David Attenborough made waves at this year’s Davos Forum (2019 Link in references). Heralding the end of the Holocene and the birth of the “Anthropocene”. As a beloved national treasure, Sir David Attenborough will have caused a stir amongst younger generations, in which his voice probably narrated the majority of their childhoods. Whilst I wished this concept is a fantasy; it is a term that needs to be imprinted in every child’s, world leader and member of societies lexicon. It is true, the human age is well under age way. Sadly, David Attenborough went short of condemning the largest cause of global warming; modern capitalism.
The Anthropocene is not new, whilst certainly controversial. This concept has an established theoretical pedigree. Believed to be first been termed in the 1960s, whilst this blog does not have the capacity to confirm it, from geology. Anthropocene refers to the impact of human activities on the environment, changing the makeup of the earth’s ecosystem and climate. There is no consensus on when it began, anywhere 2000 BC to 1940s are some suggested dates. Yet there is little debate about whether the Anthropocene it is now underway and it is here to stay. Originally a geological term, this piece will examine the political and socio-economic aspects of the term as this is a social sciences blog. A key contributor to the field is Dr Jason Moore.
Jason Moore adds another dimension to the Anthropocene, the Capitalocene (Moore, 2016). Generally, academia and society have been reluctant to entertain the Capitalpocene. And why should it? it points directly to the key economic mechanism causing man-made climate change. Whilst the author of this post does not agree with many of the aspects of the Capitalpocene it is a controversial unit of analysis that encourages a new element in the debate. Since this a blog aimed at examining agriculture and the global food chain from different perspectives, I think it is only fair to give it its fair chance. The Capitalocene can be defined as “a way of organising nature” (Moore, 2016, p. 7). This is in its self is not radical. However the additional elements of an “age of capital… capitalism as a world ecology of power, capital and nature” is (Moore, 2016).
What’s the link between capitalism, agriculture and the environment? Well, they have been inter-linked since their inception in a variety of ways. Land has always been a prized asset. The production or procurement of food has always been a critical part of any society, historical or present. This view is inherently Marxist but it brings an enlightening perspective to view the production of food. Food fuelled capitalism, physically, which in turn created more food to enable further industrial production. Moore examines the industrial revolution in Europe which was only possible through the creation of cheap and available food. These ideas are reflected by other authors such as Mintz’s “Sweetness and the Power” (Mintz, 1985)and Collingham’s “The Hungry Empire”(Collingham, 2018). Without cheap and widely available foodstuffs, labourers would simply not have the energy to do the tasks required of them. Food literally powered the industrial revolution. No food, no economic development, it is as simple as that.
What people have missed in the concept of the Capitalocene is that it is substituting the driver of change from humans in the “Anthro” with a regime of production, capitalism. This may seem a pointless theoretical switch, yet it more accurately describes the causes of man-made climate change. Yes, capitalism is a product of human behaviour, but capitalism differentiates us from being simply one of the many species on Earth to the key driver behind global warming. Whilst it is up to you to make your own mind, I encourage you to consider it. The world is changing at an increasing rate. David Attenborough was right to bring up the fact that we are in Anthropocene, but is it really that radical to add the concept of the Capitalocene
References
David Attenborough Davos Speech. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuudPum21nE
Collingham, L., 2018. The Hungry Empire: How Britain’s quest for food shaped the modern world, Vintage. Penguin Random House UK, London.
Mintz, S.M., 1985. Sweetness and Power: The Place of sugar in Modern History. Penguin Books, New York.
Moore, J.W., 2016. Anthropocene or Capitalocene? : Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism. PM Press, New York.
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