Environmentalists’ Myopia

Many are undoubtedly sincere in their determination to combat climate change. But no matter how well-intentioned they are very few address the question of how their objectives can be achieved without radical social and economic change. Some environmentalist critics say socialism is just out of date on the issue of the environment and there those who suggest it is fundamentally anti-environmental. Yet the Socialist Party seeks to build a society that is not based on the exploitation of Earth at all — a society whose goal is to achieve a benign stable state with nature for the benefit of all species. It is the Socialist Party’s task to inspire people to demand real radical change.

Socialism, a self-managed society, will naturally implement most present-day ecological demands essential for the very survival of humanity. The point is that we can debate such issues open-mindedly only when we have eliminated the profit incentives and economic insecurity that now undermine even the most minimal efforts to defend the environment. When humanity as a species is blamed for environmental destruction, the specific social causes are forgotten. The few who make the decisions are lumped with the powerless majority. Famines are seen as nature's revenge against overpopulation, natural checks that must be allowed to run their course -- as if there was anything natural about the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which force developing and undeveloped countries to cultivate products for export rather than food for local consumption. People are made to feel guilty for using cars, ignoring the fact that there exists a situation in which most people have to have cars. Spectacular publicity gravely urges everyone to reduce energy consumption while an advertising industry is constantly inciting everyone to consume more of everything. Even though we could by now more than enough green renewable energy sources but the fossil-fuel companies have successfully lobbied for retention of their government subsidies against devoting funding alternative energy networks. The point is not to blame even the heads of those companies - they too are caught in a grow-or-die system that impels them to make such decisions - but to abolish the setup that continually produces such irresistible pressures.

We are faced with a problem, a profit motivated economic system, something that could literally lead to the deaths of billions of people, the extinction of nearly half of all species, and the destruction of the ecological systems which allowed for the development of civilisation – and the people who want to do something about it by replacing the capitalist system are labelled unrealistic, and those who advocate ineffective half-measures are considered “realists.” Those “realists” have a firm grip on our social, political and economic system, and they are doing a tremendous job at keeping us from seeing reality. Green goals cannot be reconciled with a capitalist economy. The goal of an ecological steady-state between society and nature cannot be reconciled with capitalism’s insatiable compulsion for expansion and accumulation. As long as the self-styled realists in Green parties do not confront capitalism’s barriers there will be cause for disillusionment. the system of capitalist production and the necessity of accumulation is fundamentally incompatible with a sustainable relationship between humanity and their ecosystems. Green capitalism represents a mystical and magical manner of thinking.

Socialism means a global movement to lift all the world out of poverty and this cannot be done by an environmentalist movement that focuses on personal sacrifices of people to save the planet. The personal lifestyle and consumer choice solutions that are increasingly pushed as the answer to climate change in the media are the wrong end of the stick. Action to deal with climate change must be directed towards the source of the problem, not aimed at mitigating its effects. Changing how society produces energy, organises transport, constructs buildings and develops cities is the key – not individual lifestyle choices. Businesses must compete to survive, while nations compete in trading and commerce. If abandoning investments undermines a company or country’s competitive position, the pressure to resist change is immense, strengthened by the lobbying and market power of corporations. Many measures taken by governments and corporations to mitigate climate change are cosmetic designed to placate public opinion. Others are assumed to be the purpose of reducing the effects of climate change but in reality serve other interests – monoculture for biofuels and fracking for gas, for instance. Carbon trading is seen as a business opportunity for capital accumulation. We are also assured that capitalism can save the environment the miracles of high-tech and futuristic bioengineering. For sure, capitalist innovation in new technology has certainly transformed economies but always with profit driving the whole process.

Once people have begun to recognise the seriousness of the climate crisis, the most important thing then is also to learn the role of capitalism has in its cause and to understand that only a revolutionary system-change can save us and our planet now. We, the people, must rise up and end this system rooted in greed and fear. The class struggle pits working people against powerful capitalist interests, opening the door to understanding that the system itself must be changed — along the lines of the slogan that has become popular if not fully comprehended in the environmental movement: 

System Change Not Climate Change.