Capitalism and the curse of external effects

In July 2007, when the financial subprime crisis was raging, Charles “Chunk†Prince, then CEO of Citigroup, famously uttered: “As long as the music is playing, you have got to get up and dance†. Here also, as long as the familiar political, economic and financial music is playing, the fossil fuel companies, the mining companies, the chemical ones, pharma firms, …, keep dancing. Dominant capitalism, under its various guises across the world, cannot be stopped destroying the essential natural capital our planet offers, and the conditions of almost all forms of life, ours in particular, so-called “external effects†. It certainly cannot morph into a vehicle of the ecological and economic transition.