Scottish
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has declared a "climate
emergency". The SNP leader
told conference delegates in Edinburgh she was inspired after meeting young
climate campaigners who had gone on strike from school. Sturgeon said
"they are right", and pledged to "live up to our
responsibility" to halt climate change. The Labour Party is also
expected to declare a national climate emergency on Wednesday. They
will call for a dramatic cut in the UK's carbon emissions. Dozens of
towns and cities across the UK have already declared "a climate
emergency". There is no single definition of what that means.
Every
day we feel the effects of climate change—a crisis we did little to
create. Today, the people of the world are saying ‘enough is
enough’. Governments and corporations and agencies promising modest
"changes" and "goals" 10, 20, 50 years from
now....and we are accepting it. The ship is sinking fast and the
captain is promising to start bailing out water with ladles. Too
often the Socialist Party has been accused for only opposing and not
proposing. That has never been a valid criticism. Today’s need is
not another centralised global institution, but the de-concentration
and de-centralisation of decision-making power, and the creation of a
pluralistic system of organisations interacting with one another,
guided by broad and flexible agreements and understandings. We are
not talking about something completely new. The Socialist Party has
tried to show that workers everywhere have an underlying common
interest around which to unite and it is the capitalists who cannot
overcome their divisions. An enormous hatred is growing against the
many horrors of capitalism. Industrial pollution and ecological
damage have provoked resistance in various countries. That hatred has
to be turned into dedication to overthrow the entire capitalist
system.
The
threat to the environment, a direct result of capital’s
uncontrolled expansion, can be answered only by the collective action
of humanity as a whole. Extinction Rebellion and the school strikers
have done vital work in drawing attention to environmental issues.
However, they only too often offer the wrong answers to the very questions they ask about the environment. Its solution lies on the plane of rational and humane, that is to say, wise organisation, both of production itself and care for nature, not just by individuals, enterprises or countries, but by all humanity, linked with a clear awareness of our planetary responsibility for the ecological consequences of civilisation.
Politicians
and corporations of all hues now declare their commitment to do
something about climate change as an emergency and believe it or not
but some of those who run world capitalism actually understand that
the environment on which their system depends is in danger of
disintegrating within a generation or two. Governments and businesses
have a genuine interest in slowing down climate change, much the same
as their predecessors had a genuine interest in eliminating the smog
from the slums. But they cannot achieve their goal without slowing
down the momentum of capital accumulation, the very basis of their
system. It is precisely because this is a global problem that those
who support the system find it difficult to deal with.
Capitalism
is in the process of destroying all our futures. The environmental
activists see climate change as the issue that overshadows all
others. Everything else has to be subordinated to building a campaign
such as has never been seen before in an effort to force governments
and firms to take the necessary action. They are raising much-needed
awareness of what is happening. But campaigns focused purely on
climate change will not be the answer to the problem for deep-seated
change is required. They counsel us that we can compel the
governments to implement mitigating measures. But politicians end up
tailoring their demands to what they think can be achieved without
too great a disturbance to the present system. So they lobby for
countries to sign up to various ‘practical’ agreements such as
carbon taxes on the grounds that ‘at least it is a start’. But
let’s be honest, corporations that are expert at cheating taxes by
use of tax havens and who place pollution-measuring avoidance
computer chips in their cars will easily find ways to fiddle their
emissions by carbon trading. The capitalist system depends for its
existence on continued expansion and accumulation, and any serious
and effective solution to climate change is going to open enormous
fissures within the system. Are we to imagine the ruling class will
sacrifice their interests for the rest of us? There have been
previous instances of civilisations collapsing due to ecological
devastation as did the Maya civilisation. Capitalists and states will
react to the need to do something about global warming by price and
tax measures that will inevitably hit the living standards of the
poor.
The
only sure protection against climate change is the replacement of a
society based on accumulation for profit with one based on production
for need. There is but one way to reverse climate change. That is
through challenging and ending capitalism as a whole.
The
people of the world must organise ourselves to take action and that
action has to be the creation of a society where it is not
corporation bank balances that count but peoples’ needs come first.
If humanity is to survive the climate change that we have created, we
must start caring about everyone! The blindly pro-business attitude
of the supposed ‘solutions’ seeing all environmental policies as
"a burden" that needs to be "minimised" spells
doom. Doom for the planet. Doom for the life-sustaining eco-systems
we all depend on. Doom for the people of the Earth. Doom for a
possible future human society that could truly benefit all.
There's
work to do – let’s establish socialism before it is too late.
Act
Today to Save Tomorrow
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