Capitalism has done in 200 years what the planet couldn't do in millions of years!

Let's compare the economy to a ball in which firms, households, states, consumption, savings, and production are located. The economy represents a closed mechanism in which all these basic elements are interrelated.

The ball we call the economy operates within the “environment” area, where all living organisms interact with each other and the physical conditions they exist in. In other words, there is an environment outside the economic ball. Like the Universe and the Earth.

The economy takes resources from the environment, processes them, produces, consumes them and returns the resources it takes from the environment to the environment as waste. Waste can be carbon dioxide, plastic , chemicals, etc.

With the beginning of the industrial revolutions, population and income growth reached dimensions never seen before in human history. In the 20th century alone, the world population quadrupled to 6.4 billion . As of 2022, the world population has reached almost 8 billion.

The graph below shows the level of the world's population from 10,000 BC to 2000. Since the beginning of the industrial revolutions in the 1800s, there has been an unprecedented population increase in human history. The planet, which closed the year 1960 with a population of 3 billion, produces a population of 1 billion again every 12 to 15 years .

Source: https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth

Population growth and global income also increased twenty-fold in the 20th century. There was a much higher rate of increase in income than population growth. This means that per capita consumption has also increased. From another perspective, the amount of resources the economy takes from the environment and the amount of waste it gives back to the environment is also increasing.

The graph below shows global income growth from 1 AD to 2018. It is striking how income growth took off with the onset of industrial revolutions.

Source:https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth

During the 20th century, the use of materials taken from nature has increased 8-fold . Humanity is consuming nature.

The Mauna Loa observatory in the Hawaiian Islands is detecting something the planet has not seen for millions of years. As of May 2022 , the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached 421 ppm . Before the industrial revolutions, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere remained stable at around 280 ppm throughout 6,000 years of human history.

The planet Earth is a living organism that has been around for 4.5 billion years. It has experienced many changes that were not caused by humans. The period when the amount of carbon dioxide exceeded 400 ppm corresponds to the Pliocene Period, 4.1 to 4.5 million years ago. It has been determined that the average sea level of the Earth was 16.2 meters higher than today during that period.

Industrial waste, which started with the industrial revolutions and reached dimensions never seen in human history in the 20th century, is increasing. As of 2021, the heat retention feature of the atmosphere has increased by 49% compared to 1990 due to the emission of greenhouse gases caused by humans. Only 31 years have passed and the increase rate is 49%!

There are limits to what nature can offer within its own health. A study by Stockholm University is trying to define these limits. According to nine criteria, a pessimistic view is encountered.

With the destruction of nature , 500 species are on the verge of extinction .

The data presented above by natural sciences tells us that the relationship between the ball called economy and the environment will eventually reach an unsustainable point. Only the production and growth performance of the economy can be measured with the gross national product (GNP). In other words, the amount of goods and services an economy produces each year is understood with GNP, but this calculation also includes the bills for the expenses made to collect the debris of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform accident that dragged the Gulf of Mexico into a major environmental disaster in 2010. There is no measurement related to the environment in GNP. GNP is an indispensable indicator, but at the point humanity has reached, other measurement tools are needed.

The understanding of mainstream economics and the developments of capitalism in the 20th century and beyond tell us that growth measured only by GNP will one day not be possible. History tells us that in times when innovation has difficulty making progress, the economy has difficulty recreating itself while recovering from the devastation it has experienced. However, environmental issues add a completely different dimension to the subject.

The threshold has been crossed. Returning from the point reached is not possible with the current capitalist understanding . The inequalities between the rich north and the poor south of the planet indicate that the north must present a new order understanding that will save the planet. But unfortunately, this does not seem possible .

Utopian, but Einstein's dream of a world government seems to be the only option left. As long as the environment is handled at a national level, neither the environment will be saved nor will sustainability in economies be possible.

The mechanism called economy created by humanity is returning the resources it takes from the environment to the environment in increasing amounts as waste, due to the increasing population and the economy that is growing to a great extent. There seems to be no other way than the degrowth of both the population and the economy. I don't think it will happen and there are many opposing views , but I think humanity is at a threshold where there is really no other choice.

I do not agree with the idea that growth should be the solution of everything through an efficient market. I do not think that renewable energies and waste management technologies will reach a point where they will stop this extraordinary environmental degradation and will be able to spread to all countries of the world. How can we expect the market to solve every problem in a period when the monopolization tendencies of technology producing companies are getting stronger? The problem can be brought to a certain solution point through global state interventions and regulations.

One day, humanity may have to make a global system change at the point where it is helpless. The necessity of being open to different ideological approaches is becoming increasingly apparent. We are still far from there, but it is too late. Maybe it is too late.