Nat quoted Marx in the Anthropocene by Kohei Saito
Facing global climate crisis, Karl Marx's ecological critique of capitalism more clearly demonstrates its importance …
‘Metabolic shift’ is a typical reaction of capital to the economic and ecological crisis it causes: ‘For only the reactive and retroactive manipulation of symptoms and effects is compatible with the continuing rule of capital’s causa sui’ (Mészáros 2012: 87). Metabolic shift, however, cannot solve the problem as long as it cannot stop its insatiable process of accumulation.
— Marx in the Anthropocene by Kohei Saito (Page 29)
It seems obvious in hindsight but I think this clarifies what a lot of people are actually talking about when they equate capitalism with progress. Sure, capitalism does provoke progress, but it's progress in as much as it solves the immediate, short-term problems that capital causes.
The example Saito gives shortly after is the industrial production of ammonia to compensate for soil exhaustion. Putting chemicals into the soil doesn't solve the core problem of industrial agriculture exhausting the soil, it just deflects it onto other peopl