Environmental Impacts Of Capitalism And Climate Change

Capitalism is an economic system whereby the industries and the means of production are operated for profit and entirely owned by the private sector. Environmentalism is a broad ideology and a social movement, which express the need for environmental protection. Environmentalist groups also desire the improvement of environmental health. Capitalism often induces environmentalism because the capitalists undertake vast economic activities, which lead to environmental disasters, destruction of habitats and the extinction of many species. The environmental issues that capitalism induces include: Climate change, oil spills, deforestation and dredging. These environmental problems result in the creation of environmental activist groups who seek

How Capitalism induces environmentalism from climate change

One of the many environmental impacts of capitalism that results in the inducement of environmentalism is climate change. Climate changes is caused by the emission of fossil fuels into the atmosphere. These fossil fuels cause the atmosphere to thicken, which in turn traps heat from the sun. Climate change is causing numerous environmental catastrophes around the world. Some of the environmental implications of climate change include: melting sea ice at the poles, drought, increasingly intense tropical storms and retreating glaciers. The melting of sea ice at the poles will result in the rise in sea levels, which would impact low-lying communities such as Male, Tuvalu and Micronesia. Drought is also having a gradually intense impact on the US state of California as shown by this image below. This image conveys that because of climate change, the drought situation is getting worse (Buis A, Cole S. 2014). Climate change has resulted in the rise of environmentalist groups, which are campaigning against the burning of fossil fuels, which are causing these environmental catastrophes. One of these environmentalist groups is Greenpeace. Greenpeace is a NGO, which has offices in over 40 countries; they use

Oil spills occur when ships run aground and the oil inside the ship leaks out into the ocean, which has a catastrophic effect on life. Any animals that are caught in the oil slicks risk dying from suffocation because the oil clogs up the lungs. In April 2010 the Chinese ship Shen Neng 1 ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef at full speed, which resulted in the ship leaking 4 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and anti-fouling paint into the ocean. The damage from this accident was severe. The ship left a 3km scar on the reef. Scientists have estimated that it could take 10-20 years for the reef to recover from the damage the Chinese ship caused (Fraser, A. 2010). This accident resulted in the creation of an environmentalist campaign called: Fight for the Reef. Fight For The Reef has been attempting to increase awareness of the danger ships pose to the Great Barrier Reef because once the new shipping ports like Abbot point are built, the amount of ships passing through the Great Barrier Reef will increase. They estimate that the amount of ships passing through the ships will increase from 4,000 ships a year to 7000 ships within a few years. This emphasizes that as the number of ships passing through the reef increases, so will the increase in risk of another oil spill occurring (Fight for the Reef, publishing date unknown). This risks the environmental integrity of the