- Capitalocene

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[[File:Flint Water Crisis.jpg|thumb|Flint residents protest outside of the Michigan State Capital in January 2016.|403x403px]]
The '''Capitalocene''' is a term created out of the discussion and controversy around the newly coined term, [[Anthropocene]]. The Capitalocene refers generally to the beginning of capitalism as the start of the current [[epoch]]. The context and controversial feelings behind the meaning of the terms Anthropocene and Capitalocene are not as new as the words themselves. The branding of more recent terms, like Anthropocene, seems like a discovery of an old narrative for many. For women, indeginous, non-capitalistic, and poorer communities, the blaming of humankind for the epoch surrounding [[Anthropogenic climate change]] has not been legitimate. Some historians have suggested that the recent coining of these terms for disaster shows that the people that have historically suffered from the impacts and spoken out against [[capitalism]] the most have been left out of the conversation for a very long time.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>

== General ==
The Anthropocene epoch has no definite start date and is still a loosely defined term, which makes the debate between it and Capitalocene difficult to articulate. According to the article, Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492, Native Americans contributed to the warming of the atmosphere which was shown through a decrease in [[carbon dioxide]] [[parts per million]] (ppm) after an estimated 55 million [[Native Americans]] were killed after the arrival of European [[Colonization|colonizers]] and through the 1500s.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> This shows that even before colonial times and the industrial revolution, humans that were not participating in a capitalistic society were still contributing to the warming of our [[atmosphere]]. However this doesn’t seem significant to many scholars, such as [[Donna Haraway]]<ref name=":6">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> and Wendy Arons.<ref name=":7">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> They would argue, while yes, humans do have an impact on the warming of the planet, we hadn't seen anything significantly changing the earth's natural thermal cycles until the rise of global capitalism in the last few hundred years. Indigenous peoples did clear lands which lead to the release of carbon dioxide, but comparing that to now when there has been a much more significant amount of [[deforestation]] and [[Greenhouse gas|carbon emissions]] from burning [[Fossil fuel|fossil fuels]], it seems that the rise of capitalism is more to blame for the rampant warming of our atmosphere than any [[Socioeconomics|socio-economic]]-[[Ecology|ecological]] practice that came before it.

Jason Moore states that the Capitalocene has encompassed the past five centuries as the “Age of Capital” which is relatively the beginning of colonial times.<ref name=":8" /> Scholars such as Moore argue that generalizing human caused environmental disaster to all of humankind erases much of what needs to be addressed in the current acceleration of global warming.<ref name=":8" /> Donna Haraway similarly argues that, for as long as our species has been identified and agriculture has advanced, humans have been changing the planet.<ref name=":6" /> However naming the current epoch surrounding the changing climate has more to do with speed, acceleration, balance, scale, and complexity. Her writings seek to find when the largest and most rapid change began in recent history that has brought us to our planet’s current state.

Wendy Arons suggests that the term ‘Anthropocene’ is problematic because it assumes there is no diversity in thought, practice, and harm among human behaviors globally and blame has been too evenly distributed.<ref name=":7" /> She defines the ‘Capitalocene’ by the global spread of capitalism and the injustices that have derived from the socio-economic-ecological system. She explains that when we put blame on humanity and not the primary perpetrators, then we cannot easily agree on how to create solutions. Arons<ref name=":7" /> and Moore<ref name=":8" /> both also address that through ignoring the disastrous effects that capitalists have had on the environment through devaluing nature, we also ignore that capitalists have largely devalued certain groups of people that have experienced the backlashes of capitalism the most. Many of these groups that have been lumped with nature as “less than human” are devalued or cheapened in the same way by people that have more power than them. Lumping the oppressed with their oppressor in blame for the destruction that they were forced to take part of doesn’t seem fair.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>

