The Anthropocene Myth

 

“The Anthropocene Myth” by Andreas Malm reflects on how the capitalism giants might have changed our views on how we act against climate change as a country. Malm believes that the strong undercover hands are “Blaming all of the humanity for climate change [in order to] let capitalism off the hook” (Malm 1). While I agree with Malm that we’ve been impacted by the “reliance of capitalist on the extraction and use of fossil energy” (1), I still insist that the evidence that he mentions is inconsiderate of the fact that a country needs to make sacrifices in order to make progress.

 

Malm starts by writing about how “Last year was the hottest year ever recorded” (1) and goes on blaming it on how the world is still using coal as their main energy, which is a valid point that does have an extremely big impact on climate change. When we “learned how to tap the energy reserves stored in detrital carbon.”  it led us “one million years later, to burning a barrel of oil.” He believes that the industry has made it seem like “we are all implicated” in the policies made by capitalists. In his opinion, “a brutal 1 percent screwing the planet and a noble 99 percent opposing them”. He goes on to compare The States to third nation countries. Stating that “A single average US citizen emits more than 500 citizens of Ethiopia, Chad, Afghanistan, Mali, or Burundi” (5).

 

Compare apples to apples. The biggest red flag, in my opinion, is when Malm starts comparing The United States to third nation countries. Yes, New York City might be the land of excessive use but also the land of opportunity as ranked by many statistics. It would be more accepting if he compared New York to some of the same ranked cities like Tokyo. He claims that “The 19 million inhabitants of New York State alone consume more energy than the 900 million inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa” (5). He mentions sub-Saharan Africa as an example to compare to New York. One of the most populated countries in the sub-Saharan Africa is Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s huge population of about 102 million (2016) makes it the second most populous nation in Africa, after Nigeria. Looking at the stats, Malm is comparing a country with a 9.86% inflation rate to the United States at 2.1% (“Ethiopia Inflation Rate | 2006-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | Forecast”). In addition, looking at the Human Development Index rankings, Ethiopia is ranked 173rd as of 2018 while the US is ranked 13th (“Human Development Reports”). Comparing one of the poorest countries in the world united states is just unacceptable. America won’t be where it is as a country without the sacrifices they with their energy usage.

 

Clean energy does not come easy. The way Malm puts it renewable energy might seem like the solution to all our problems, but there is a catch. One disadvantage with renewable energy is that it is difficult to generate the quantities of electricity that are as large as those produced by traditional fossil fuels. This means that we need to reduce the amount of energy we use or simply build more energy facilities. It also indicates that the best solution to our energy problems may be to have a balance of many different power sources. fuels are far higher in energy density than any clean energy source. It took us years to develop electric cars it’s impossible to get the same results with a city at least with the technology that we have at the moment.

 

Capitalism giants might have changed our views on how we act against climate change as a country, however, comparing one of the most advanced countries to a developing one or arguing about how we should use clean energy without considering the basic needs is not valid. Climate change is something that everyone knew it would happen. It may be unstoppable now but compared to how far we’ve come, it may have been worth it.

 

Work Cited

 

“Ethiopia Inflation Rate | 2006-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | Forecast”. Tradingeconomics.Com, 2018, https://tradingeconomics.com/ethiopia/inflation-cpi.

 

“Human Development Reports”. Hdr.Undp.Org, 2018, http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/HDI.

 

Malm, Andreas. “The Anthropocene Myth”. Jacobinmag.Com, 2015, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/03/anthropocene-capitalism-climate-change/.