The only solution for climate change is a new system in which nearly all of the core economic activities are executed differently from how they are in capitalism. Primary among those is the burning of fossil fuels and the externalization of the exhaust as pollution. Democracy and governments have made various attempts to control pollution, but it has not worked and it has not changed the underlying logic.
Solving climate change requires a change in the system, the logic, and how it operates. Fortunately, we have an opportunity to do just that. The digital disruption of capitalism presents an opportunity for a new logic, as well as new root metaphors for what kind of logic that could be. The old logic is burn and pollute; the new logic will be collect and convert.
In the new digital world I call postcapitalism, we will hardly burn anything. Nearly all the energy we use will be electric energy produced by converting solar or wind energy into electric power. Electricity will power vehicles of all types, heat most homes, provide cooking heat, hot water, and other daily needs. It will also provide the power for any industrial or commercial needs that remain. If there are feedstocks for 3D printing or home food production, they will be delivered using the same clean electric power. Although technology must improve further from today’s situation to get there, it can and it will.
One area people most often ask about is the heating of buildings. Technologies already exist for the concentration of heat to help heat and cool buildings. They are called heat pumps, and they are commonly used in geothermal applications. Using a heatpump powered by solar electricity, one can heat a building without burning anything at all. The heatpump concentrates what heat is available—even from an underground water source running at, say, 50 degrees Farenheit, and concentrate that heat to heat the home. If it can do that, it can certainly do the same with water heated by solar power and be even more effective. (These technologies are not commonly used today because they are perceived to be expensive, which they are only because the externality of climate change is not factored into the true costs of adoption of burning fuels.)
The point is that the technologies exist. We actually can begin to convert our power economy right now, today, using today’s technology. As we do, the technology will get better. The importance for the climate, of course, is that the burning comes to an end. We don’t burn coal, oil, gas, wood, or any other material because we don’t have to anymore. Smokestacks and chimneys of all kinds go quiet, and we literally stop emitting carbon or any other greenhouse gas completely.
Solar power operates in a postcapitalist fashion. Sunlight is abundant, and once you can get that sunlight converted into power, the next batch of power has almost no marginal cost to produce. The only cost tracked to marginal cost of production is depreciation of the equipment, but as the equipment may last a very long time, the marginal cost trends toward zero. As the price for that equipment drops because of automation and digitalization, the marginal cost goes down even further. Solar power has been so ardently opposed by capitalist enterprises because it is subversive to the very economy of capitalism.
Solar power does not come without its challenges, especially in capitalism. Certain externalities do exist—panels don’t last forever, they will need to be discarded, and they require some rare materials, to name a few. Nonetheless, this kind of power generation will be central to the postcapitalist economy because as long as we burn fuels to generate power, the costs of operation are high enough that the postcapitalist logic cannot take hold. Postcapitalist logic depends on energy without incremental cost of production, and solar provides it.
Many people have argued that it is Pollyannaish to keep turning to technology to somehow save us. They are correct. Many technologies are available that capture greenhouse gases, remove pollution, or make things more efficient. But none of them change the logic of capitalism. Solar power does. Yes, it requires enabling technology, but more importantly, it changes the capitalist logic, accounts for externalities, and replaces capitalism as a viable way of supplying humanity’s energy needs.
