How to save the environment
By Barb Neth
Buffalo, N.Y.
Life on Earth became a possibility only because
circumstances billions of years ago created a blanket of
delicately balanced gasses in the atmosphere. This caused a
complex and interdependent ecosystem to develop that allowed
for the evolution and habitation of carbon-based life
forms--like humans. But the world today is faced with serious
environmental problems that threaten a breakdown of that
ecosystem.
Global warming is probably one of the gravest
consequences. The burning of fossil fuels like oil, gas and
coal causes the release of carbon dioxide--CO2--and
other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. The earth's
climate heats up: the "greenhouse effect."
This produces a chain reaction of profound shifts in
the ecosystem. The end result is severe weather events,
droughts, floods and heat waves.
Global warming is only one part of the environmental
problem. Deforestation has brought a loss of habitat and the
extinction of many insect, animal and plant
species.
An estimated 80 percent of the world's forests have
been fragmented or destroyed, due to logging for wood and
paper products or for agricultural development. Deforestation
has also contributed to the greenhouse effect by limiting the
amount of plant life that helps absorb CO2.
Oceans and other major water systems are seriously
over-fished. Many are also polluted by the dumping of toxic
and other waste, and from underwater nuclear
explosions.
The air is contaminated by a multitude of pollutants
including factory emissions, pesticides and vehicle exhaust.
Many of these are persistent organic pollutants, or POPs,
which result from the manufacture and disposal of products
made from chlorinated compounds.
One example is polyvinylchloride, a kind of plastic
that can be found in everything from toys to medical supplies
to plumbing parts. POPs are extremely toxic in small amounts.
They travel easily on air and wind currents, endangering
people all over the world.
This multitude of atmospheric toxins and other waste
turns normal rain acidic. "Acid rain" can kill trees and
destroy lakes.
Strip mining and unchecked development have caused
destruction of the land and erosion of the soil.
Wasteful and inappropriate use of precious resources
like water also has led to an inequitable distribution of
resources. The United Nations estimates that 1.2 billion
people have no access to clean drinking water. Yet millions
of gallons of water per year are wasted on swimming pools for
the casinos of Las Vegas--which was built in the middle of a
desert.
Drilling for, transporting and refining oil has
resulted in air, land and water contamination. Oil
exploration continues to make inroads into wildlife areas and
protected habitats in the pursuit of more reserves. More
spills and other damage to vulnerable and fragile ecosystems
are inevitable, and could have catastrophic consequences for
generations.
Ozone is the only atmospheric gas that can protect
people from biologically damaging ultraviolet light. However,
the release of nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons has
depleted the ozone layer. In some places the layer is so thin
it is referred to as a ."
Other natural resources besides rainforests and
certain animal and plant species are being depleted at an
alarming rate. Oil, coal and minerals are finite resources of
the Earth. Yet the United States consumes over two-thirds of
the oil produced worldwide.
Then there's the Pentagon. There is no greater
polluter of the air, land or water--or any bigger consumer of
resources--than the U.S. military.
Obviously, wars and military interventions in and of
themselves are environmentally destructive.
The U.S. military has littered the world with land
mines and depleted uranium. DU, an extremely dense and heavy
metal, is a byproduct of the nuclear weapons industry. The
U.S. military has found that using DU this way is a
"solution" to its problem of nuclear waste, and it makes
effective weapons.
On impact, DU weapons fragment and send microscopic
bits of radioactive material airborne. When these particles
are breathed, they cause "hot spots" of radioactivity and
concomitant health problems. They also radiate the food
chain, the soil and the water supply.
The United States used DU weapons extensively in the
wars against Iraq and Yugoslavia. Many scientists and health
experts believe that DU is a contributing factor to Gulf War
syndrome.
During the Vietnam War, the Pentagon sprayed over
half of Vietnam with Agent Orange, a chemical defoliant that
releases dioxin as an inevitable byproduct. Over three
decades after the end of the Vietnam War, Vietnamese babies
are still being born with traces of dioxin in their
tissues.
Even when it is not engaged in warfare, the Pentagon
is constantly testing all kinds of weapons--conventional,
nuclear, chemical and biological. The U.S. military is the
single biggest culprit in the ozone depletion crisis. It has
released over two-thirds of the CFC-113, a leading ozone
destroyer, now in the atmosphere.
It is also the biggest consumer of oil. The amount of
oil the military uses in one year could run all U.S. public
transit systems for 22 years. In less than one hour, one F-16
jet fighter consumes twice as much gas as the average
motorist does in a year.
There have certainly been efforts to deal with and
even solve these environmental crises. There are many
watchdog groups and environmental action groups--Greenpeace,
EarthFirst! and the Sierra Club, to name a few.
The grassroots movements have won some gains, most
notably in networking and in research efforts highlighting
environmental problems that otherwise would have gone
unrecognized and unchallenged. They have helped inspire mass
struggles that have focused the spotlight for environmental
devastation on corporate greed and government inaction and
complicity. These grassroots movements have forced
commendable concessions and regulatory measures out of
manufacturers and governments.
But there can be little doubt that the environment
remains in serious peril. That will continue to be the case
as long as only the symptoms are treated and the underlying
cause is not eradicated.
