The latest report from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated that so much carbon dioxide has already built up in the environment that it endangers islands, coastlines and one-fifth to two-thirds of the world’s species due to rising global temperatures.
The panel, composed of top climate change scientists, reported that as early as the year 2020, 75 million to 250
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“We have already committed the world to sea level rise,” the panel’s chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, said. What is not known is how much sea levels will rise if the Greenland Ice sheet melts. If nothing is done to stop it, scientists say, global warming will spread hunger and disease, stress water resources, cause more violent storms and more frequent droughts, and result in the extinction of up to 70 percent of plant and animal species.
The scientists suggested dozens of measures for avoiding the worst case scenario. These measures, the report suggests, will make a difference if all the measures are taken by nations all over the globe.
Suggestions include switching to nuclear and gas-fired power stations, developing hybrid cars, using more efficient electrical appliances and managing cropland to store more carbon. The cost for these changes? Less than 0.12 percent of the global economy annually until 2050.
So, what is the hold up?
One would think that any reasonable person would want to avoid catastrophic climate change. The problem is that the world at present is dominated by an economic system that is based on the quest for ever-expanding profit. Even a reduction of 0.12 percent is seen as unacceptable by the capitalists that have profited from the development of industries powered by fossil-fuels.
There is today no organized body on the planet that has the power to force the capitalists to adopt the measures that will forestall the worst catastrophes of global warming. That we lack such a body is one of the central problems facing the movement of workers and oppressed people on the planet.
Climate change affects everyone, but it will disproportionately affect working-class people and poor countries. This is why the planet needs socialism.
The U.N. panel can issue reports on the dangers of climate change, but the U.N. itself has no authority to impose binding carbon reduction schemes on industrialized nations. Instead, there is a hodgepodge of treaties and plans.
The United States, the country most responsible for carbon emissions, has completely refused to participate in the Kyoto Protocol. The U.S. government continues to act like a spoiled brat, refusing to endorse any mandatory programs, while blaming developing nations like China and India.
There are more workers than capitalists. The only difference is that most of the workers are not organized and do not realize our own power. If we unite, we can overturn this irrational capitalist system and begin to build socialism—a rational system based on economic planning.
Under socialism, the workers’ state can impose mandatory emissions controls and implement emissions reduction technology in a coordinated fashion. The worst case scenario of global warming can be averted.
In a socialist society, like Cuba, the government run for and by the people can impose mandatory emissions controls and implement emissions reduction technology in a coordinated fashion.
Capitalism cannot save the planet. In fact, if it continues it will likely destroy it.
Socialism is an alternative that is real and necessary—for working people and the world we live in.
