In “The Anthropocene Myth” by Andreas Malm, he states that the worsening state of our environment is due to the capitalist mindsets of the people in power all over our world. He begins his argument by pointing to the fact that the earth is becoming hotter and hotter yet our number one method of producing energy has not changed for the better and is still coal. He is shocked that even though we know so much more about the changing environment our effect on it has actually still worsened. Malm doesn’t believe that the term “Anthropocene” is the proper term for what is happening as it is making mankind out to be a force that is making huge effects on our climate and geography. His point is that it is not all of mankind, but certain people.
He attempts to convey the message that it is not the fault of all humanity that this issue is persevering yet that is the fault of a select few very powerful people that control how our energy is created. The people are Malm puts to blame are wealthy and powerful capitalists; now there is bias in his argument as he is blaming these people with a completely different political and economic ideology that are wholeheartedly against his own as he is a writing for the Jacobin, which is a magazine that speaks from a very far left leaning standpoint. They are the self-proclaimed voice of the left in America and even consider themselves socialist. Given this the people that Malm is blaming for these issues the exact people that he is fighting, therefore it would be logical that he would blame this group.
Malm uses the word Anthropocene continuously throughout his piece which makes sense as the article addresses Malm’s opinion on the term. Anthropocene is a term that was created to describe the huge effect that we have on our environment and that humankind is now a noticeable mark on the geological calendar. The author makes reference to Naomi Klein in “This Changes Everything.” She makes the point capitalism and neo-liberalism is the cause of such a great decline in our environment and that it is not getting better. Malm notes that the beginning of capitalism was the creation of the steam engine. He also writes about when England discovered the coal deposits in India during their Imperialism and how they had a myriad of uses for in England. This was the true beginning of coal burning capitalism. Malm also quotes Rex Tillerson as saying “My philosophy is to make money. If I can drill and make money, then that’s what I want to do.” Tillerson’s opinion shows that a capitalistic mentality finds money for a short period of time more valuable than the endurance of our environment. One other point that Malm makes is that the more developed and Capitalistic a country becomes the more wasteful it becomes for example “The 19 million inhabitants of New York State alone consume more energy than the 900 million inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa.” Because of capitalism we pollute more, we use more and we destroy more. With our society becoming more and more developed we damage more and more.
Malm’s point is that it is not the fault of all of humanity that the state of our environment is declining, but it is the fault of capitalism and the leaders of it. He believes that because of the people of power in places that are economically capitalistic, they are doing damage to our environment and they are the ones to blame for our unchanging downfall.