“It’s only the miracle of consumer capitalism that means you’re not lying in your own shit, dying at 43 with rotten teeth, and a little pill with a chicken on it is not going to change that. Now come on, fuck off”
Mark Corrigan
Mr Corrigan has a point. The invisible hand, despite its many detractors, has improved humanity’s lot no end. We in the West have become so comfortable that we spend our time worrying about the sexuality of daytime television hosts, or the latest surgery carried out on an identical perma-tan American.
But faced with the greatest crisis in human history, this magical hand seems to be conspicuously absent. As forests burn and sea levels rise, we invest $505bn p/a in oil and gas. As we learn about how humanity has wiped out 60% of animal populations since 1970, we continue to destroy 10 million hectares of forest land per year.
Humanity’s destruction of the natural world is, to put it simply, suicidal. Now more than ever, we need ‘the market’ to come and save us mere mortals. Why has capitalism proved to be so astonishingly impotent in our hour of need?
Money Talks
The unfortunate bottom line of the climate crisis is that resolving it is going to require cash. Lots of it. While the obvious solution to the crisis is to stop consuming so much crap, it appears that the cogs of consumerism cannot simply stop turning. So this leaves us praying for some kind of technological solution to save our (unsustainable) lifestyles.
Holding out for a shiny new bit of tech leaves us beholden to the long and arduous process of R&D. And if R&D were to have one universal law, it would surely be this: It’s Fucking Expensive.
Where is this kind of money going to come from? The only viable answer at the moment is venture capital. But the search for revolutionary technology is inevitably going to come with an extraordinary degree of risk and uncertainty. The regulatory landscape around new technology is forever changing, and there is no guarantee that any ‘solution’ is going to be effective.
Gaia’s panacea may also turn out to be bloody tricky to monetise.
All of this is enough to send shivers of fear down an investment banker’s spine. Financial directors are obligated to turn a profit, not save the world, and so substantial investment will only come from the private sector if the chance of a decent return is high. This involves minimal risk and a viable business plan.
BlackRock’s recent $118m investment in electric van group Arrival is an excellent example of this. While electric buses would certainly be a step in the right direction, it’s hardly the kind of ground-breaking change that is needed to stem the tide of entropy. But, from an investor’s perspective, it is a fairly reliable bit of tech with a solid business plan.
If only there were an organisation with access to vast amounts of cash, with a mandate to improve society rather than turn a profit.
Hold on, doesn’t the state fit that description? Didn’t the Bank of England just create £100bn out of thin air to support a bloated financial system? Isn’t the whole point of the government to protect people anyway?
Yes, yes, and yes. The state is the only institution capable of generating the funds required to tackle the climate crisis – only the state is able to absorb huge losses while focusing investment towards the most effective (rather than the most profitable) solutions.
But where will this money come from? The state can’t just create money, surely?
The answer to that is slightly more complicated. A little known fact about the British financial system is that private commercial banks have the power to literally create money out of thin air. Whenever they issue credit, they simply tap the numbers into an online ledger, and then this money becomes ‘real’ once it is spent and the debt is repaid.
We allow private banks to create money out of thin air every single day, all in the interest of turning a profit. Why would it be so radical for the state to do the same thing in the interest of saving the world?
Finance really is the secret weapon in the fight against climate change. Electric buses simply aren’t going to cut it – nation-states need to take responsibility and wield the power of finance with authority.
Big pigeon energy 