Part of the Series
Planet or Profit
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I’ve read my fair share of articles on climate change, and many writers suggest fixes to avert the tipping point where our planetary conditions become hostile to not only human life, but also all ecosystems that support our environment.
And then I read Richard Smith’s article on Truthout.
Richard is an economic historian with really impressive bona fides, and his writing on the way in which global capitalism is leading to our destruction is very powerful. Smith examines in great detail why the capitalist system we’re locked into is one that will lead to the depletion of all resources that we depend on to live. It’s a sobering piece, but it’s also hopeful. Our conversation expanded on some of what Smith writes in his piece, and centers on the unsustainable growth imperative that underlies the logic of multinational corporations, why President Obama’s efforts to curb carbon emissions in vehicles won’t decrease the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, hyper-consumerism exemplified in IKEA and iPhones, and finally a way to break from global capitalism through a kind of social-democratic environmentalism.
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