5. Análisis del Ambiente
5.1. Ambiente interno
5.1.3. Mercadeo y ventas
As ecosocialist Ian Angus (2016) bluntly points out, with respect to the effects of global warming and climate change “we are not all in this together.”80 In the short term at least, and perhaps even in the medium term, affluent people with sufficient resources can insulate and protect themselves from the worst immediate effects of global warming and climate change (Angus 2016; see also di Muzio 2015). However, given the uncertainties involved, it is highly likely that even the wealthiest and most privileged will not be able to ‘buy’ their way out of the longer-‐term effects of a changing biosphere if it shifts to a different state. Scientists warn that changes within complex systems are non-‐linear and unpredictable, and that sudden shifts within the physical Earth System could take everyone by surprise if poorly-‐understood,
planetary-‐tipping boundaries are crossed (Cai, Lenton & Lontzek 2016; Lenton et al. 2008; Rockström 2009).81 A graphical depiction of some potential tipping points, as well as some of the possible interactions between them, are shown in Figure 7 below.
80 “We are not all in this together” is the title of Chapter 11 in Angus’ (2016) book,
Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil capitalism and the crisis of the earth system.
81 According to Rockström (2015, p. 5), four out of nine planetary boundaries have been
transgressed: biosphere integrity, interference with the nitrogen and phosphorous cycles, climate change and land use change.
Source: Cai, Lenton & Lontzek (2016, p. 521)
Despite the currently dominant factions of global elites and policymakers choosing to limit their responses to these unfolding ecological disasters to woefully
inadequate, voluntary and incremental measures that are not legally binding and that experts calculate will result in rising average temperatures of 3.2°C even if fully implemented (UNEP 2016a), Naomi Klein is correct to conclude that when it comes to climate change, ‘this changes everything’ (Klein 2014): no amount of politicking can change the reality of how the actually existing Earth System responds to physical inputs and outputs.82 As Steffen et al. (2011, p. 862) point out when comparing the ideologically-‐informed rejection of Darwinian evolution to a similarly ideologically-‐
82 Refer to Farrell (2016) for an analysis of corporate links to sources of misinformation
about the reality and severity of climate change.
Figure 7: Map of five potential climatic tipping points and possible effects on other elements of the Earth System
based denial of the urgency of reducing anthropogenic GHG emissions in order to mitigate climate change83:
Darwin’s insights into our origins provoked outrage, anger and disbelief but did not threaten the material existence of society of the time. The ultimate drivers of the Anthropocene, on the other hand, if they continue unabated through this century, may well threaten the viability of contemporary civilization and perhaps even the future existence of Homo sapiens.
While many of those with the wealth and power to control world affairs apparently feel themselves to be exempt from the laws of physics and believe themselves to be invincible (perhaps because they rely on some future, as yet undiscovered or
undeveloped, technological innovation to save the day), ecosocialists and climate justice movement actors are concerned about how many of the least powerful, poorest and most vulnerable people who do not even contribute to global warming are the first to suffer from its effects (Harrington et al. 2016; Savo et al. 2016) Damaging effects of global warming range from changing weather patterns disrupting normal agricultural production and threatening food supplies (IPCC 2014a) to increasingly powerful typhoons killing thousands and leave millions homeless (Campbell 2013). It is not only disadvantaged people in the Global South that suffer the consequences of ‘business as usual’: poor and vulnerable people and communities in the so-‐called ‘advanced’ capitalist countries, who can ill afford to deal with additional crises, also face the devastating effects of changing weather patterns and ‘extreme weather events’ that result from global warming. The lack of resources and preparedness of poor communities when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005 greatly exacerbated the effects of the disaster (Schlosberg & Collins 2014), and poorer people also suffered worse consequences as a result of Hurricane Sandy seven years later.84 These examples illustrate that whether they live
83 UNEP (n.d.) explains the meaning of climate change mitigation as follows: “Climate
change mitigation refers to efforts to reduce or prevent emissions of greenhouse gases. Mitigation can mean using new technologies and renewable energies, making older equipment more energy efficient, or changing management practices or consumer behavior.”
84 In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the realities of capitalist social relations asserted
themselves in how “reconstruction assistance was allocated disproportionately to homeowners rather than tenants, even though the latter were more likely to be in the lower-‐income bracket” (IDMC 2015, p. 51), and how over 39 000 people who had to
in the Global North or in the Global South, the already-‐precarious existence of disadvantaged and poor communities further exacerbates their vulnerability to the effects of global warming and the resultant ‘extreme weather’ (Leichenko & Silva 2014). Given the evidence, ecosocialists argue that climate change is not a Global North/Global South issue: it is a class issue because in a capitalist system the
material resources that individuals and communities have access to determine their life chances in a variety of ways, including in how effectively they can cope with the ravages of ‘extreme’ weather events. These ‘extreme’ weather events are,
moreover, occurring at a time when the reorganisation of the material forces of production and the shifting balance of power in the social forces of production (that is, in the balance of power between capital and labour) result in more and more Global North workers joining the ranks of the disadvantaged communities of the Global South as they ‘fall’ into precarious existences and poverty as unemployment rises due to the relocation of manufacturing and other industries to cheaper labour havens in the Global South, and as governments continue to implement ‘flexible labour market’ and wage repression policies that lead to underemployment and the casualisation of work (Heyes, Lewis & Clark 2012).