, which in itself constitutes one of the most critical contradictions of capitalism & rdquor ;, notes the study.

A capitalist economy not only depletes the material basis for their reproduction, but also deteriorates the biophysical conditions that allow life on Earth, he adds.

In this situation What is the alternative? The authors point out that it is possible to guarantee better conservation and preservation of biodiversity through a global sustainable degrowth strategy, that is, reducing the global volume of the current economy, with the aim of reducing deterioration of the planetary resource base and consequent planetary environmental degradation.

It is necessary that the nations of the world advance towards an economy less material-based and more oriented towards social services. This model will lead to new social goals, beyond GDP, and will improve human well-being and nature & rdquor ;, the study notes.

It is necessary to change the functioning of financial, political, academic and social institutions. A better future can be achieved through a democratic and redistributive reduction in the biophysical size of the global economy through sustainable decline, rather than economic decline leading to capitalist crises causing recessions and deteriorating social conditions & rdquor ;, add the authors.

Open pit mine | Pixabay

Sustainable degrowth would also help humanity adapt to a future with fewer resources and more social conflict, they say. Necessary take into account the limits of growth on a planet with finite resourcess, as well as the limited ecological and social carrying capacity; it is not enough to pursue efficiency gains & rdquor ;.

According to the researchers, some of these activities that could be promoted under a global sustainable degrowth strategy would be a just energy transition, the reduction of waste generation through the redesign of production processes to facilitate the reuse and recycling of the components of products, the prohibition of planned obsolescence, the promotion of agroecology or the promotion of care, health and education services.

The study authors are Joan Moranta and Manuel Hidalgo, researchers at the IEOs Balearic Oceanographic Center; Catalina Torres and Ivan Murray, from the University of the Balearic Islands; Hilmar Hinz, from the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB); and Adam Gouraguine from the University of Newcastle.

Full Study: https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.13821

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Is capitalism compatible with the conservation of the planet? - Central Valley Business Journal