Bearing the Brunt of Capitalism: “Third World” Countries Amid the Climate Crisis

During the past few decades, the world has witnessed rapid technological advancements such as the development of the internet, the rise of social media, and the manufacturing of super-powerful computers that fit the grasp of one’s hand. The information revolution, as propelled by ICT, enables people to communicate massive amounts of data from one part of the world to another in just a split-second of time.

Today, the technological experience has become more personal towards the individual level. Although access to such technologies remains a question of privilege, especially in third-world countries, its influence is felt by different sectors of the community whether directly or indirectly.

However, while technology has afforded us an opportunity for a more convenient and open-access life, it has posed its equal share of detrimental effects on the environment and human life.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 50 million tons of e-waste are produced annually, and only 20% of this figure is recycled. The remaining 80% are sent to landfills for incineration, or to developing countries, such as the Philippines, where these are informally recycled. This process often puts the informal workers in hazardous situations. Aside from the plastic component of e-waste, toxic substances are also present in the form of metal and excessive lead content. These significantly increase the risk for both cancerous and non-cancerous diseases. If we do not take serious and immediate action to mitigate, lessen our e-waste, and radically transform the system, the figure is estimated to increase to as much as 120 million tons per year by 2050.

E-waste is just one of our problems amid the climate crisis, and the core of this climate emergency can be traced to capitalism where business organizations’ main focus is on profit and achieving production goals, or to simply put it, profit-maximization and overproduction. Often times over-extraction and depletion of our natural resources are part of their production and manufacturing operations.

Although developing countries such as the Philippines contribute only an insignificant fraction to global carbon emissions which imperial superpowers such as the US, China, and Russia are responsible for, we suffer and share one of the worst effects of climate change in terms of human and environmental catastrophes. Making things worse is the fact that we serve as dumpsites of developed countries.

Big, multinational companies are putting the burden on us as individuals to mitigate or lessen our e-waste. While we can do this by supporting environmentally-friendly gadgets, prolonging the functional life of our electronics, and not succumbing into consumerism’s fast culture, we have to acknowledge the fact that as long as this capitalist system of the economy remains, no amount of action from companies nor us as individuals will suffice in putting an end to this looming climate catastrophe. We cannot stop its occurrence, what we’re doing is merely bargaining more time....

“Capitalism is simply incompatible with social justice and living in harmony with the Earth so it has to be changed, and changed quickly." Every second counts.

References:

Chen, Y., Chen, M., Li, Y. et al. Impact of technological innovation and regulation development on e-waste toxicity: a case study of waste mobile phones. Sci Rep 8, 7100 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-25400-0

Deitel, A., Deitel, B. (1986).The Information Revolution. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-209005-9.50006-0.

Simon, Hannah. (August 2019). The fight against climate change is a fight against capitalism. openDemocracy. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/fight-against-climate-change-fight-against-capitalism/

United Nations Environment Programme. (Jan 2019). UN report: Time to seize opportunity, tackle challenge of e-waste. UNEP. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/un-report-time-seize-opportunity-tackle-challenge-e-waste#:~:text=The%20world%20produces%20as%20much,the%20GDP%20of%20most%20countries.