Water Privatization

Environmentalism refers to concerns regarding the environment and ways to protect it. Capitalism is the economic system free from government intervention based on private ownership of production in order to receive a profit. I personally do not believe these two concepts are compatible, but they are often intertwined. Capitalism is all about making money and pushing products which leads to issues of great environmental concern like water privatization, consumption, and greenwashing, or large corporations, like Wal-Mart, claiming to be green just to boost their public image. Water privatization is the private sector's control over the service of supplying water, often for a large profit and with little regard to the local environment. Private corporations do not have to comply to the same regulations as the public sector. Privatized water companies often cause damage to other water sources downstream. These companies have very little incentive to be efficient, protect nature, or to think about the impacts of their companies to local environments (The New Economy of Water, p. 1). For instance, the Suez company claimed
This can be seen by looking at several topics discussed throughout the course, but I chose to focus on consumerism, water privatization, and greenwashing by large influential corporations. Consumerism is what leads to the consumption of resources at a fast pace. While there are benefits to water privatization, they do not compare to the environmental harm done. Another negative impact of capitalism on the environment would be when large companies claim to be green in order to change their public image to increase profit, but actually care very little about the environment. Wal-Mart is the perfect example of greenwashing. Ultimately, all of these issues illustrate what happens when capitalism interferes with