In 2009, the United Nations declared April 22nd “International Mother Earth Day.” It promotes the idea that humans are intricately connected to all living species and the planet we inhabit. Regardless of all the reformist and palliative discourses to the worlds environmental problems it draws attention to the capitalist system and all its forms of depredation, exploitation, abuse and contamination which have caused great destruction, degradation and disruption of Earth, putting life as we know it today at risk through phenomena such as climate change. It challenges the core belief that sustains the global capitalist order: namely, the idea that we can organise our economy around the goal of perpetual growth and profit accumulation (if capitalism doesn't report "growth" then it's in "recession"). Earth Day hopefully helps lead us towards real solutions to the urgent global ecological crises that face us.
Fossil-fuel subsidies rose by almost 30 percent, to $523 billion, in 2011. Far from reducing efforts to develop fossil fuels, the top 200 companies spent $674bn (£441bn) in 2012 to find and exploit even more new resources, a sum equivalent to 1% of global GDP, a 1% that the 2006 Stern report on the economic impact of climate change concluded would pay for a transition to a clean and sustainable economy. In other words, we are doing exactly the opposite of what we should be doing.
$6 trillion is what oil, gas, and coal companies will invest over the next ten years on turning fossil fuel deposits into reserves, assuming the level of investment stays the same. Reserves are defined as bodies of oil, gas or coal that can be drilled or mined economically.
If countries stick to the existing internationally agreed upon emissions targets to avoid more than a 2 degree rise in the world’s temperature, if the agreements hold, the reserves in question will be unburnable and worthless. That would produce massive market losses. But the stock markets are betting against it. The 6 trillion dollar bet is that fossil-fuel companies will be allowed to keep pumping up the carbon bubble by investing more cash to turn resources into reserves, and continue booking them at full value, assuming zero risk of devaluation. It's a gamble that effectively says to government: “Nah, we don’t believe a word you say. We think you’ll do nothing about climate change for decades." They'll only believe environmental regulation when they see it. The capitalist will ride the train until just before it goes off the cliff. Each capitalist thinks they are smart enough to get off in time, but not everyone can get out of the door at the same time. That is why you get bubbles and crashes. But given major industrial nations’ failure to meet previous targets, however, it is unlikely the 2 degree limit will be respected.
The target of keeping the global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius this century is slipping out of reach.
"The drive to clean up the world's energy system has stalled," said Maria van der Hoeven, the 's International Energy Agency executive director, at the launch of the agency's report on clean energy progress. "Despite much talk by world leaders, and a boom in renewable energy over the past decade, the average unit of energy produced today is basically as dirty as it was 20 years ago."
It’s time to leave behind fossil fuels altogether. We can, too. But it will take jettisoning the present economic system and replacing it with a rational one to do it. Yet, we dither. Taking no action even though the longer we wait to reduce emissions will mean any solution becomes impossible, that the tipping point to extinction will have been reached. Sceptics argue that this doomsday scenario might not come to pass – and they may be right. If we are that lucky!
But what sort of luck would it be? Rather than the end of human existence, it would mean continuing competition and conflict over resources. “Water wars” over contested river systems, global food riots sparked by soaring prices for life’s basics, mass migrations of climate refugees (with resultant anti-migrant violence), and the breakdown of social order or the collapse of states. At first, such mayhem is likely to arise largely in Africa, Central Asia, and other areas of the underdeveloped South, but in time all regions of the planet will be affected.
Essentially, climate change will wreak its havoc on us by constraining our access to the basics of life: vital resources that include food, water, land, and energy. This will be devastating. the future effects of climate change to predict the following with reasonable confidence. Rising sea levels will in the next half-century erase many coastal areas, destroying large cities, critical infrastructure (including roads, railroads, ports, airports, pipelines, refineries, and power plants), and prime agricultural land. Diminished rainfall and prolonged droughts will turn once-verdant croplands into dust bowls, reducing food output and turning millions into “climate refugees.”More severe storms and intense heat waves will kill crops, trigger forest fires, cause floods, and destroy critical infrastructure.
