Global Capitalism = Global Warming — The Case for Socialism Printer-Friendly
E-Mail This
Sep 8, 2007
By Dan DiMaggio and Philip Locker
The looming environmental catastrophe has provoked an urgent search for solutions to stop global warming and save the planet for future generations.
There is a growing concern even among the political and corporate elite that something is very wrong. Economist Sir Nicholas Stern, author of the recent British government report outlining the stark potential economic impact of climate change, frankly admitted that global warming “represents the biggest market failure the world has ever seen.â€
Capitalism’s relentless pursuit of profit has placed the future of the earth in peril. Leading climate scientists now warn that unless drastic reductions in carbon emissions occur within the next decade, there will be a dangerous global rise in temperatures of 3 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Such an increase would mean a significant rise in sea levels, forcing hundreds of millions of people from their homes, as well as the loss of up to one-third of all species.
The latest reports show that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere – the principal cause of global warming – is at its highest level in at least 650,000 years. Further, its rate of increase has accelerated dramatically over the last 10 years.
The melting of the arctic sea ice is also accelerating, with ice levels at their lowest on record. The severity of storms has dramatically increased, leading to disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the Asian tsunami as well as devastating floods in many areas this summer.
...
The Case for Public Ownership
It is clear we have the technological and scientific capacity to stop global warming. The key barrier is the capitalist system, dominated by multinational corporations and competing nation states.
This situation demands a fundamental, root and branch solution rather than superficial reforms or other band-aid solutions. The future of the planet and humanity demands we overthrow this system. This is only possible by taking the giant corporations that dominate the U.S. and world economy into public ownership under the democratic control of working people.
By taking the global economy out of the ownership and control of capitalist elites, the vital decisions of society would no longer be determined by the drive for profit. Decisions about how resources are distributed and what and how products are made, could be made democratically rather than behind closed doors in corporate boardrooms.
The use of our resources could be planned rationally, in the interests of society as a whole, rather than being subject to the anarchy of the market. This is what is called socialism.
This would clear the way to urgently convert society from an oil based economy to renewable energy and carry out a huge research program to expand upon existing technology. The $1 trillion spent globally on the military each year (over half of which goes to the U.S. military) owing to the hostility between rival capitalist countries could be used to fund this conversion, as well as to lift billions out of poverty.
Instead of employing the majority of the best scientists to work on weapons research and other harmful ends, as is currently the case, their talents could be utilized to avoid an environmental catastrophe, as well as preventing disease and other useful things...
http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article19.php?id=598How to deal with global warming is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. Last November, climate change talks in the Hague completely broke down along national fault lines. MANNY THAIN looks at the threat to the environment and why the capitalist world powers are unable to act decisively.
THE STATED AIM of the Hague talks was to decide how to cut greenhouse gas emissions to help reverse global warming. Instead of ratifying the 1997 Kyoto protocol of the 1992 United Nations (UN) climate change convention, the whole event collapsed in disarray. British minister, Michael Meacher, announced on BBC Radio Four's Today programme that a deal had been struck, unaware that the talks had faltered. Acrimonious exchanges between the US and European delegations were matched by a spat between representatives from France and Britain. Britain's attempt to compromise with the US was vetoed.
This summit was another indication that the world economic system is paralysed by national and corporate interests. A follow-up meeting held in Brussels on 18 December also collapsed. Another UN climate meeting is due to take place in Bonn at the end of May.
http://www.socialismtoday.org/55/climate_talks.htmlIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organisation responded to the problems of global warming by setting up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988, involving some 2000 scientists from around the world. The IPCC has predicted that further increases in globally averaged temperatures of 1 to 3.5oC will occur by the year 2100 (others have predicted a 5oC rise by 2070). As a result of this increase, global sea levels are expected to rise by a further 15 to 19 cm. Regional weather patterns will become seriously disrupted. Britain, it is predicted, will become warmer and wetter with increased storms. Other areas of the world are likely to become desertified, still others will experience extremes of heat and flooding.. Many of the recent freak weather events throughout the world may be a portent of much worse to come.
