Task 5 - Sustainability

Sustainability is a communal concept which many individuals use as a means to tackle the problem of climate change and the environmental crisis in general. It is the ability to meet our present day needs without negatively impacting the ability of future generations to meet their needs. In reality, the responsibility of living sustainably has fallen to the individual and it tends to ostracize poorer members of the community due to a lack of affordable environmental technologies.
Capitalism is the empowering element in the economy that seems to interfere and disrupt the path of sustainability for the purpose of profit. Capitalism is always seeking gain and profit in a commodity, which in this case is sustainability. Capitalism is a method of making the most of a resource and squeezing every last drop of profit out of it whilst not replenishing that resource. The economy as it is now does not regenerate resources and as a result the world’s natural resources are dwindling and never before have we been without enough resources to supply the Earth’s population. Capitalization has the tendency to enter a potential or existing profitable market and eventually dominate that economic environment by means of accumulation.
A ‘crises of capitalism’ is when capitalization has reached its confines and has to develop new measures of profit, which results in the formation of a new market. A prime example of such an innovation is the environmental crisis and the ‘green’ market where capitalization introduced an influx of products that were disguised and marketed as ecological but in truth were equally as harmful as the original or equivalent product. This is known as ‘greenwashing’ and follows the mindset of capitalism, which upholds the idea that we can buy our way out of a disaster. An example of this is BIOX bio-diesel and the production plant that was built in Canada. The plant was built in a residential area on ‘green’ land and produced bio diesel that was more environmentally friendly that normal fuel but at a higher cost, plus the production of the diesel introduced pollution to the surrounding area. Some people could say that this would encourage people to continue spending in the current market or invest more money into a new market; both result in a capitalist gain. This is just one solution to the question of sustainability and it is a capitalist solution. The ecologists propose that instead of altering certain aspects of the capitalist structure it should be eliminated entirely to be left with a completely new system designed for the preservation and progression of environmentalism and its philosophies.
This new design would re-use and regenerate resources to supply our natural basic needs but this is unrealistic in todays market where capitalism seeks to accumulate and take profit from resources and not meet the needs of the consumer but instead stimulates the greed of the industry and the people who profit from it.