We are facing a crisis like never before. The current organization of production, especially the burning of oil, coal and gas as the main sources of energy, is destroying life on the planet.
The Climate Crisis
- Climate change is causing more frequent and more intense hurricanes which are killing people, destroying infrastructure, and completely upending lives.
- In the Western U.S., yearly wildfires have become a regular occurrence that destroy land, communities, and lives.
- Food and water shortages caused by climate change are already happening globally.
- In 2019, nearly 30 million people were displaced by weather-related disasters globally, as compared to 9.5 million due to war. There are already far more climate refugees than war refugees.
Pandemics
Pandemics like COVID-19 will become more frequent due to the destruction of the natural world. As habitat destruction and deforestation occur, they erase the barriers that exist between humans and wild animals, allowing deadly diseases to spread more easily between populations and throughout the world.
The environmental crises that we are experiencing today are just a tiny glimpse of what’s to come if we do not dramatically reverse the course this system is on.
Who Will Pay for these Crises?
The frightening reality is that we are on a course to make large parts of Earth uninhabitable. And as conditions deteriorate, poor and working people are the ones whose lives are upended, who cannot pay for food or water, or cannot grow their crops. While the wealthiest in our society may have the power and resources to limit their exposure to these crises for now, it is the majority of people who pay for the environmental chaos that this capitalist system has created.
The False Solutions Put Forward by Politicians
As a result of activist pressure, politicians around the world, like President Biden, have begun to address the climate crisis and develop policies that they claim will confront it. The U.S. has said it will play a leadership role on the international stage in fighting the climate crisis. Biden claims his new domestic initiatives will cut national carbon emissions in half by 2030, and to have “net zero” emissions by 2050.
While these may seem like ambitious, progressive policies, they are totally inadequate given the crisis we face! As each year passes, the scientific community issues reports stating that agreements like the Paris Agreement (a United Nations agreement signed by 196 nations pledging to diminish climate change) will not reverse our trajectory toward irreversible and permanent climate destruction. In fact, reports from the U.N. have stated that we only have until the end of this decade (and likely sooner) to eliminate all global emissions to avoid this fate!
In addition to the weakness of these plans when measured against what is needed, the Paris Agreement only issues recommendations and written goals, meaning countries and corporations are not obligated to follow them! They are a distraction from the climate emergency we face and are false solutions put forward by politicians who have proven through decades of inaction that they cannot and will not solve this crisis.
Why is This Happening?
Under a capitalist system, the owners of giant corporations are the ultimate decision makers, controlling all aspects of the productive processes based on what is most profitable for them. So capitalists rely on dangerous but profitable resources like fossil fuels while generating enormous emissions (and profits). Their return on the dollar always wins over human need. The wealth they accumulate allows them to control the political system and the media, and to fund scientists to cover up and deflect blame away from them for causing environmental catastrophe. In fact, corporations have known about the effects and threats of the climate crisis since the 1950s and worked to hide that information from the public.
Politicians and the governmental establishment defend this system of capitalism. Instead of listening to their own scientists, they have consciously defended and expanded this unsustainable system. Instead of making changes, they have amplified the problem with new investment in fossil fuels and other unsustainable resources because of the fast and enormous profits to be had. This is all done to benefit a tiny minority of elites while wiping out many life forms and driving us closer to the brink of extinction.So, What is OUR Solution?
We need to treat the destruction of the environment like the emergency that it is!
We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and let the capitalist system dictate what gets produced and how, and what gets neglected. Our own actions and movements can redirect our course towards healing the planet and caring for human needs. We need to take the keys away from those in power and put ourselves in the driver’s seat to design and construct our own future.
Mobilizing against their projects (pipelines, fracking, etc.) is necessary, but we need to think about what ultimately needs to be done. We need to organize for a social revolution in order to end capitalism – to implement an emergency restructuring of our economy and larger society, on a global scale.
What are some of the possible solutions?
- Liberate science from the interests of profit and develop energy systems based on fossil-free sources.
- A complete reorganization of agriculture and food distribution to control CO2 rather than emit it.
- Using society’s resources to restore, protect, and live in harmony with natural ecosystems.
- A livable income for all people while we all work to develop and create this new world.
- A redistribution of work, eliminating unneeded jobs, to allow fewer working hours for everyone.
- Free public transportation, and an expansion of these systems to restructure how we travel.
- An end to for-profit production, instead producing higher quality things that fulfill real human needs.
Do you want to explore and discuss what we can do to build a livable world with a future we can truly enjoy? Contact us!