Following the work of the IPCC the leading industrialised countries eventually agreed in principle to reduce their 1990 levels of CO2 by an average of 6% by 2010, the "Kyoto Agreement". They have yet to ratify this agreement, most of the opposition coming from the USA. Large US corporations including the oil, coal and heavy energy users have formed various "scientific" front organisations in an attempt to rubbish the evidence on global warming. The work of the IPCC is now considerably hampered by a lack of funding. Despite the fact that the levels of CO2 reduction proposed at Kyoto will only slow global warming (it is estimated that a 50% reduction of CO2 is needed), it was agreed that a credit scheme would operate, the details of which would be decided at a later date. Under the credit scheme countries like the USA could purchase the unused agreed CO2 emissions of other countries, or pay other countries to plant trees to absorb CO2 on their behalf. Japan is proposing just such a tree planting programme with Australia. In reality the planting of trees can only be a temporary solution. Once the trees mature and shed leaves or die the CO2 they have absorbed will begin to be released back into the atmosphere.
The bottom line is that the major capitalist countries are unable to deal seriously with the problem of global warming.
International Solution Required
All the predictions of future CO2 levels are based on the assumption that the disparity of consumption between western capitalism and the underdeveloped world will continue, more or less, well into the future. Apart from the obvious inequality, this is an unlikely scenario. Countries such as India are developing their industries at a considerable rate and are, not surprisingly, unwilling to curb their development in order to solve the problems created by western capitalism over the last two hundred years.
The USA produces nearly 25% of total world emissions of CO2. If the rest of the world produced per capita emissions equal to the USA then global levels of atmospheric CO2 would double every decade! The effects would be catastrophic.
World capitalism is locked into the use of cheap fossil fuels for the foreseeable future. Even the very limited Kyoto agreement has turned into a farce. The world cannot wait for the major capitalist countries to find an alternative some time in the distant future.
The problem of global warming can only be solved at an international level. The burning of fossil fuels must be drastically curbed and ultimately abandoned by about 2050. This can only be achieved by the public ownership of the major energy providers and users. Allied to this must be a revolution in the provision of cheap or free public transport. We must see an end to the gross waste of energy that characterises the current production process. An end to planned obsolescence, where products are designed for a limited life, is essential. Given current technological developments, the ability to produce products that last almost indefinitely, is entirely feasible. This can only be seriously considered if production is based on social need rather than profit. A massive investment in research and development of alternative and non-invasive energy sources and public transport on a world scale is essential.
Public Ownership of Major Energy Providers and Users
In Britain we must demand of a Labour government the re-nationalisation of transport, water, gas and electricity as the first stage of a planned energy policy. All energy consumed by industry must be monitored. Local companies must open their books on energy use. The workers in the industries together with local residents, consumer groups, environmental groups, local trade unions and other interested groups must be represented on a local environment committee overseeing the use and choice of energy in every area with the remit to stop energy wastage in all its forms. Design and production methods would come under particular scrutiny.
http://www.marxist.com/global-warming-socialism050400.htmNOTE: Before any of you start flailing and going, "OMG!!! TNO is a commie!!!" he/she/it may well be or not be; I have not heard a particular endorsement one way or another.
Thus far, TNO strikes me as a misguided do-gooder.
HOWEVER
It cannot be avoided that the issue of AGW has been co-opted by socialists as a means of destroying the free-market system and assuming control of people's lives to dictate as they see fit.
This brings us to a serious issue. As much as I love small government I cannot endorse Ron Paul because he will be beholden to the CT'ers and fascists that would be his powerbase. Ditto global warming. If the socialists of the world are pressing hard to saddle the US with money-thieving and rights-stripping treaties schemes in accordance with their marxist iseology we have to stop and ask where has the genuine concern ended and the ideologues taken over?
If we are to discuss AGW we MUST include in that dialogue the means by which our lives will not be surrendered to a system that crushes dissents, destroys economies and murdered over 100 million of its own people out of blind ambition.
