Capitalism and global warming
Bush fiddles as Arizona burns
By Heather Cottin
Is global warming causing wildfires to ravage the forests of
Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico? That's what at least one
columnist, Bob Herbert of the New York Times, has suggested,
pointing to the extremely hot, dry and windy conditions that
are stoking these raging fires.
Environmentalists despair over reports of melting permafrost
in Alaska and Siberia. Scientists argue that pollution from
fossil fuels is the cause of the recent and dramatic worldwide
increase in asthma and pulmonary diseases.
Global warming is becoming deadlier daily. Yet the Bush
administration is calling for loosening the already weak rules
that are supposed to control the proliferation of dangerous
greenhouse gases.
Although the White House, in a June 7 report to the United
Nations, finally acknowledged that "human activity is probably
the cause of global warming," the Environmental Protection
Agency has proposed relaxing air pollution rules to make it
easier for utilities to upgrade and expand their coal-burning
power plants.
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said clean air
regulation "often discourages companies from investing in new
pollution reduction projects and other new investment." He
claimed that fewer regulations will lead to "less pollution,
not more."
Environmentalists reacted swiftly. "It's going to cost
thousands of ... lives," said Buck Parker, executive director
of Earthjustice, an environmental law firm based in Oakland,
Calif.
Even the wealthy Pew Trust was alarmed. "The Bush
administration is increasingly out of step with other
industrialized powers," wrote Pew's Eileen Claussen in the June
7 New York Times. But her solution was to "look to the
marketplace."
It was the "marketplace"-a codename for capitalism-that
caused global warming in the first place.
The powerful oil, gas and coal companies have enforced world
reliance on fossil fuels for heating, transportation and
industrial production. Alternate sources of free, clean energy,
like the sun, the wind and the waves, have not been developed
because they aren't considered profitable enough. They don't
adapt well to monopoly capitalism.
But the Pew Trust, for one, calls for a "transition to a
low-carbon economy [which] will require a new industrial
revolution." So venture capitalists and their paid pundits are
thinking ahead to the post-fossil-fuel economy, and they want
the capitalists to control that too.
'Clean Skies' and dirty deals
When President George W. Bush spoke last February about his
new "Clean Skies" legislation, he railed against "a confusing,
ineffective maze of regulations for power plants that has
created an endless cycle of litigation."
He was either echoing or working in tandem with the energy
companies. According to Dan Reidinger, spokesperson for Edison
Electric Institute, a trade group for the investor-owned
facility, "At the end of the day, power plant operators need to
be able to run their facilities without the perpetual threat of
litigation." (AP, June 13)
The Bush administration rejected the Kyoto treaty, ratified
by 178 other countries, which was to have helped control the
level of greenhouse gases worldwide. At that time, Bush
actually expressed doubts about the existence of global
warming--despite the fact that the National Academy of Sciences
had reported to the White House that global warming was a real
problem and getting worse.
The White House claimed that adherence to the Kyoto treaty
would "damage the U.S. economy." Bush's environmental policy
favored the interests of the energy companies openly, claiming
that U.S. industry would be weakened "by forcing power
companies and manufacturers to use expensive fuels or adopt
costly technologies," according to the Feb. 13 New York
Times.
Bush said his approach enjoys "widespread support, with both
Democrats and Republicans." He was right, because the
anti-environmental, pro-big-business policies of his
administration have for the most part gone unchallenged by
congressional Democrats.
Little wonder. Both parties' representatives are funded by
the energy monopolies. They're beholden to them for their
jobs.
Vice President Dick Cheney has emboldened the utility
industry with his flagrant defense of its interests. When his
Energy Task Force began re-examining air pollution regulations
15 months ago, the companies exulted. They had their crony
Cheney, a former Big Oil executive, legitimizing their claim
that global warming regulations inhibit their expansion.
The Bush administration, Congress and the energy companies
are directly responsible for the global warming that is
endangering life on this planet. The United States is the
leading producer of environmental pollution.
The monopoly capitalists and their political parties can't
create an environmental policy based on people's needs. They
produce pollution for profit. They cannot be entrusted with
responsibility for the future of the earth.
Dependency on fossil fuel creates global warming,
environmental destruction and war. The capitalists' dedication
to the aggregation of profits is toxic to the environment. The
Bush administration is heedless of the consequences. It seeks
only to dismantle the mild regulations that environmentalists
have won since the 1970s.
But a people's movement, dedicated to human needs and the
preservation of nature, can save the earth.
Reprinted from the July 4, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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