Your statement that “It is only when capitalism is conjoined with certain incentive structures that we get such a clash,” is arbitrary, kneejerk, and propagandistic. No, capitalism isn’t neutral with respect to incentives. The system has a built-in incentive: greed for (or in technical economist-speak, maximization of) profit to generate private property.
To defend capitalism, you arbitrarily extract part of its essence and set it aside as a free parameter, namely the very part that explains why previous systems such as feudalism or nomadic agriculturalism didn’t operate on the same scale as modernity and thus didn’t have as disastrous an environmental impact. Greed was sinful in the medieval and ancient worlds, but greed is fashionable in the modern one. Capitalism is responsible for that.
Yes, human nature has always been dangerous and selfish. But capitalism empowers us to have a global impact. Your defense of capitalism is just like the American gun lobby’s defense of guns. “People kill people, so stop blaming guns or advocating for gun regulation.” Meanwhile, when you flood a country with guns, you get more gun violence. Likewise, when you empower a primitive species with capitalism, consumerism, and high-tech industries, you get a revolution in economic growth which alone could have influenced global climate.
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‘Global capitalism and economic expansion are driving forces for both income inequality and climate change…Most climate scientists have come to agree that the cause of climate change is the increased emission of greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide, which have increased rapidly since the Industrial Revolution. Progressive scholars recognize the serious damage that results from a global capitalist drive. Endless efforts of private owners to expand and increase their profits force a “perpetual treadmill of production and consumption” relying mainly on fossil fuels or alternative sources of greenhouse gas emissions. In 2010, the International Energy Agency projected that by 2030, global energy use would rise over 50%, with fossil fuels still the primary source of energy. Our continued dependence on the fossil fuel industry will continue to raise global temperatures as a direct result of global capitalism. The most profitable decisions will never be the most environmentally friendly, thus private owners of corporations will refrain from making environmentally conscious decisions without regulations.’
https://pitjournal.unc.edu/content/how-capitalism-driving-force-climate-change
“However, most of this pollution comes from just a few countries: China, for example, generates around 30% of all global emissions, while the United States is responsible for almost 14%. In the ranking below you can find the 10 countries that produce the most emissions, measured in millions of tons of CO2 in 2019.
1. China, with more than 10,065 million tons of CO2 released.
2. United States, with 5,416 million tons of CO2
3. India, with 2,654 million tons of CO2
4. Russia, with 1,711 million tons of CO2
5. Japan, 1,162 million tons of CO2
6. Germany, 759 million tons of CO2
7. Iran, 720 million tons of CO2
8. South Korea, 659 million tons of CO2
9. Saudi Arabia, 621 million tons of CO2
10. Indonesia, 615 million tons of CO2”
https://climatetrade.com/which-countries-are-the-worlds-biggest-carbon-polluters/
“It scarcely matters how green you think you are. The main cause of your environmental impact isn’t your attitude. It isn’t your mode of consumption. It isn’t the choices you make. It’s your money. If you have surplus money, you spend it. While you might persuade yourself that you are a green mega-consumer, in reality you are just a mega-consumer. This is why the environmental impacts of the very rich, however right-on they may be, are massively greater than those of everyone else.
“Preventing more than 1.5C of global heating means that our average emissions should be no greater than two tonnes of carbon dioxide per person per year. But the richest 1% of the world’s people produce an average of more than 70 tonnes. Bill Gates, according to one estimate, emits almost 7,500 tonnes of CO2, mostly from flying in his private jets. Roman Abramovich, the same figures suggest, produces almost 34,000 tonnes, largely by running his gigantic yacht.
“The multiple homes that ultra-rich people own might be fitted with solar panels, their supercars might be electric, their private planes might run on biokerosene, but these tweaks make little difference to the overall impact of their consumption…
“But more important than the direct impacts of the ultra-wealthy is the political and cultural power with which they block effective change. Their cultural power relies on a hypnotising fairytale. Capitalism persuades us that we are all temporarily embarrassed millionaires. This is why we tolerate it. In reality, some people are extremely rich because others are extremely poor: massive wealth depends on exploitation. And if we did all become millionaires, we would cook the planet in no time at all. But the fairytale of universal wealth, one day, secures our obedience.”
“Fast fashion is another source of capitalist interests which contributes to climate change, producing a major amount of the world’s emissions. Fast fashion creates lots of air and water pollution, by releasing several greenhouses gases, accounting for 20% of global wastewater whilst contributing to 10% of global carbon emissions. Certain materials used within fast fashion such as polyester are very damaging to the environment, taking hundreds of years to eventually decompose. Further through its carbon footprint, which is around double that of other materials such as cotton, it is a damaging but cheap resource used for mass production within fast fashion. Simply, one of the biggest problems when it comes the impact of fashion on the environment is how much we throw away. It is very common for people to buy outfits just to wear them once, resulting in lots of fashion ending up in the bin. Fast fashion also creates microtrends, leading to overconsumption and overproduction of clothes, and eventually significant waste…
“Food waste is another element to climate change as rotting waste can cause the release of greenhouse gases. Within the UK, millions of food products are wasted everyday due to overproduction and overconsumption from the public, with many people throwing food away or leaving it to go out of date. Due to capitalism and competition between companies, food production and waste is at a high with about a third of fruit and vegetables being rejected for being the wrong size or shape before it even reaches the shops. And when this food is thrown away, it rots and releases yet more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Production based on never-ending accumulation is the prime motor of the capitalist system as the less privileged lower classes and less developed countries face the effects of the climate crisis.”
