I am writing this in the local public library because it is too hot to concentrate in my house. While temperatures in the 80s might seem normal for the end of June, it is not the typical weather pattern for the Pacific Northwest, where it is usually cool and rainy until at least the 4th of July. In fact, in my neighborhood, where most people don’t water the grass (to save on the water bill), lawns are already brown—again, something we don’t usually see until mid-July or later.
Many welcome the sunshine, happy to see the end of the dreary grayness that typifies this region for so much of the year. But even as I too do what I can to enjoy the early summer weather, I think about what is causing this bounty of sunshine and warmth.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released data indicating that May 2015 was the hottest May on record, 1.57 degrees above the 20th century record. Temperatures for January-May were 1.53 degrees above the long-term average, and the hottest on record. There is no doubt in the minds of scientists that these temperatures are symptoms of climate change.
This is driving extreme weather events around the globe: heatwaves in India and Alaska, drought in California and the wettest May in U.S. history.
What causes climate change?
Climate change, also known as global warming, is caused by emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, resulting in higher global temperatures. This in turn leads to shifts in climate patterns, specifically causing an increase in extreme weather events such as droughts, hurricanes and winter storms. The emissions are the result primarily of burning fossil fuels for industrial development, energy generation and automobiles. The vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions originate in the imperialist West and North. However, as Pope Francis points out in his recent encyclical on climate change, the impacts are felt most severely in the global South, where the poor are affected by drought, famine and destructive weather events.
Pope: Climate change is a moral issue
Typically, climate change is seen as an “environmental” issue, and that is not incorrect, in that it effects the environment. However, it is important that we begin to understand that global warming is much more than a few extra sunny days in June. Climate change means drought, hunger and destruction, with the poorest people most impacted.
At the recent gathering of the G7, the club of the richest imperialist nations, the meeting concluded with this statement: “Urgent and concrete action is needed to address climate change.” In a non-binding agreement, the G7 nations pledged to reduce their carbon emissions, contribute $100 billion a year for climate change. They also stated their “commitment” to the elimination of “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies, which total some $5.3 trillion annually, according to the International Monetary Fund.
It is interesting to contrast the statements from the Pope and the G7. The Pope heads up a large church, with many resources; but the church is no match for the G7, which includes the richest, most powerful nations on the planet. Francis’s encyclical which is grounded in the facts of climate science, will likely have the effect of inspiring many people, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, to take action against climate change by becoming involved in grassroots activism for fossil fuel divestment and against the expansion of fossil fuel extraction.
The G7 states, on the other hand, have the resources and power immediately to reduce emissions in their respective territories, if the political will existed. That they lack the political will is evident by the endless string of “non-binding” agreements churned out at these imperialist talk-fests. Why do they lack the will to take real action on climate change? Doesn’t global warming affect everyone, the G7 leaders included?
Who can stop climate change?
They lack the will because for now, the emissions status quo is more profitable. No imperialist country wants to be the one that significantly reduces emissions allowing a competitor state to get ahead. This is the irrational logic of capitalism, which prioritizes next quarter’s earnings statement over the health of the entire planet. And even if some of the G7 leaders are sincere in their desire to limit emissions, there does not yet exist a power greater than the states capable of enforcing a binding agreement.
Please do not take this post as a wholehearted endorsement of Pope Francis, who even in the encyclical restates the Church’s reactionary opposition to abortion and birth control (although let it be stated, population control is not a solution to climate change; rather it is a racist red herring that blames the victims of climate change instead of holding the polluters accountable.) But if the encyclical inspires more people to get active, if the Church itself divests its considerable holdings from the fossil fuel industry, it can only have a positive impact in terms of building a movement to stop climate change and forcing the polluters to change their behavior.
The climate crisis reveals the bankruptcy of capitalism and the superiority of socialism, a system in which economic decisions are made rationally based on the interests of the majority and logic of sustainability.
The “leaders” of the imperialist West, those who historically created the problem of greenhouse gases during the process of uncontrolled capitalist development, now seek to limit the development of the underdeveloped nations, nations that they plundered in their race to wealth. If they don’t stop and cut emissions, and do so soon, it may be too late to prevent catastrophic climate change. Who has the power to make them change? Only the masses of people organized.
