Wouldn't it be awful if unbridled capitalism turns out to be mankind's Great Filter?
We'll be licky to become a Type I civilization after poisoning ourselves and the environment through exposure to chemicals and conditions we do not fully comprehend in return of some convenience, cheaper goods and making some a little richer.
Pollution occurs in non-capitalist societies too. It's often much worse. Chernobyl-levels of incompetent and indifference towards environmental protection.
Non-capitalist societies also do things like concentration camps and genocides and world wars and famines which don't seem to emerge as frequently in capitalist societies.
Assuming everything you claim on the overall superiority of capitalism is correct, that doesn't still doesn't make it perfect. I am merely pointing out one of the imperfections - an unoriginal one at that: unbridled capitalism[1] does not correctly factor externalized costs, up to, and including mankind's long-term survival.
1. The "unbridled" qualification is deliberate, and very different from what I'm guessing is your idealized version.
That doesnt mean you can't blame capitalism. Capitalism rewards pollution, and that is a bad thing, even if a political/economic system built on nuking the planet every 5 minutes is also bad for different reasons
We'll be licky to become a Type I civilization after poisoning ourselves and the environment through exposure to chemicals and conditions we do not fully comprehend in return of some convenience, cheaper goods and making some a little richer.