Guest essay by Eric Worrall
A team of scientists appointed by the United Nations has reported that a free market system cannot provide the economic transition required to defeat climate change.
Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism’s Imminent Demise
By Nafeez Ahmed
Aug 28 2018, 1:40amA climate change-fueled switch away from fossil fuels means the worldwide economy will fundamentally need to change.
Capitalism as we know it is over. So suggests a new report commissioned by a group of scientists appointed by the UN Secretary-General. The main reason? We’re transitioning rapidly to a radically different global economy, due to our increasingly unsustainable exploitation of the planet’s environmental resources.
Climate change and species extinctions are accelerating even as societies are experiencing rising inequality, unemployment, slow economic growth, rising debt levels, and impotent governments. Contrary to the way policymakers usually think about these problems, the new report says that these are not really separate crises at all.
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For the “first time in human history,” the paper says, capitalist economies are “shifting to energy sources that are less energy efficient.” This applies to all forms of energy. Producing usable energy (“exergy”) to keep powering “both basic and non-basic human activities” in industrial civilisation “will require more, not less, effort.”
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The shift to renewables might help solve the climate challenge, but for the foreseeable future will not generate the same levels of energy as cheap, conventional oil.
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The new report is available here
From the report;
… Rapid economic transition requires proactive governance – markets cannot accomplish the task
It is clear from these examples that strong political governance is required to accomplish the key transitions. Market-based action will not suffice – even with a high carbon price. There must be a comprehensive vision and closely coordinated plans. Otherwise, a rapid system-level transformation toward global sustainability goals is inconceivable. Mazzucato (2013, 2018) has examined this topic from the perspective of innovation policy and argues that historically, major system-level innovations such as the US Apollo program have required the state to set the mission and coordinate and finance much of the related research and development. According to her research, achieving system-level transition has required and will require proactive mission-oriented innovation – it will not be enough for the state to fix “market failures” reactively. Of course, innovation alone is not enough, and we will return to the question of limiting resource use and organizing jobs below. …
Read moreL https://bios.fi/bios-governance_of_economic_transition.pdf
No doubt the United Nations will step in to provide the necessary strong governance if we ask them to.
As it happens we have empirical evidence to test this assertion that socialism is superior to capitalism for saving the natural environment. David Legates points out recent historical examples where two modern societies were split, one part to develop for 50 years under a socialist autocracy and the other part under a free market democracy. What can we learn from these two experiments: North/South Korea and East/West Germany?
https://rclutz.wordpress.com/2018/08/27/socialist-snow-job/
Is anyone surprised by this? It has been obvious all along that this is the left’s agenda, why else would they embrace climate change and renewable energy with such enthusiasm?
They think we are a pack of dung beetles-able to swallow limitless quantities of bullshit. A call to end what makes a free society and our very civilisation itself tick based on a theory that is taboo to question should be making EVERYONE sit up and question .
The refusal to debate the issue-just destroy society should be getting those alarm bells ringing loud and clear.
Well, it DOES have my alarm bells ringing, but I also have enough sense to know that if this were NOT available for public scrutiny, then it would sneak in on little cat feet and pounce on us. And I don’t want that. Neither do you.
Well this is actually very refreshing! Glad to see the warmists admitting their true agenda.
“Capitalism as we know it is over.” Riiiight. Just like “the debate is over”. They do live in their own fantasy land, wherein declaring that something is over, finished, makes it so. Pathetic.
“Capitalism as we know it is over.”
Capitalism as they have lampooned it was over a century ago.
The moon landings did not require a ‘systems change’. They are speaking of a Manhattan Project but demanding that the science be subborned to the twin political goals of total societal control and the end of democratic representation. How convenient for the winners.
This is nothing more than rampant materialism in another form. Soon it will be illegal to point out their King of All Ideas has no clothes, not even underwear. Dialectical materialism is nothing more than the promise of material fruits at the cost of intellectual and spiritual liberty. Capitalism, which thrives on over-consumption and distractions, is rigged against the worker materially, and against the capitalists ethically. The consequence of both approaches is ultimately monstrous.
We need to step outside the box.
Scientists say capitalism is over? Hmm…maybe I am anti-science.
Biophysical economist? He could have shortened his title with just saying he’s a communist.
“Capitalism as we know it is over.”
If this is the case, then I suggest we relocate the United Nations to Venezuela…
Agreed, as long as the USA does not give them any more money.
Oh! What would happen if Trump said ‘time to kick the UN out of the USA and the USA withdraw from its membership’? The weeping, the wailing, the howling in the outer darkness!!!!
Just to be safe, I may order a couple of oil lamps from Lehman’s Hardware. Nothing wrong with readiness, right?
… and then the mask of environmentalism briefly slipped off and the hideous grin, dripped in blood, of Marxist collectivism was exposed.
