Another summer
storm season, wildfires, tornadoes and other detrimental weather
events raise the question of the expansive effects of global warming
yet again.
Despite scientific evidence to the contrary,
a large section of the ruling class and right-wing apologists for
capitalism continue to debate the veracity of global warming. People
around the world continue to experience the devastating effects of
what they know in practicality to be real. Global warming, due to the
dramatic increase of trapped gases in the Earth’s atmosphere from
the burning of fossil fuels, and methane from mining and agriculture,
results in devastation worldwide. While the melting ice caps are
scarcely deemed important enough to continue being covered by the
corporate media, the consequences of this melting continue and affect
all of us.
The Arctic permafrost
is melting, releasing methane into the atmosphere. The result is a
two-fold “positive feedback” cycle. When methane is released and
trapped in the atmosphere, it raises the temperature, melting more
permafrost, thus releasing more methane and continuing the cycle.
Increased temperatures also means that the melted Arctic is less
effective at reflecting sunlight back to space. White ice and snow
reflect 80 percent of sunlight back, while dark water reflects only
20 percent, absorbing a much larger heat load and warming the ocean
further.
Degradation of the
Arctic glaciers has far-reaching consequences. Increasing levels of
water from the melting glaciers are anticipated to disrupt, and
potentially halt, the major thermohaline ocean current because of
changes in water temperatures and salt content. This current
circulates very slowly in the deep levels of every ocean on the
planet. It is responsible for moving nutrients between different
environments and for assisting the wind currents that pull warm air
from the tropics to regions in Europe. A disruption or halt would
result, for a start, in higher temperatures along the equator and
lower temperatures in northern Europe.
Changes in the
deep ocean current, along with temperature change, would directly
affect wind currents. Wind—created by warm
air displacing cooler air—is dependent on temperature variation
across areas. A disruption to this system would impact temperature
regulation over large distances, as well as the movement of moisture
from marine atmospheres to dry lands.
Rapid
global climate change in temperature, wind and water currents,
resulting from global warming, has left the environment in a
precariously unstable situation.
Globally,
the temperature has risen nearly two degrees over the last century,
with polar regions warming nearly double the global average.
Projections at the 2009 Copenhagen summit predicted that the global
“carbon emissions budget” for the half-century would be exceeded,
16 years ahead of schedule, by 2034. Based on current trends, the
International Energy Agency expects that there could be a 3.5 degree
increase in the next 35 years.
This
has led to predictions that the Arctic could experience an ice-free
summer by 2040, a sea level rise between seven and 23 inches by the
end of the 21st century, more than a million species facing
extinction and a devastating impact on food and water resources. At
some point, the ability to impact the global warming process could
become impossible because of the positive feedback cycles.
What is the cause of global warming and what can be done to combat
it?
A widely recognized
answer is that the growing industrialization and imperialist
exploitation is to blame. In other words, the rise of capitalism is
responsible for the gross degradation of the earth’s biosphere.
And we don’t
need theory to recognize this. We see the evidence in the communities
suffering from desertification and soil degradation from monoculture
agricultural production and reckless exploitation of resources. We
see it in the more than half-million
admitted U.S. corporate violations of the Clean Air Act that continue
with little to no repercussions. We see it in the communities,
especially oppressed communities, suffering prolonged and intense
pollution from industrial and nuclear waste. We see it in the
exploitation of developing countries’ resources and the
intellectual patents by international corporations that keep
effective and sustainable practices out of reach for millions of poor
people.
We in the Party for
Socialism and Liberation recognize that it is not the workers who
bear the guilt of this mounting cataclysm. Full responsibility lies
with the corporate politicians, the executives, the owners—in other
words, the capitalist class and ultimately the anarchic,
profit-driven, inhumane capitalist system itself.<
The
environmental crisis cannot be solved under capitalism. Under
capitalism, we must wage a continual struggle to demand the
implementation of environmental laws and force the EPA to take any
sort of action against those who defile the environment. If the
government was interested in defending the environment against
corporations, the U.S. House of Representatives would not have voted
in early April to amend the Clean Air Act to ban the regulation of
greenhouse gases in order to address climate change.
A
more humane and organized system could take immediate action to
address the causes and symptoms of the global environmental crisis.
It could fill the supermarkets with organic food that would be
affordable for everyone. Grains would be used to feed the hungry, and
not to produce destructive fuels or to put foreign nations under the
control of international banks. There would be a massive cutback in
plastics, incentives for reducing driving—along with vastly
improved public transportation—and an end to patents and
intellectual property rights over technology. An emphasis would be
placed on reducing use of bottles, cans and paper and not just on
recycling them. The health care system would not focus on developing
and selling costly treatments for diseases, but on the prevention of
them.
But we can plainly see that
this is not possible under the current system. It is not in the
nature of capitalism to take the needs of the people and the planet
into consideration.
We
must continue to be wary of the divisive tactics that present the
issue as “workers versus the environment.” It is not the fault of
the workers who choose fast food or cheap meals over the costly
organic produce. Loggers, miners and other industrial workers, who
are dependent on their jobs for survival, should not be blamed for
the pollutants their work creates. Nor does the blame lie with
families who drive cars because mass transit is unavailable or poorly
accessible. The blame lies with the capitalists, who have no interest
in any action that might cut into their profits, and the capitalist
system, no matter how beneficial the change would be for workers and
the world.
Socialism necessary to preserve the
environment
In order to be
successful, in order to preserve the environment and repair the
damage done, we need socialism.
Socialism
is a system based on centralized planning to meet the needs of the
masses of people, in which the profit motive has been removed from
the picture. It is a system that can more easily support the
development of sustainable technology and produce healthy food that
is actually used to feed people. It is a system capable of
identifying ecosystems and communities in need of reparation and
implementing programs to restore and revitalize them in an organized
way.
A country constructing
socialism exists, and fights for survival, only 90 miles off the
coast of Florida. While experiencing more than a half-century under a
criminal blockade and the last 20 years without the assistance of the
Soviet Union, Cuba has been recognized by the World Wildlife Fund as
the only country on Earth to meet the minimum requirements for
sustainable development. The requirements are a combination of a low
use of resources and a high level of human development.
Cuba provides
free health care and education to its citizens, but also guarantees a
job and a home. Because the profit motive does not dominate Cuba’s
economy, Cuba is able to accomplish all this without the degradation
of the environment found elsewhere.
The Cuban
government has established a national system for the restoration and
preservation of 14 national parks, 30 ecological and natural
reserves, 11 fauna refuges, two natural landscapes and 11 flower
reserves. It has been dedicated to the training of professionals in
the field of environmental protection and the education of the
public. Reduced energy CFLs are available from the government for
free to residents who trade in their incandescent bulbs. To enable
domestic food production without the availability of pesticides, and
to reduce the fuel needed to transport food, local organic farms can
be found throughout Cuba’s urban landscape. Agriculture is supported
with the use of natural manure fertilizers and biocontrol agents
(like native predators of pests).
To
fail to take these environmental issues into account in our current
struggles would be to ensure our ultimate failure in the fight for
social justice. We owe it to ourselves and to future generations to
build a world capable of achieving what is possible and necessary.