== Feudalism to Capitalism ==
Feudalism generally refers to an economic mode of production of the medieval era in Europe based in the relationship between lord and peasant through an exchange of money for resources, and is often considered the predecessor of capitalism.<ref></ref> While some scholars refer to this system in terms of social organization, serfdom, it also had unique economic elements.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> In terms of its relationship to nature, Feudalism was certainly an extractivist system based on the use-value of the resources it took from the land predominantly in the agricultural process. Scholars advocating for the Capitalocene see the transition from feudalism to capitalism as a core component for understanding this concept, as they consider this transition as the start of Global Environmental Change and the Capitalocene.<ref name=":0">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> Scholars writing on this topic often trace their concepts back to the work of Karl Marx on the "proletarianization" of the work force in England, upholding his work as a fundamental aspect for critiquing capitalism.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> However, some scholars extend the work of Marx to the rest of Europe and also claim that the transition to capitalism was a reaction to the culmination of crises such as plague, failing agriculture, and deforestation caused by the collapse of the Feudalist system.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>
[[File:First landing of Columbus on the shores of the New World At San Salvador, W.I., Oct. 12th 1492.jpg|thumb|First landing of Columbus on the shores of the New World: At San Salvador, W.I., Oct. 12th 1492|370x370px]]
Further, a central concept of the Capitalocene is that capitalism treats nature and natural resources in a different manner than prior economic systems, such as Feudalism.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref name=":2">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> The main proponent of this differentiation, Jason Moore, conceptualizes the difference in terms of "resource frontiers" and "commodity frontiers."<ref name=":0" /> Essentially, for Moore, "resource frontiers" are the places where resources are extracted for their use-value in the feudalist system, and "commodity frontiers" are the places where resources are "exploited" and turned into commodities for sale on the market in the capitalist system.<ref name=":0" /> The key difference here in theories of the Capitalocene lies in the treatment of nature and labor as "commodities" of the production process.<ref name=":3">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 2, expected 1)</ref> While some scholars, such as Neil Davidson,<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> have continued to discuss this transition in very regional terms usually surrounding agriculture, some like Jason Moore argue that placing capitalism in a cross-continental way by tracing its roots through the history of European colonialism highlights deeper evidence of the Capitalocene.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> Moore furthers his stance by claiming that "the rise of capitalism is best understood through the emergence of a peculiar kind of ''place'', one in which the production of nature (capitalism as world-ecology) and the production of capital (capitalism as world-economy) were two sides of the same coin” (p. 34).<ref name=":1" />

Moreover, many scholars working in this area seek to use this past transition to contextualize many issues of capitalism that they argue persist today.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 2, expected 1)</ref><ref name=":4"></ref><ref name=":5">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 2, expected 1)</ref> The general premise of such arguments come from a push to use the Capitalocene over the Anthropocene, and many argue that this historical contextualization proves the environmental influence of capitalism.<ref name=":4" /> However, others like Sylvia Fedrici use this transitionary period to show how, in their opinion, capitalism is fundamentally grounded in systemic sexism and racism necessary to its "exploitation" of labor and the environment. In addition to these concepts, some propose that understanding the globalization of capitalism, and its relationship to nature through production, highlights potentials for a "post-capitalist" future where the Capitalocene may cease, which draw from Marxist perspectives of this transitionary period.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5" /><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> Jason Moore has recently made a strong push to show how looking at capitalism on a global scale in a colonial setting further re-historicizes this moment as the beginnings of environmental change on a global level, which he believes critiques the common false assumption of environmentalist thought and the Anthropocene that global change began with the Industrial Revolution.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref name=":8">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>

While this transition is clearly a core concept of the Capitalocene, a few scholars critiqued the notion of this transition in the past acclaiming it to have a limited view.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> These scholars propose that multiple "transitions" happened all across Europe rather than one. However, the differentiation between these perspectives seems to lie in the emphasis of an environmental perspective versus a sociological one when discussing the origins of capitalism.

