The injustices committed in the name of profit are not justified. We willingly destroy our planet, we cause deforestation, we regularly remove entire habitats, we create copious amounts of pollution, we allow for the exploitation of labor and the environment. The greatest threat to our planet is not an extraterrestrial threat nor is it a natural disaster threat, the greatest threat is humanity, more namely, capitalism.
As a society, we can not go a day without further destruction of our planet. Commercial logging has led to the complete decimation of ecosystems and the global meteorological cycle. The Amazon Rainforest is an example as the increase in logging has led to adverse impacts. Impacts since as the acceleration of climate change, due to the Amazon being a vital carbon store and the homes of numerous endangered species have disappeared. The history of capitalism, and to a lesser extent human civilization, has been a history of environmental exploitation in the name of profit and a considerable number of productive industries depend on damaging the environment such as fossil fuels. The destruction of the environment and capitalism have been stitched together since the very beginning of capitalism and the continued evolution of this unethical system has called for further stripping of the biosphere.
At the current rate we are going, we will have caused the extinction of humanity in a mere 30 years. We have created a crisis in which animals are going extinct at over 1,000 times faster than they have based over the past 100 million years, in fact, the process has been accelerating in the last 50 years alone. In the 15 year timeframe from 2000 to 2015, we lost a total of nearly 15 million acres of land, comparable to the state of West Virginia. The main human activities responsible for the extinction crisis include, creating infrastructure, commercial agriculture, and our heavy reliance on fossil fuels. This ecological crisis will be exacerbated in the coming years as well which would likely lead to another mass extinction event, including humanity, this is where we get to my point where the extinction of humanity would be the most ethical future possible for the planet and for biodiversity.
The amount of suffering the world is unfeasible for it is not too commonplace for us to put ourselves in someone less fortunate shoes. The surplus value, the value that is created by workers, by their labor, that they do not get anything for, goes to the capitalists and is the main factor in the accumulation of capital for the capitalist class, this is the basis for the oppression of the workers. This reduces the workers to a situation in which they have to work as long as they would like to live, and they can only work if the capitalist class can make a profit they deem fit by exploiting them, the situation in which we are in is regrettable.
The case for human extinction is one that would allow for the elimination of exploitation and human suffering as well, as allowing a greater number of species to survive and hopefully, thrive once again. At our current rate, which is unlikely to change due to capitalism and the likelihood of the economic system remaining, we will cause a mass extinction event in the next 30 years, including humans and a plethora of species. The more ethical approach would be to rid the world of this invasion species, humans. There are plenty of ways in which we could cause the extinction of humans, and I’m sure there are plenty of people who have thought about this subject frequently, so I do not did to expand on how, but it would not be through nuclear war, that would be counterintuitive.
In short, the extinction of humanity would be the most utilitarian outcome for the planet, humans, and other species. There would be no more famines, no more wars, no more suffering, just internal peace and nature, untouched.
Disclaimer: all opinions in this article are of Brandon Short’s and not The Simple Herald.
