Essay #1
Imagine raging flames sweeping the planet, creating barren wastelands and cities submerged underwater. No, this is not a description of a post-apocalyptic setting. This is our reality that can happen in decades, if we continue to conform to capitalism. According to Naomi Klein, the author of This Changes Everything, the way our society functions will worsen climate change. Our economy thrives without regulation so, the Earth will die out and we suffer the aftermath. Klein argues that capitalism and its implementation in our world is the root cause of climate change. The first part of the book, titled “Bad Timing,” emphasizes that the rise of neoliberalism correlates to the rise in global warming. Free markets have become a necessity in our lives, but we have to change to counter rising temperatures. Meanwhile, the second part, called “Magical Thinking,” shows that humanity’s solution to this glaring …show more content…
This freedom drives capitalism, but has negative effects on the environment. Over the last century, the western world shifted to an economic system where government has a little role in allocating resources. According to Klein, “a destabilized climate is the cost of deregulated, global capitalism” (82). The neoliberalist model will render climate change an “unintended, yet unavoidable consequence” (82). This implies capitalism and environmental sustainability cannot coexist. We can’t save our planet without giving up the system we are prospering from. For instance, China has high pollution because industrial labor is outsourced for more profit (81-82). In China, workers’ wages and conditions can yield the most goods and cost the least. Companies will unlikely sacrifice their earnings to help the pollution. The climate is deteriorating because firms maximize their profits through methods like cheap labor and the extraction of natural
Imagine raging flames sweeping the planet, creating barren wastelands and cities submerged underwater. No, this is not a description of a post-apocalyptic setting. This is our reality that can happen in decades, if we continue to conform to capitalism. According to Naomi Klein, the author of This Changes Everything, the way our society functions will worsen climate change. Our economy thrives without regulation so, the Earth will die out and we suffer the aftermath. Klein argues that capitalism and its implementation in our world is the root cause of climate change. The first part of the book, titled “Bad Timing,” emphasizes that the rise of neoliberalism correlates to the rise in global warming. Free markets have become a necessity in our lives, but we have to change to counter rising temperatures. Meanwhile, the second part, called “Magical Thinking,” shows that humanity’s solution to this glaring …show more content…
This freedom drives capitalism, but has negative effects on the environment. Over the last century, the western world shifted to an economic system where government has a little role in allocating resources. According to Klein, “a destabilized climate is the cost of deregulated, global capitalism” (82). The neoliberalist model will render climate change an “unintended, yet unavoidable consequence” (82). This implies capitalism and environmental sustainability cannot coexist. We can’t save our planet without giving up the system we are prospering from. For instance, China has high pollution because industrial labor is outsourced for more profit (81-82). In China, workers’ wages and conditions can yield the most goods and cost the least. Companies will unlikely sacrifice their earnings to help the pollution. The climate is deteriorating because firms maximize their profits through methods like cheap labor and the extraction of natural