What is the underlying problem? Are human beings just
destined to self-destruct? Is it progress? Technology gone
mad? Owls vs. jobs?
The question must be considered within the context of
the dominant economic and social system worldwide:
capitalism. Capitalism is a system based upon production for
profit, not for need. This profit, and the means of producing
it, is privately owned and controlled.
All the different corporate entities compete with
each other for access to resources and markets, and whoever
is able to make the highest rate of profit comes out on top.
It is therefore the nature of capitalism to always pursue the
highest rate of profit, and to move toward
monopolization.
More and more wealth inevitably becomes concentrated
in fewer and fewer hands. The imperialists have formed huge
transnational corporations that set up and use international
organizations like the World Trade Organization, the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in order to
more efficiently pursue their super-profits.
Nothing, no matter how important for humanity, will
be allowed to seriously interfere with this goal. The
imperialists won't even consider developing and producing
products that don't harm the environment if it interferes
with their ability to make the highest possible rate of
profit.
Solutions to many of the environmental crises already
exist. Technology and knowledge are available to research and
develop alternative energy sources, and to recycle and safely
dispose of waste. It is already possible to manufacture
ecologically safe and biodegradable products. And there are
alternatives to plastic products, pesticides, chemical
fertilizers and the like.
Science and technology hold the potential for
organizing human development in a way that makes life easier
and more enjoyable without disrupting the ecosystem. But
under capitalism it is the owning class that controls the
world market and the access to that technology.
The capitalist class's interests are diametrically
opposed to those of the working class.
Sustainable development is the concept that continued
growth could be planned with an eye toward future
generations. The Earth's resources could be monitored for
wise and efficient use. It means an equitable, rational,
planned, humane stewardship of the Earth.
Here's one example. The environmental movement forced
Congress to pass the Clean Air Act. This is supposed to put
"scrubbers" on factory smokestacks to remove
pollutants.
This is not an economically onerous solution for the
single biggest cause of acid rain. But it means that industry
would need to defer some profits in the interest of clean
air. These deferred costs are not expenditures that factory
owners can use to generate more profit, like spending money
on expansion. There's no return on their investment, so to
speak.
So, act of Congress or not, the bosses have found
many efficient ways to get around this regulation. One is to
move production to countries that the imperialists have kept
technologically underdeveloped where little or no
environmental safeguards exist.
It is not that these underdeveloped countries do not
care about the environment. But colonial and later
imperialist policies have ensured that these countries remain
underdeveloped and in debt, and therefore at the mercy of
predatory global capital. They have no choice but to accept
the dictates of the imperialists.
Some U.S. corporations stay here and simply ignore
the regulation, polluting with impunity. A nominal fine or a
slap on the wrist cuts into their profits less. Industry also
invests money in getting rid of regulations through lobbying
or financing political campaigns.
So a few regulations or laws don't really answer the
environmental problem. No attempts to make capitalism kinder,
gentler, or "greener" will ever be able to change the
inexorable fact that the system's first concern is
profits.
There is no deed that capitalism won't commit to get
a higher return on investment.
There is therefore an irrevocable and irreconcilable
antagonism between planned, sustainable development and the
system of capitalism.
At times, some in the environmental movement have
drawn an equal sign between a big transnational corporation's
clear cutting of old-growth rainforests for lumber and paper
products and Indigenous people in the Amazon cutting down
sections of rainforest for agricultural purposes.
The transnational corporations are making
super-profits from clear cutting. Indigenous people are just
trying to survive by chopping down a few trees. Because of
the big landowners and agribusiness, they have no access to
other usable land. Both scenarios result from capitalist
exploitation. So it's important to recognize and fight
against capitalist exploitation and degradation of the
ecology if there is to be working-class unity on this
issue.
What's needed is an environmental justice movement
that recognizes the relationship between environmental,
social and economic justice, that includes being sensitive to
issues of environmental racism.
It's in the best interests of both the environmental
and labor movements to work together for common
cause--environmental protection, good wages and decent jobs
here and all over the world. Imagine what a force that would
be.
Raising these demands would make it harder and less
lucrative for the capitalists to pollute and exploit and
extract enormous profits at the expense of humanity and the
environment--here or around the globe.
And it would shake the very foundations of their
predatory, irrational, inhumane system. Once the shaking
starts, the next step will be to topple it over. That's
exactly what communists want to do.
Only the deliberate activity of the world's workers
and oppressed peoples can sweep away the polluters along with
the hazardous waste they have created on this planet. Only a
planned, rational system that is based upon production for
need and not for profit can develop all of humanity in a way
that is ecologically balanced.
Socialism is that system. The ecology movement has
attacked socialist countries, like the former Soviet Union
and now China, for poor environmental practices. However,
both countries fought to build socialism in a hostile
imperialist world. Both the former Soviet Union and China
were forced, because of military threats, economic blockades
and lack of access to technology and goods, to take steps for
their immediate survival that may not have been in the
long-term interests of the environment.
Just as the struggle to save the environment must be
global, so must the building of socialism. The working
class--not some small, elite owning class--must be the
stewards in charge of the environment, to plan development
and production to meet society's needs.
With the science and technology that already exist,
this could be accomplished without disrupting the ecosystem.
By eliminating the profit motive, the masses of people can
build a society that provides a decent life for all without
destroying the planet.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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