The
naturalist, David Attenborough, received an ovation from the
festival-goers at Glastonbury as he once more drew attention to the
perilous state of the planet. But television documentaries are not enough.
We
are facing the scenario of the breakdown of our ecological system by
CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. Extreme weather events and
fluctuations along with deforestation and soil exhaustion have
devastated major food-growing areas of the world. Conditions of many
are characterised by malnutrition, disease, slum housing, squalid
surroundings, high infant mortality and low life expectancy well
beyond any reasonable definition of human decency. There is mounting
evidence that this frightening picture of the irreversible breakdown
of our world is now occurring and at an alarming rate. Among many
tell-tale signs has been the discovery that the arctic permafrost has
warmed up. The destruction of the environment has now reached
calamitous proportions and is inevitable in a society dominated by
blind market forces. The anarchic development of capitalism and its
rapacious greed threaten humanity with extinction.
Under capitalism, the tremendous achievements that science has contributed to society
has been applied in an irrational and unplanned manner. The inherent
contradictions, antagonisms and the competition of interests makes
capitalism absolutely incapable of developing adequate safeguards
against global warming and its harmful effects. Is it not possible to
be a “caring” capitalist making huge profits to be concerned for
the environment. The fact is that capitalism can never go “green”
or be “ethical” and can never save the planet. Competition and
market forces squeezes profits and strangles ethics which fails to
create stable, sustainable relationships because it is unplanned and
because it is driven by the crude search for profits. The short term
interests of particular capitalists will always prevail over the
welfare of communities and eco-systems.
There’s
a lot at stake for the capitalist class, investments and profits, and
those at the helm have poured millions into the creation and
promotion of business-friendly “solutions”, entailing a level of
commitment and coordination that is beyond the system's capability. A
global economy that requires constant expansion of production and
increasing exploitation of finite resources requires to be transformed
at its roots, not tinkered with. Capitalism has never got any kinder.
Challenging the rule of capital — based as it is on the cheapest
and fastest exploitation of labour and nature and the endless
expansion of exchange value — and the creation of a social
democracy, is at the core of this necessary transformation.
Capitalism
compromises our relation to nature. All production decisions are made
by a tiny handful of capitalists, not in the interests of humanity,
but purely for profit. Environmental concerns are ignored in the
short term scramble for profit. The vast majority of the population
who want to live in a safe, healthy world, and to enjoy nature, have
no control over decisions that affect our lives. The market can never
be harnessed to develop a harmonious relationship with nature.
Because it depends on the exploitation of most of humanity, it must
keep us subjected. Because its motor force is profit, it will result
in the blind destruction of the environment.
Modern
technology is not in itself destructive. The new industries are much
cleaner than previous technologies while actually cutting energy
consumption. The new technologies that have developed under
capitalism have widened the experience of millions round the world,
drawing them away from the narrow drudgery of peasant existence and
improved living conditions in vast areas of the globe, and made
different ideas and culture available to nearly everybody, almost
everywhere. Without modern techniques it simply would not be possible
to feed current population levels.
The fact is, though, that such
measures have not been used to abolish hunger once and for all.
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