Capitalism as we know it is over. – Nafeez Ahmed
The problem with socialism is that you run out of other people’s money. Margaret Thatcher.
Gee whiz, capitalism is the only thing that works and lifts people out of the Bog of Despair. Capitalism generates cash, independent entrepreneurism generates innovation and advances in just about everything including generating cash.
And Nafeez wants to do away with all of that? Where does he think money comes from? A closet?
Well, at least we know what goes on in his corner of the room. Cash doesn’t generate itself. If a country’s economy is so badly mismanaged that it turns into Venezuela, now politely termed the ‘depths of Hell’, you can thank a socialist for that.
Thanks for the article. It gives us a real insight to the annoyingly ignorant minds of socialists.
I think he has one of those oh so precious money trees, you know, the ones you just give a little shake to & down falls oodles of dosh!!!
It’s all just empty talk anyway, like most green ideas. I mean how many divisions the UN has? And even if they somehow manage to convice nations to adopt their ideas, soon people will realise the cure will be worse than the disease.
Fredar
The UN’s divisions?
Tens of millions of kindergarten teachers, elementary education-indoctrinated and idealized teacher, every indoctrainted high school teacher, millions of college administrators, professors and staff members, tens of thousands of ill-educated but propagandized members of the mass mainstream news readers ….
These “divisions” really do control the message (“Why can’t we all just “GET IN LINE NOW CHILDREN!” and “get along?”
Without gun access (to really resist the government) and with thought control and with speech control, the UN (any domesticated government) really does have all of the divisions it needs.
Disarming the people is the first step in the Totalitarian process, when the people cannot fight back, they’ve won!
I think that just delays things. SOMEONE has guns, if only governments, and others will take them away if necessary. 3-D printing, homemade weapons, IEDs, and bombs will also contribute to the general defense. If even that fails, economic collapse is inevitable under a totalitarian government.
Wonder what new economic system these people think we should switch to in order to make the weather better?
Bet zillions of dollars to doughnuts that its socialism…
How can you say such a thing? 🙂
“A climate change-fueled switch away from fossil fuels means the worldwide economy will fundamentally need to change.”
is what was said.
“Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism’s Imminent Demise” and
“UN Appointed Climate Science Team Demands The End of Capitalism”
is NOT what was said, i.e., just made up.
While the words are different, the meaning is the same.
When a liberal tries to discuss anything, negative labels towards conservatives immediately come out of their mouths. When called on it, they apologize (saying they meant no offense), then proceed to repeat what they just said, with a slightly different choice of words. Liberals seem to think 3 things:
1) Everyone else must be thinking the same bad thoughts they know themselves to be thinking.
2) A negative label will shame a person into toeing the line. (No need for rational thought.)
3) Successful persuasion is just a matter of finding the right words. (Actual meaning is irrelevant.)
SR
The new scare board game at the UN is to make a report out of a scrabble of key words dumped on the table using no science or rational thought process. It’s called “Doom Scrabble” and each (country) pays to stay or leave the game.
Perhaps a BFG would upset the Doom scenario…
I call upon the United States to cut off the electrical supply to the UN building and hand out dung to all those wanting heat. UN!, live without capitalism. YOU adopt Socialism. We’ll watch the progression to destruction.
Lead by example.
Just because the UN isn’t very smart, doesn’t mean that they’re not extremely dangerous.
Get your scare screams in now before the satellites record further drops in global temps from ocean cycle decline.
I wonder how much of the inequality, unemployment, etc is caused by the “welfare mentality”. Having to provide your own food, clothing and shelter seems to keep folks focused on the important things.
Weird, a group appointed by the UN who desperately want to set up unaccountable world governance backs up this position. Credibility =0.
A desire for Arcadian Socialism is basic to the green ideology, along with hating people and their works. I think they desire “renewable energy” precisely because it will not work to sustain industrial society.
“It’s not a bug, it’s as feature”.
I saw one time where the Flat Earth Society used the UN flag to prove the Earth was flat.
I think I trust the Flat Earth Society more than I trust the UN.
So FINALLY they show their real colours and say what C Monkton has been pointing out for years. Climate is only the anvil to bend the rod. World socialist government is what this is really all about. But guys, without capitalism where does the money come from to pay all your lackies? Oh the Chavez system …..oh that will work!
The end of Capitalism means the end of Freedom. This is because whereas you can have Capitalism without Freedom, you cannot have Freedom without Capitalism. To ban Capitalism means to ban one of the most important human Freedoms, namely, the Freedom to run your own business, to strive to establish and grow your own business, the Freedom to join a business of your choosing either directly or by buying into it–it is the economic Freedom. No human Freedom is more important and more significant than this one.
Of course they do. The usual suspects.
Kinda makes you think ‘the end of capitalism’ is really their end goal and ‘climate change’ is just the platform.