The Midas Effect: A Critique of Climate Change Economics

Abstract

ABSTRACT Global climate change is perhaps the most serious problem the world faces. Despite its severity, mainstream economic approaches to addressing the problem fail to get to the root cause — the capitalist global economy — falling instead for ‘the Midas Effect’, the notion that ecological values can be converted into economic values. Here we highlight the severity of the global climate crisis, which requires that atmospheric carbon levels be reduced (to 350 ppm), and explain how capitalism is the primary driving force behind this crisis. We argue that to address this problem properly, nothing less than an ecological revolution is required, where we replace the current capitalist system with one based on meeting human needs in a sustainable way, not furthering capital accumulation.