Last year WWF’s Living Planet report highlighted a grim state of affairs: a 60% decline in wild animal populations since 1970, and collapsing ecosystems (including 83% of freshwater ecosystems). That is, a sixty percent decline in population sizes (not entire species). The Conversation, considering the WWF Report, points out that capitalism is what compels the reckless human consumption that is contributing to so much biodiversity loss.
Journalist Anna Pigott suggested that naming capitalism as a root cause of ecological loss allows us to identify a particular set of practices and ideas that are not permanent nor inherent to the condition of being human.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The abstract idea of the quarter-on-quarter-growth economy driven by shareholders does not need to be like this forever. We can choose to change its shape. We can choose to bend the model. We can choose a different system. And we can know things have to change without having the perfect solution to them right away.