Environmental problems caused by capitalism’s production for profit are legion – resource depletion, destruction of nature, chemical toxification, epidemics, to name but a few. And then there is climate change. Attempts to remedy it by recycling, solar energy, wind turbines and the like all seem doomed to failure involving as they do significant use of resources.
Some have suggested that, for nature to recover, half the earth should be left free from human settlement and resource extraction. But any comprehensive attempt to change how humans interact with nature is impossible within a system whose existence demands profit-based growth. The only feasible way to heal injury to people and planet is a free access society – moneyless, wageless and stateless – based on production for collective need not profit.