‘Green capitalism’ has no solution for the climate

Scan page 4

Daniel Tanuro: “Green Capitalism: Why it can’t work,” translated by Jane Ennis. Merlin Press, in association with Resistance Books and the International Institute for Research and Education. ISBN 978-0-85036-646-4. London, 2013 R about how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions oughly speaking, there are four schools of thought and avert climate catastrophe. The consumer behav­ ior school wants individuals to travel less, recycle more, eat locally-grown food and have fewer babies. The economic reform school proposes taxes, trading schemes, and sometimes regulations. The technology substitution school calls for new kinds of equipment. And the social change school advocates changes in the dominant system of producing and distributing material goods.

The four schools include many subdivisions. Ad­ vocates of social change, for example, include anar­ chists, autonomists, social ecologists, Marxists, and more, and there are debates within and between each of those currents. This is entirely positive: frank discussion of different views is an essential part of building an effective movement for radical social and environmental change.

“Green Capitalism: Why it can’t work,” by the noted Belgian ecosocialist Daniel Tanuro, is an im­ portant contribution to these ongoing discussions. Originally published in French as “L’impossible capi­ talisme vert” (La Découverte, 2009), it speaks to two separate audiences, challenging greens to recognize that environmental destruction cannot be stopped so long as capitalism continues, and challenging Marxists to change their views and behavior, to take into account limits to growth.

Tanuro is most successful in his challenge to main­ stream greens. He rebuts the common view that pol­ lution is caused by humanity in general—“it would be infinitely more accurate to refer to capitalist climate change instead of ‘anthropogenic’ climate change.” (p. 43) Then, in an effective argument that mostly avoids abstract economic theory, he demonstrates the prac­ tical impossibility of stopping the climate crisis by carbon taxes, emissions trading, green subsidies, or any other means short of radical social change.

The best scientific knowledge available shows that catastrophic climate change can only be avoided if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced quickly and drastically, but that can only be done by breaking the wealth and power of the world’s most powerful cor­ porations.

More broadly, a global energy revolution is re­ 4 SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 2014 quired, replacing very profitable fossil fuel systems with renewables that are not yet cost-effective in capitalist terms. An economy in which investors de­ mand short-term profits simply can’t carry through such a sweeping change: “in the short period of 40 years which is left to us, one cannot envisage how the system could instigate a transition in energy use at the necessary or possible level with its mechanisms of price, competition and the market.” (70)

“If by ‘green capitalism’ we understand a system in which the qualitative, social and ecological param­ eters are taken in account by the numerous com­ peting capitals, that is to say even within economic activity as an endogenous mechanism, then we are completely deluded. In fact, we would be talking about a form of capitalism in which the law of value was no longer in operation, which is a contradiction in terms.” (112)

But, Tanuro says, the need for a global energy revo­ lution also challenges the view defended by many so­ cialists in the 20th Century, that socialism will initi­ ate an era of increased material abundance, in which the means of production, freed from the fetters of profit, would expand to meet all human needs. Mas­ sive public investment in renewables can meet our energy needs, but at a cost: “The snag is that these investments call for material production, thus an en­ ergy source which, at least in the first phase of transi­ tion, must be mostly fossil fuel – which is a source of increased greenhouse gas emissions. … “The conclusion is inescapable. The constraints [on greenhouse gas emissions] cannot be respected unless the investments necessary for a new energy system go hand in hand with a radical reduction of energy consumption in developed countries.” (71-2)

In other words, new technology alone won’t protect the climate, because the very process of manufactur­ ing and installing it will increase emissions during the transition. That important insight is rarely men­ tioned by the technology substitution crowd.

Tanuro estimates that a 40-year global conversion to renewables, combined with necessary emission reductions and phasing out nuclear, will require a 50-75 percent reduction in energy consumption in Europe and North America. The cuts must be even greater if the transition also involves—as it surely must—substantial improvements in the living stan­ dards of the three billion people who now live in ab­ solute poverty in the global South. Much of the ener­ gy reduction can be achieved by eliminating useless or harmful activities such as advertising and arms manufacture.

Surprisingly, since he has insisted that only radical social and economic change can save the planet, he “Green Capitalism: Why it can’t work” is an impor­ tant contribution to the fight against climate change and for ecosocialism. Tanuro isn’t just a writer, he’s a leading environmental activist, and it shows—he provides a wealth of concrete information and analy­ sis that we can actually use in the struggle against capitalist ecocide. I hope it is widely read, and that it stimulates further debate and discussion, as we con­ tinue with the essential task of building a movement that agrees with Tanuro’s concluding words:

“The only possible socialism is ecosocialism which is a focused expression of the fight against the exploi­ tation of human labour and the destruction of natu­ ral resources by capitalism—from now on these two strands are indivisible. Ecosocialism does not stem from a romantic vision of establishing ‘harmony’ be­ tween humanity and nature, but from the conviction that true wealth resides in creative activity, in free time, in social relations, and in the contemplation of the world with wonder.” (143)

Postscript: Lost in translation After many negative experiences, I approach trans­ lations of left-wing books with trepidation, so I was very pleased to find that for the most part “Green Capitalism” is clear and eminently readable. Unfor­ tunately, however, someone decided to retranslate quotations that were originally published in English or that are available in authoritative English editions, rather than going to the sources. That’s contrary to good translation practice, because it results in “quotes” that don’t match the authors’ actual words.

For example, on page 41 the American Marxist philosopher Bertell Ollman is quoted in a confus­ ing translation of a French translation: “In order to understand each specific problem, it is necessary to abstract a level of generality which reveals the char­ acteristics which bear the greatest responsibility.”

Here’s what Ollman actually wrote: “It is essential, in order to understand any particular problem, to ab­ stract a level of generality that brings the character­ istics chiefly responsible for this problem into focus.”

More seriously, some of the English-to-French-toEnglish translations are simply wrong. On page 44, for example, economist Nicholas Stern’s famous de­ scription of climate change as a “market failure” is rendered as a “setback to the market.” That entirely misses the specific meaning of “market failure” in economics. Stern wrote that the market allows harm­ ful emissions, not that emissions harm the market.

This reliance on double translations is made worse by the fact that many of the book’s footnotes lack es­ sential information. It’s virtually impossible to check quotes that are identified only as “Marx, Capital, Vol. 3” or “Marx, The Grundrisse,” or “UNDP (20072008),” with no edition or page number.

“Green Capitalism” is a valuable book. It would have been much better with original quotations and prop­ er references. n This article is reprinted, with permission of the au­ thor, from Climate & Capitalism.

Scan page 5

Tony Savino / Socialist Action