Grünen Kapitalismus - Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung

world’s most influential source of environmentalist critique and analysis.
Brown’s 1973 book World Without Borders fully endorsed the corporate
free-trade framework and its claim to reduce global poverty. 184 His
more recent analysis proceeds in a similar vein; it is of interest here because
of his continuing sanguine view of corporate interests. As he puts
it, “Like the rest of society, corporations have a stake in building an ecoeconomy”
(Brown 2001, 261). He reports the withdrawal of several major
corporations from the Global Climate Coalition, signaling their rejection
of a direct anti-environmentalist posture. Their new approach
encompasses such practices as recycling, greater use of renewable energy
sources, and offsetting CO2 emissions via tree-planting projects. In a
few special cases, like that of carpet-manufacturer Ray Anderson – who
retrieves worn-out carpeting and reprocesses it – the steps reflect a business
plan fully defined by ecological concerns.
All such measures represent a welcome improvement over earlier business
practices. The carpet model, however, which is not only cited by
Brown but also featured in the documentary film The Corporation
(2004), 185 is exceptional. The more common pattern is to apply energysaving
measures and alternative power-sources whenever possible and/
or convenient, while in other respects continuing business as usual. 186
The totality of such responses, even if we include the exceptionally green
ones among them, is hardly commensurate with the scale of the crisis.
The unchanged factors are these: 1. The scope and scale of the remedial
measures are decided upon by the companies themselves, within an
overall framework of striving for unlimited growth. 2. Other companies
are free to continue operating as before. 3. The processes of coordination,
re-education, and public accountability which would be required for
system-wide ecological restraint are not here envisaged.
A response focusing much more on economic aggregates is that of the
widely publicized Stern Review – an ambitious study commissioned by
the British government and directed by Nicholas Stern (2007). Among
the distinctive features of the Stern Review is its effort to make the case
for an ecological crash-program in terms that should resonate with cor-
184 For a detailed analysis of Brown’s work, see Wallis 1997.
185 www.thecorporation.com
186 An important New York Times report (Mouawad 2009) notes that all the “oil giants” are
resisting further moves toward alternative energy. Even BP “has been getting back to
petroleum since 2007.”
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