== Cheapening ==
'''Cheapening''' is a logic of degradation that is theorized to lie at the core of capitalist [[World-Ecology|world-ecology.]]<ref name=":02">Velednitsky, S. (2017). The Case for Ecological Reparations: A Conversation with Jason W. Moore.</ref> Capitalist strategies to treat vulnerable groups as lesser-than-human, in an effort to accumulate [[Capital (economics)|capital]], contribute to the concept of cheapening by operating through various dimensions of inequality. As a system of domination over nature, [[capitalism]] relies on structures of [[Race (human categorization)|race]], [[Social class|class]], and [[gender]] to generate wealth and organize the [[Socio-ecological system|socio-ecological]] web of life.<ref name=":02" />

=== Seven Cheap Things ===
The idea of "cheap things" is best identified by [https://ift.tt/2yD7uDs Jason W. Moore] and [http://rajpatel.org/ Raj Patel]. In their book ''A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things,'' the authors outline seven categories that have been "cheapened" by capitalism: Nature, Work, Care, Food, Energy, Money, and Lives.<ref name=":12">Patel, R., & Moore, J. W. (2017). ''A history of the world in seven cheap things: A guide to capitalism, nature, and the future of the planet''. Univ of California Press.</ref> Capitalist conquests perform by offering temporary, inadequate solutions to considerable issues within and among each of these categories which, in turn, magnifies the ongoing crises of those structures. Moore and Patel holistically analyze these conceptual divisions and expand on how the manipulation of [[Power (social and political)|power]], [[Capital (economics)|capital]], and [[nature]] has both shaped and will continue to shape the existence of humanity.<ref name=":02" />

==== Nature ====
Cheap nature relies on the foundation of humanity's domination over the rest of the natural world. By strategically cheapening the realities of the majority of life on Earth, capitalist powers have created a process through which profits are considered more valuable than the [[people]], [[Environmental health|health]], and [[Natural environment|environment]] that serve economic growth.<ref>Schlosberg, D., & Collins, L. B. (2014). From environmental to climate justice: climate change and the discourse of environmental justice. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 5(3), 359-374.</ref> Moore and Patel demonstrate the idea of cheap nature by explaining the historical relationship between [[Human|humans]] and [[Chicken|chickens]]. Over the course of time, humans have modified and [[Genetic engineering|genetically engineered]] chickens to produce more breast meat while simultaneously de-valuing the economic cost of chicken production, the lived realities of chickens themselves, and the relationship between humans and other natural lifeforms.<ref name=":12" /> This is a symbolic example of humanity's connection, or lack of, to the rest of nature. Similarly, if humanity finds that a given resource is more or less profitable than another, the deteriorated relationship that exists between humans and life itself allows us to overproduce or discard such resources accordingly. This ideology that nature is disposable has led us into what some scholars have identified as the sixth [[Extinction event|mass extinction]] of life on Earth.<ref>Cafaro, P. (2015). Three ways to think about the sixth mass extinction. ''Biological Conservation'', ''192'', 387-393.</ref>

==== Work ====
[[Work (human activity)|Labor]] is required to serve capitalist interests. Faster, more efficient [[Production (economics)|production]] rates allow for rapid profit generation regardless of how work is conducted. As a result, capitalism has prospered from cheap work. Utilization of [[Penal labour|prison labor]] is one example of the exploitation of workers for financial gain. Incarcerated individuals are cheaply or freely employed to provide services that would otherwise demand legal wages.<ref name=":12" /> Additionally, cheap work involves the [[dehumanization]] of individuals such that their personal injuries are overlooked and ignored.<ref name=":12" /> The issue of cheap work has also been closely tied to [[Slavery in the 21st century|modern slavery]], [[Unfree labour|forced labor]], and [[forced marriage]].

