Despite the overwhelming evidence for mankind’s ability to produce an abundance of the means of life, including food, there is growing evidence that if man continues to ruthlessly plunder his environment in the way he has done over the last hundred years or so then the gloomy predictions of doom and gloom may become true. In the long run the question may even be that of the survival of the human species. Rivers, oceans, the atmosphere and the soil may steadily become less productive as the result of the irrational drive to accumulate wealth on the part of a minority. It is a great pity that people do not realise that before the environment of man can become clean and decent a tremendous transformation in human organisations and institutions is necessary. It is possible to re-organise ourselves so that the world becomes a fit place to live in.
The Socialist Party has never opposed the tremendous achievements that science and technology has contributed to society. But under capitalism it has been used and developed in an irrational and unplanned manner which has resulted in many catastrophes. In 1935, Los Angeles had the largest mass transit system in the world, with 3,000 quiet electric trains that carried eighty million passengers a year. General Motors and Standard Oil bought the system and disassembled it, creating a forced reliance on automobiles and oil. The costs of highway construction and air pollution were "externalised"--shifted onto the public. This example was repeated again and again
The destruction of the environment has now reached calamitous proportions. The ‘Greenhouse Effect’ is inevitable in a society dominated by blind market forces. An indictment of the short sighted and disastrous policies of big business has been in relation to the Amazon rainforest. The devastation of the mighty forest and its ecological system has been on such a magnitude and ferocity has been one of the greatest ecological disaster in history and is now making a decisive effect on climate change.
Only too often we hear from environmentalist activists that the individual is the one that causes the manufacturer to make the goods that produce the factory wastes that causes more pollution. It suggests that we are responsible, that it is our fault that the whole environment is getting fouled up. It suggests that we each individually contribute an average share to pollution and are responsible for the misdirected efforts to fix the environment. This attitude ignores the single most important fact about those responsible for pollution comes from business. The amount of pollution that individual people contribute through their day-to-day activities is very small and practically irrelevant. Environmental destruction is the direct result of the crazy, profit-motivated system we live in. And so long as that system is allowed to continue, the climate crises will continue and heighten.
To get to the core of the problem, one must take into account that it is profits which motivate the operations of the capitalist economic system. The main enemy of the environment is the business interests which control the corporations which run the industries which produce almost all the ecological damage. Corporations cannot afford to be overly concerned with stopping pollution. Business is not about to cut its profits for anybody. Business has not cut its profits to provide full employment or to avoid wars. There’s no reason to expect them to do such a thing in order to stop pollution! This is also true to a large extent of the government. Corporations resist regulations as a matter of economic necessity, and major political parties, caught up in the logic of competitiveness, are increasingly unwilling to represent any other interest. There is a complicity of the government in helping corporations stay "competitive" in this way. If we believe that just protesting for more legislation and regulation, appealing to the good will and humanitarian instincts of these giant, avaricious and predatory elite financiers and industrialists will change the situation for the better, we are building upon illusions. To appeal to the good will, common sense and even self-interest of the big business is to expect them to be able to abandon the lucrative profits, exploitation and oppression which are directly linked to the dire state of the environment. This is a bankrupt theory. Relying on the corporations, on the banks and their bought and paid for capitalist politicians brings no results. Pretty words and decorative initiatives are frequently rendered meaningless. The interests of the capitalist class are always destined to be the governing principle of the management of the environment. A socialist system today would alter not only who controls the means of production but also what kinds of goods should be produced. It would put those who are currently exploited in control of their own products and environments.
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