In theory sustainability should be a global and communal effort. However, sustainability requires some things which not everyone can do because of financial issues or depending on country of residence. As a result, sustainability, rather than uniting society under one goal, continues to further separate the social classes which is where capitalism comes into play.
The text defines the main attribute of Capitalism as Karl Marx's idea of 'Capital Accumulation'. That is to say that the goal of Capitalism is to accumulate more and more capital over time and to expand. The idea is to continue to find more and more things that can turned into a means to gain money, although not just gain money but to gain continued and increasing profit and to grow. Capitalism constantly needs to create and then to beat competitors. Capital accumulation never has a finite figure or quantity; it is a never ending goal. "Capitalism is constantly expanding, capital accumulating is never-ending".
It is also important to note that the text specifically mentions the fact that capitalism does not just continue to grow in one linear direction but looks to grow and increase and consume capital in all directions.
Capitalism's sole goal is to continue to grow forever. Therefore a crisis of capitalism would be anything that happens or is scheduled to happen in the future that could halt the cycle of growth and either cause a loss (or recession) or cause the cycle to end indefinitely. A great example is the one given in the text relating to world resources. Industry as a whole is dependant on natural resources to function; oil, coal and wood being the most used resources and being dependent on creating electricity and powering vehicles. Capitalisation is completely dependent on industry, in fact the two come hand in hand. When the world's last natural resources run out then capitalisation comes to a complete halt.
Yet in spite of this looming capital apocalypse, capitalism has found it's way to continue and take advantage of the crisis rather than let it hinder growth. Capitalist economies have reinvented themselves as being concerned with this inevitable environmental crisis and created consumerism that helps the situation. Now capitalism introduces products and services that are 'environmentally friendly' and that will help to save the world. They also have a new selling point, as a consumer now gets peace of mind a feeling of accomplishment by paying for something which helps another thing bigger than just themselves and prolongs a large scale crisis. People can feel philanthropic by going about their day to day lives.
Better still, the majority of products and services that are concerned with the environment and make an effort to better it will cost more than those that do not, allowing for capitalism to charge even more and potentially make more profit. As an example, recycling is inherently a better thing than causing mass waste, yet it costs considerably more than simply using landfill.
Even better again, sustainability is a concept that can last forever. Instead of actually solving the problem, sustainability merely delays it. In fact the definition of the word sustain is to 'keep from giving way', as though it is a temporary solution that will do until something can actually be done about the source of the problem.
Many solutions have been offered to the problem of sustainability, both theoretical and practical. In fact some have come so far that they have moved from theoretical to practical; One example being electrically powered cars. The idea behind the electric car has been around for decades and is very simple in theory. If a car runs simply on electricity, then the electric energy is transferred into kinetic energy and friction and just disperses between the two. This creates absolutely no emissions which is considerably better for the environment than the internal combustion engine used in petrol and diesel powered vehicles. This idea has come really far in the last 10 years or so and hybrid cars are common, integrating both petrol power and electricity to create far less fuel exhaust emissions. In fact, just recently Nissan have released a completely 100% electricity powered car for home use called the Nissan Leaf. In theory this is a brilliant idea, as the car now creates no emission and can be charged from an owners garage instead of needing to go to a petrol station. But question of where that electricity comes from is a strange one.
The car is powered through a modified mains attachment. Which means that the electricity is exactly the same as that used to power a house. The thing that stands out here is that the huge majority of the electricity from that mains source will have been generated through the burning of fossil fuels, as the majority of all electricity is. Instead of burning petrol, other fuel sources like coal will be burned instead. This fact is never mentioned anywhere on the website or adverts. The car itself does not lie with the large claim of "Zero emission" painted across the side, although it does mask the real truth. So how much better for the environment really is the car? Which raises the question of whether the £30,000 price tag is a reflection of the required technology or another capitalist venture.
This example and many others prove that capitalism definitely is compatible with sustainability, and may actually have found a longer lasting way to grow as the world becomes more and more increasingly environmentally concerned and sustainability grows to cover more aspects of contemporary living.
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