{"id":37504,"date":"2018-09-08T11:44:56","date_gmt":"2018-09-08T16:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=37504"},"modified":"2018-09-08T11:44:56","modified_gmt":"2018-09-08T16:44:56","slug":"scientists-warn-the-un-of-capitalisms-imminent-demise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=37504","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism&#8217;s Imminent Demise"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"short-form-article__header m-l-aut-xs m-r-aut-xs m-l-0-xl m-r-0-xl\">\n<h3 class=\"hed-xxl article__title m-t-3-xs m-t-4-m m-b-3-xs m-b-4-m\"><a href=\"https:\/\/motherboard.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/43pek3\/scientists-warn-the-un-of-capitalisms-imminent-demise\">Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism&#8217;s Imminent Demise<\/a><\/h3>\n<div class=\"short-form-article__header-dek-wrapper\">\n<p class=\"article__dek hed-l m-b-5-xs\"><strong>A climate change-fueled switch away from fossil fuels means the worldwide economy will fundamentally need to change.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-body__share-icons-wrapper dsp-none-xs dsp-block-m\">\n<div class=\"article-body__share-icons\">\n<div class=\"social-list m-0-xs p-0-xs dsp-flex-xs\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"short-form-article__bounding-box short-form-article--only\">\n<div class=\"short-form-article__body m-l-aut-xs m-r-aut-xs col-7-xl col-12-hd m-l-0-xl m-r-0-xl\">\n<div class=\"short-form-article__body__content\">\n<div class=\"article_img_wrap m-b-2-xs\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/articles\/5b8418b8d394f10006e3df61\/lede\/1535384018495-shutterstock_251957839.jpeg?crop=1xw%3A0.8496978851963746xh%3Bcenter%2Ccenter&amp;resize=2000%3A*\" media=\"(min-width: 1250px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/articles\/5b8418b8d394f10006e3df61\/lede\/1535384018495-shutterstock_251957839.jpeg?crop=1xw%3A0.8496978851963746xh%3Bcenter%2Ccenter&amp;resize=1250%3A*\" media=\"(min-width: 1050px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/articles\/5b8418b8d394f10006e3df61\/lede\/1535384018495-shutterstock_251957839.jpeg?crop=1xw%3A0.8496978851963746xh%3Bcenter%2Ccenter&amp;resize=1050%3A*&amp;output-quality=55\" media=\"(min-width: 850px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/articles\/5b8418b8d394f10006e3df61\/lede\/1535384018495-shutterstock_251957839.jpeg?crop=1xw%3A0.8496978851963746xh%3Bcenter%2Ccenter&amp;resize=850%3A*&amp;output-quality=55\" media=\"(min-width: 650px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/articles\/5b8418b8d394f10006e3df61\/lede\/1535384018495-shutterstock_251957839.jpeg?crop=1xw%3A0.8496978851963746xh%3Bcenter%2Ccenter&amp;resize=750%3A*&amp;output-quality=55\" media=\"(min-width: 400px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/articles\/5b8418b8d394f10006e3df61\/lede\/1535384018495-shutterstock_251957839.jpeg?crop=1xw%3A0.8496978851963746xh%3Bcenter%2Ccenter&amp;resize=650%3A*&amp;output-quality=55\" media=\"(min-width: 0px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/articles\/5b8418b8d394f10006e3df61\/lede\/1535384018495-shutterstock_251957839.jpeg?crop=1xw%3A0.8496978851963746xh%3Bcenter%2Ccenter&amp;resize=650%3A*&amp;output-quality=55\" data-src=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/articles\/5b8418b8d394f10006e3df61\/lede\/1535384018495-shutterstock_251957839.jpeg?resize=720:*\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<p class=\"article__lede__credit bod-xs m-b-5-xs\">Image:\u00a0Shutterstock<\/p>\n<div class=\"article__body dsp-block-xs bod-m\">\n<p>Capitalism as we know it is over. So suggests a new report commissioned by a group of scientists appointed by the UN Secretary-General. The main reason? We\u2019re transitioning rapidly to a radically different global economy, due to our increasingly unsustainable exploitation of the planet\u2019s environmental resources.<\/p>\n<p>Climate change and species extinctions are accelerating even as societies are experiencing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfam.org\/en\/even-it\/5-shocking-facts-about-extreme-global-inequality-and-how-even-it-davos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">rising inequality<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ilo.org\/global\/about-the-ilo\/newsroom\/news\/WCMS_615590\/lang--en\/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">unemployment<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldbank.org\/en\/publication\/global-economic-prospects\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">slow economic growth<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2018\/apr\/18\/global-debt-now-worse-than-before-financial-crisis-says-imf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">rising debt levels<\/a>, and impotent governments. Contrary to the way policymakers usually think about these problems, <a href=\"https:\/\/bios.fi\/bios-governance_of_economic_transition.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the new report says<\/a> that these are not really separate crises at all.<\/p>\n<p>Rather, these crises are part of the same fundamental transition to a new era characterized by inefficient fossil fuel production and the escalating costs of climate change. Conventional capitalist economic thinking can no longer explain, predict, or solve the workings of the global economy in this new age, the paper says.<\/p>\n<p><b>Energy shift<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Those are the stark implications of a new scientific background paper prepared by a team of Finnish biophysicists. The team from the BIOS Research Unit in Finland were asked to provide research that would feed into the drafting of the UN Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR), which will be released in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>For the \u201cfirst time in human history,\u201d the paper says, capitalist economies are \u201cshifting to energy sources that are less energy efficient.\u201d This applies to all forms of energy. Producing usable energy (\u201cexergy\u201d) to keep powering \u201cboth basic and non-basic human activities\u201d in industrial civilisation \u201cwill require more, not less, effort.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__pull-quote\">&#8220;Economies have used up the capacity of planetary ecosystems to handle the waste generated by energy and material use&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism&#8217;s Imminent Demise A climate change-fueled switch away from fossil fuels means the worldwide economy will fundamentally need to change. Image:\u00a0Shutterstock Capitalism as we know it is over. So suggests a new report commissioned by a group of scientists appointed by the UN Secretary-General. The main reason? We\u2019re transitioning rapidly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[111,141,150,328,11654,2092,822,826],"class_list":["post-37504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-energy-2","tag-capitalism","tag-climate-change","tag-collapse","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-motherboard","tag-nafeez-ahmed","tag-un","tag-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37505,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37504\/revisions\/37505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}