PHIL MAXWELL

Since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels (like coal, oil and gas), which produces heat-trapping gases. Since 1870, global sea levels have risen by about 8 inches. Global climate change has already had observable effects on the environment. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner.

This photomontage is designed to illustrate the serious impact human activity has had on the environment. In his excellent book ‘Ecocide’ David Whyte, Professor of Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Liverpool, argues that corporations are a critical yet neglected cause of our global environmental crisis. The problems they create are wired into their DNA of shareholder primacy and profit or wealth maximisation – a phenomenon now acknowledged widely as financialisation. Furthermore, the corporate veil of limited liability and responsibility, and their concentration of political and structural power, enables corporations to shop between jurisdictions, playing a game of tax, offshore secrecy and regulatory arbitrage to evade environmental responsibility.

The climate crisis reflects the failure of economics as capitalism is actually the cause of the problem and climate change merely a symptom. The fight against global warming is inevitably a fight against capitalism. David Whyte ends his book on ecocide with these stark words: “We have to kill the corporation before it kills us.” The guiding idea of contemporary capitalism is to maximize short-term profitability, a posture that contradicts the kind of approach that would protect the natural habitat against the ravages wrought by contemporary capitalism.

You can purchase this print and photographs by Phil Maxwell here: https://theartofresistance.bigcartel.com/products