EDITORIAL
Save the Earth from capitalism
Nothing illustrates the totally archaic, short-sighted and
venal character of capitalism more than the phenomenon of
global warming and the capitalist governments' paralysis over
doing anything about it.
A new study produced by scientists of eight Northern
countries, including the United States, has confirmed that the
polar ice caps are melting at an alarming rate. They will
continue to do so for the rest of this century. There will be
far-reaching consequences for the entire globe. The burning of
fossil fuels is the cause.
Having begun, this process is likely to accelerate as bigger
areas of open ocean near the poles absorb more sunlight.
Temperatures over water are expected to increase by an average
of up to 13 degrees. Even an increase of one to two degrees has
already produced drastic changes.
Extreme climate change disrupts the patterns of life for
animals, plants and people all over the globe. Moreover,
scientists predict the melting ice will raise sea levels by as
much as three feet. This could wipe out many low-lying islands
and densely populated areas like the Bangladesh delta.
And what is the energy industry's only reaction so far? It
has hailed the part of the report that says that, as the ice
melts, more areas of the Arctic will be opened up for oil and
gas drilling!
Over thousands of years, people in all parts of the world
learned to provide for themselves in ways that were in harmony
with nature. They found out that one crop would deplete the
land while crop rotation enriched it. They moved their animals
from place to place to keep from overgrazing the land.
Societies that failed to find sustainable ways to produce food
imploded.
Capitalism brought enormous scientific and technological
development--but all driven by the profit motive. It has
integrated human economic activity all over the globe and
vastly raised productivity through an international division of
labor--but increasingly at the expense of the vast majority. A
small class of billionaires not only controls production but
also the political structures that decide on war, peace and how
to spend the public treasury.
The Kyoto Protocols of 1997 were a modest international
effort to restrain the emission of greenhouse gases. The United
States, which spews out 25 percent of the world's total, never
signed the accords or even formally considered them in
Congress. The Republicans openly attack them. And, in the
recent election campaign, the Democratic platform made no
mention of them. Kyoto has been viciously attacked by such
industry mouthpieces as The Energy Advocate, which has denied
global warming.
What the world needs is economic planning, so adequate
resources can be concentrated on developing alternate energy
sources and eliminating the wasteful burning of fossil fuels by
improving mass transit, housing and city design. It will never
happen under capitalism. And time is growing short. The very
future of this planet calls out for the multinational working
class to take power, expropriate the capitalists and build a
planned socialist society.
Reprinted from the Nov. 18, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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