==== Care ====
Cheap care can be described as "the domestic work mostly performed for nothing, and mostly by women, that is rarely factored into the cost of labor."<ref>O’Connell, M. (2018, August 24). ''A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things review – how capitalism works''. The Guardian. <nowiki>https://ift.tt/2MPA5O0> Informal caregiving is absolutely necessary to sustain workers and fuel capitalism. Thus, cheap care frequently exists as a consequence of cheap work. Ignorance towards personal injury within the realm of cheap work and a lack of affordable, accessible [[health care]] results in the need for communal infrastructure that can provide free support for those physically and/or emotionally harmed while working in the field.<ref name=":12" /> From a gendered perspective, women are disproportionately affected by this pattern and expected to play the [[caregiver]] role as a function of capitalist society.<ref name=":22">Ed Mays. (2017, October 19). ''Raj Patel: A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things''. YouTube. <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6jCjzPXNqg</nowiki></ref> Capitalism has contributed to this dichotomy between men and women, the understanding of what constitutes "real" work, and the societal roles of gender and biological sex.
[[File:Big Mac hamburger.jpg|thumb|A McDonald's Big Mac hamburger, as bought in the United States. |295x295px]]

==== Food ====
Cheap food is crucial to maintain workers and caregivers under capitalism. Because employees are paid very little for their labor, and caregivers are offered little to nothing, food must be cheap to be affordable. Over the past few decades, processed food has gotten increasingly cheaper while fresh produce, fruits and vegetables, have become increasingly more expensive.<ref name=":22" /> [[Food prices|Food price]] [[inflation]] is importantly related to distribution, power, and capital, which oftentimes results in widespread [[hunger]] and [[oppression]].<ref>Moore, J. W. (2015). Nature in the limits to capital (and vice versa). Radical Philosophy, 193, 9-19.</ref> Moreover, with recent examination and science, it is known that lower [[Crop yield|crop yields]] as a result of [[climate change]] are one reason for these price fluctuations.<ref name=":22" />

==== Energy ====
Another significant factor behind cheap food is cheap energy. Cheap energy is utilized for both plant and animal [[agriculture]] and is heavily reliant on the use of [[Fossil fuel|fossil fuels]]. Fossil fuel dependence has exacerbated our global [[carbon footprint]], increasing [[carbon dioxide]] and other [[Greenhouse gas|greenhouse gas emissions]].

==== Money ====
Cheap money allows capitalism to access fossil fuels at a relatively cheap economic cost. [[Loan|Loans]] and concessional loans from the United States government to the [[Petroleum industry|oil industry]] has allowed us to extract and distribute fossil fuels, intensifying the scope of cheap energy. Beyond the category of cheap energy, cheap money allows the U.S. [[Small Business Administration]] to offer loans to franchises that serve the community, and serve capitalism.<ref>Ed Mays. (2017, October 19). ''Raj Patel: A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things''. YouTube. <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6jCjzPXNqg</nowiki></ref>

==== Lives ====
Cheap lives is the final category of cheapening offered by Moore and Patel. Cheap lives functions as a result of capitalist ideologies that separate [[society]] and [[nature]].<ref name=":03">Patel, R., & Moore, J. W. (2017). ''A history of the world in seven cheap things: A guide to capitalism, nature, and the future of the planet''. Univ of California Press.</ref> Capitalism has historically identified [[Person of color|people of color]], [[Woman|women]], [[Indigenous peoples|indigenous groups]], and other [[Social exclusion|marginalized]] communities as "external beings", or outside of society.<ref name=":03" /> Relating back to the idea of cheap nature, there is ultimately a conclusion by those in power that these groups, along with the rest of life on Earth, is disposable.<ref>Moore, J. W. (2015). Nature in the limits to capital (and vice versa). Radical Philosophy, 193, 9-19.</ref> Correspondingly, already vulnerable members of society fall victim to capitalist structures that promote [[racism]], [[sexism]], [[Class discrimination|classism]], and other forms of [[discrimination]].<ref name=":03" />

== References ==
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