The
survival of the natural world upon which humanity depends hangs in
the balance, according to the new chair of the global scientific body
for biodiversity, Ana María Hernández.
She
said she did not know if society could make the major changes needed
to stop the annihilation of wildlife, which some scientists thought
was the start of a mass extinction.
It would be very difficult to shift society out of its current
“comfort zone” of business-as-usual, but she thought the much
higher environmental awareness among young people was a reason for
great optimism.
Hernández
is chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which in May published
the most thorough planetary health check ever undertaken.
It concluded that human society was in jeopardy from the accelerating
decline of the Earth’s natural life-support systems, with a million
species at risk of extinction.
“If
I look at my generation, the people who are running the companies and
countries and society in general, I don’t know if we are going to
be able at this point in time to make extreme transformative changes,
because we love to do the things we way we always do things,”
Hernandez said. “We are in our comfort zone and it is very
difficult to change. If we do not, then I am afraid the next 50 years
are going to be very dramatic for us. But if I look at young people,
I am optimistic. They are people who have grown up with environmental
concern,” she said. “I think we are going to have this
transformation from the old society to a new environmental society in
this 50 years. But if we cannot change business-as-usual we are going
to be in trouble.”
She
said people should use their votes for change: “People often do not
vote because they know the proposals of the politicians, but because
the person is charismatic or famous. Voters must understand the
environmental proposals of the candidates.”
The
destruction of nature by the razing of forests, over-hunting and
fishing, pollution and the climate emergency has slashed
wildlife populations by 60% since 1970
and plant extinctions are running at a “frightening” rate,
according to scientists. The web of life that provides the food,
clean air and water on which society ultimately depends is being
dismantled by unsustainable methods of production and wasteful
lifestyles, say conservationists.
Endangering
the soil and the water, as always, the moneyed interests come first,
and the people last, putting our children and future generations at
risk. The cleanup of polluted waters, the reclamation of wetlands,
and the restoration of the natural environment generally will have to
wait for the advent of socialism. That is the only sane, logical and
practical way to eliminate all such unnatural disasters because it is
the only way to take control of the economy away from impervious and
brutish ruling classes and place it under the direct control of
society as a whole. Because of capitalism and the insane motivation
on the part of the capitalists to keep initial investment to a
minimum to make the most profit, especially near-term profit, we are
exposed to environmentalist harm. To understand why regulation hasn't
worked, it must be understood that the environmental crisis is caused
in the nature of the capitalist economic system. The problem is that,
under capitalism, the majority of people have no power to make
decisions about production. Under the capitalist system, production
decisions are made by the small, wealthy minority that owns and
controls the industries and services -- the capitalist class. And the
capitalists who make up that class make their decisions to serve,
first and foremost, one goal -- that of maximising profit for
themselves. That is where the environmental crisis begins.
Socially
harmful decisions are made because, in one way or another, they serve
the profit interests of the capitalist class. Capitalist-class rule
over the economy also explains why government regulation is so
ineffective: under capitalism, government itself is essentially a
tool of the capitalist class. Politicians may be elected
"democratically," but because they are financed, supported
and decisively influenced by the economic power of the capitalist
class, democratic forms are reduced to a farce. The capitalist class
and its government will never be able to solve the environmental
crisis. They and their system are the problem. It is up to the
producing class to end this climate crisis. The action workers must
take is to realise their political power and integrated into ONE MOVEMENT with the goal of building a new
society with completely different motives for production -- human
needs and wants instead of profit -- and to organise their own
political party to challenge the political power of the capitalists,
express their mandate for change at the ballot box and dismantle the
state altogether. The new society they must aim for must be one in
which society itself, not a wealthy few, would own the industries and
services, and the workers themselves would control them
democratically through their own organisations. Such a society -- a
socialist industrial democracy -- is what is needed to solve the
environmental crisis. By placing the economic decision-making power
in the hands of the people, by eliminating capitalist control and
the profit motive in favour of a system in which workers produce to
meet their own needs and wants, the necessary resources and labour
could be devoted to stop pollution at its source and better clean up
the damage already done.
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