How Capitalism Caused Climate Change
Heyyo!
This month into the history of fossil fuels. I little bit ago I read Andrea Malm’s Fossil Capital, and knew I had to do a video on it. It turns out the subject matter was a little hard to fit into just one video. So I made TWO. The first part you can watch below, and the second part will come out next month (but it’s available on Nebula if you don’t want to wait). This month’s video looks at the adoption of fossil fuels during the Industrial Revolution in order to understand why capitalism is so addicted to fossil fuels. To learn more, check out the video below!
Three Quotes:
“Machinery does not just act as a superior competitor to the worker, always on the point of making him superfluous… It is a power inimical to him… It is the most powerful weapon for suppressing strikes, those periodic revolts of the working class against the working class against the autocracy of capital”
— Karl Marx
“Steam gained supremacy in spite of water being abundant, cheaper and at least as powerful, even and efficient.”
— Andreas Malm
“At a certain stage in the historical development of capital, fossil fuels become a necessary material substratum for the production of surplus value[…] they are utilised across the spectrum of commodity production as the material that sets it in physical motion. […] These have now become the general lever for surplus-value production.”
— Andreas Malm
Three Links:
The Origins of Fossil Capital: From Water to Steam in the British Cotton Industry (Andreas Malm)
Why capitalism is hopelessly addicted to fossil fuels (Climate & Capitalism)
Fossil Capital (Andreas Malm)
Hope you have a wonderful weekend,
Charlie