Capitalism and the Environment
| Autor: | Geoffrey Jones |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2022 |
| Zdroj: | Evolutions of Capitalism ISBN: 9781529214826 Evolutions of Capitalism ISBN: 9781529214802 |
| DOI: | 10.46692/9781529214826.008 |
| Popis: | Capitalist industry since the Industrial Revolution resulted in enormous productivity increases, wealth creation and sustenance as Earth’s population soared. Yet the business system as it emerged described the impact on the natural environment as “externalities,” and took little responsibility for them. The result was growing ecological damage, which persisted despite warnings by philosophers and scientists. The results were cumulative, and were magnified from the 1980s as non-Western countries such as China experienced fast economic growth. While most studies of this phenomenon have focused on policy and regulation, this chapter is concerned with the entrepreneurs who believed that for-profit businesses could facilitate sustainability rather than decimate it. They were marginal figures, and often considered eccentric, like the followers of Rudolf Steiner, but they achieved considerable innovations. In contrast, the growth of mainstream corporate sustainability in recent decades represents a commodification of environmentalism that has turned sustainability into a code for greenwashing. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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