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ENVS461 blog 6 Unit 5: Anthropocene, Capitalocene

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By Chaoran Chen July 14, 2023 - 2:16am
ENVS461 blog 6 Unit 5: Anthropocene, Capitalocene

     In contrast to the Anthropocene view of environmental problems as a generalisation of all human-created negative impacts on the environment, Capitalocene's argument rejects the flat perspective of all human-centred irreversible damage to the environment. The Anthropocene has been characterised simply as a period in which humans have had a significant impact on our planet. Our understanding of the current state of the planet and the impact of our actions is a key element of the Anthropocene. Capitalocene treats all natural resources as external to society and treats them as something that can help capital accumulation, natural resources and human society are wrongly separated. Capitalocene's unchecked exploitation of the natural environment is based on hegemony, racism, and sexism, and Capitalocene's insatiable appetite for resources and wealth has led to an exponential increase in the rate of destruction of the environment as a result of the unlimited greed of the people.
      Capitalocene asks us to think differently about responsibility. The term Anthropocene is the wrong way to make everyone responsible for the environmental problems facing the planet. Human activity on the planet is normal and is not the main cause of the irreversible damage that the environment is facing today, it is capitalism that is responsible for this, and it is capitalism's endless demand for resources and its money-grubbing that is responsible for the neglect of the protection of the environment. When the modern class rule of capitalism endlessly accumulates capital projects, it is a robber's way of appropriating nature. The eight richest people in the world have more wealth than the bottom 3.6 billion people, and it is clear that they have appropriated more natural resources than the bottom people, but the bottom people are being held to the misnomer of Anthropocene to share equally with the tycoons the responsibility for the negative impacts on the environment. (Jason, 2017)Capitalism and its attendant racism, sexism and cultural domination are largely responsible for environmental problems.
    Politics always comes with competition, and as mentioned in Biden's speech, Biden cited the insufficiency of Trump's time in power to prove his superiority. Biden points the finger at Trump's actions by evoking the grievances in people's lives, pointing out the various inadequacies of the other party to gain an advantage in the competition. The same goes for politics and competition between countries, each seeking more resources and benefits.


Moore, jason W. (n.d.). The capitalocene and planetary justice - jason W. Moore. https://jasonwmoore.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Moore-The-Capitalocene-and-Planetary-Justice-2019-Maize.pdf