Capitalism is destroying the planet. Climate scientist
Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (Director of Potsdam Institute for Climate
Impact Research) estimated that for a 67% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2
degree Centigrade temperature rise (would you board a plane if it had a 33%
chance of crashing?) In 2005 an international conference called "Avoiding
Dangerous Climate Change: A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse
Gases" changed the odds to a 50% (so now would you get on a plane that had
a 50-50 chance of crashing?) The clear warnings from scientists are being
ignored because of the lobbying power of “business as usual” and fossil fuel
vested interests. The capitalist establishment has failed to act. Capitalism –
that brought us wars and genocides – has been unable or unwilling to address
man-made climate change and indeed now threatens a climate genocide in which 10
billion people are set to die this century. Science is clearly indicating
socialism as our one and only solution for Spaceship Earth. Unless emissions
are substantially reduced and then stopped altogether, the quantitative changes
could lead to qualitative changes in the earth’s atmosphere, resulting in earth
becoming uninhabitable for humankind and the other life forms inhabiting the
planet. Unfortunately this truth has not been understood by most political
figures.
In its world-wide
rush for profit and power, capitalism has ravaged the resources and environment
of Earth, widespread pollution of the air, soil, rivers, lakes and seas is but
one of the consequences. Global warming and its ‘greenhouse effect’ threatens
climatic instability, crop failure and both drought and flooding. Destruction
of the rainforests is driving plant and animal species to extinction. Ozone
depletion, acid rain, deforestation and desertification present the world’s
peoples with new and additional dangers. We must move towards an overall system
of production in which waste products are either eliminated or reduced to an
absolute minimum. The atmosphere, the oceans and the land can no longer be
treated as a dustbin. This applies as much as to agriculture as to industry. The
change to a system of waste-free production is incompatible with the existence
of an unplanned capitalist economy. The
drive for maximum and short-term profit takes precedence over the long-term
consequences for the environment. The drive for capitalist profit is an
in-built obstacle to greater environmental protection. ‘Green’ policies are a drain
on potential profits and dividends. Capitalism itself leads to the wasteful
levels of consumption of raw materials seen today.
Compared with what is possible, capitalist production
relations are today a barrier to the development of society’s productive forces
and their use by human beings for the full, free and beneficial development of
all. Replacing private ownership of the means of production (land, workplaces,
power, machinery, raw materials, etc) with common ownership will not only put
an end to exploitation. It will also ensure that production takes place in
order to meet society’s needs, not in order to maximise private profit. The
democratic planning of production would enable the full use of scientific and
technological advances to eradicate poverty, raise living standards and put an
end to the massive inequalities of wealth and power. The guiding principle of
socialism would be: ‘from each according to their ability to each according to
their needs’. Socialism would make possible the creation of genuine democracy
and participation in all areas of society, allowing people to fulfil their
potential free not only from economic and social pressures, but from all forms
of prejudice and discrimination. It also provides the only hope of saving our planet’s
ecological balance from irreparable damage.
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