No one can predict how much food, land, water, and energy will be lost as a result of this onslaught. But the consequences are obvious. We are now heading directly to-wards a world of chaos.
Marx did not claim socialism was inevitable. He also recognised the possibility that the class war could result in the mutual demise of both capitalist and worker.
Fossil-fuel subsidies rose by almost 30 percent, to $523 billion, in 2011. Far from reducing efforts to develop fossil fuels, the top 200 companies spent $674bn (£441bn) in 2012 to find and exploit even more new resources, a sum equivalent to 1% of global GDP, a 1% that the 2006 Stern report on the economic impact of climate change concluded would pay for a transition to a clean and sustainable economy. In other words, we are doing exactly the opposite of what we should be doing.
$6 trillion is what oil, gas, and coal companies will invest over the next ten years on turning fossil fuel deposits into reserves, assuming the level of investment stays the same. Reserves are defined as bodies of oil, gas or coal that can be drilled or mined economically.
If countries stick to the existing internationally agreed upon emissions targets to avoid more than a 2 degree rise in the world’s temperature, if the agreements hold, the reserves in question will be unburnable and worthless. That would produce massive market losses. But the stock markets are betting against it. The 6 trillion dollar bet is that fossil-fuel companies will be allowed to keep pumping up the carbon bubble by investing more cash to turn resources into reserves, and continue booking them at full value, assuming zero risk of devaluation. It's a gamble that effectively says to government: “Nah, we don’t believe a word you say. We think you’ll do nothing about climate change for decades." They'll only believe environmental regulation when they see it. The capitalist will ride the train until just before it goes off the cliff. Each capitalist thinks they are smart enough to get off in time, but not everyone can get out of the door at the same time. That is why you get bubbles and crashes. But given major industrial nations’ failure to meet previous targets, however, it is unlikely the 2 degree limit will be respected.
The target of keeping the global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius this century is slipping out of reach.
"The drive to clean up the world's energy system has stalled," said Maria van der Hoeven, the 's International Energy Agency executive director, at the launch of the agency's report on clean energy progress. "Despite much talk by world leaders, and a boom in renewable energy over the past decade, the average unit of energy produced today is basically as dirty as it was 20 years ago."
It’s time to leave behind fossil fuels altogether. We can, too. But it will take jettisoning the present economic system and replacing it with a rational one to do it. Yet, we dither. Taking no action even though the longer we wait to reduce emissions will mean any solution becomes impossible, that the tipping point to extinction will have been reached. Sceptics argue that this doomsday scenario might not come to pass – and they may be right. If we are that lucky!
But what sort of luck would it be? Rather than the end of human existence, it would mean continuing competition and conflict over resources. “Water wars” over contested river systems, global food riots sparked by soaring prices for life’s basics, mass migrations of climate refugees (with resultant anti-migrant violence), and the breakdown of social order or the collapse of states. At first, such mayhem is likely to arise largely in Africa, Central Asia, and other areas of the underdeveloped South, but in time all regions of the planet will be affected.
Essentially, climate change will wreak its havoc on us by constraining our access to the basics of life: vital resources that include food, water, land, and energy. This will be devastating. the future effects of climate change to predict the following with reasonable confidence. Rising sea levels will in the next half-century erase many coastal areas, destroying large cities, critical infrastructure (including roads, railroads, ports, airports, pipelines, refineries, and power plants), and prime agricultural land. Diminished rainfall and prolonged droughts will turn once-verdant croplands into dust bowls, reducing food output and turning millions into “climate refugees.”More severe storms and intense heat waves will kill crops, trigger forest fires, cause floods, and destroy critical infrastructure.
No one can predict how much food, land, water, and energy will be lost as a result of this onslaught. But the consequences are obvious. We are now heading directly to-wards a world of chaos.
Marx did not claim socialism was inevitable. He also recognised the possibility that the class war could result in the mutual demise of both capitalist and worker.
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