13) HOT EARTH: IS THERE AN ALTERNATIVE?

Excerpts from HOT EARTH, published by the Communist Party of Australia, www.cpa.org.au

     Scientific and technological progress under capitalism is used to make profits by exploiting people and nature. This has been the major contributor to the environmental and global economic crises we now face.

     In capitalism today, the future does not amount to much. Profits come increasingly from financial manipulation and corporate profits are geared towards short‑term profit making.

     Capitalism has brought humankind to the edge of catastrophe. It is an unsustainable system.

     Every environmental struggle - on the job or in communities -

comes up against corporations that own the factory or mine the

mineral deposits. This ownership and the vast wealth of these corporations give them the power to oppose changes to protect the environment.

     The power of corporations is defended by governments which support corporate interests. This is often done behind declarations that environmental protection measures will not be allowed to damage the economic interests of the country - meaning, of course, the economic interests of the capitalist ruling class.

     It is sometimes suggested that the environmental crisis is so serious that it transcends class. It has been called "a common crisis" which affects everyone equally, and requires social divisions to be set aside for the "common good".

     Nothing could be farther from the truth. The crisis is certainly common to all who live on earth, but it does not affect all equally, nor can it be solved by "common action" for two simple reasons - those whose actions have caused the crisis possess political power and show little inclination to change their present course towards disaster.

     The majority of the human population who oppose the dangers are not politically powerful enough yet to take the necessary actions.

     The need for a sustainable environment is overpowering. However, within the capitalist system it is impossible. The continual growth demanded by capitalism undermines policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

     Government support for market based policies has stifled almost all voices that question this policy and effectively ruled out the planning, regulation and legislation which are essential to ensure a sustainable future.

     However, environmental struggle within the system is necessary. Measures to keep the situation from worsening are urgent. What we cannot afford to do is to go down the wrong path.

     Climate change cannot be stopped by doing five per cent or even 25 per cent of what is necessary. If we trigger tipping points, the heating process will gather its own momentum and there will be nothing we can do to stop it. Doing too little to avoid those tipping points is equivalent to doing nothing.

     Difficult political and social choices will have to be made. Who will make those choices, and how? Will working people be the victims of change or will we fight and win changes which will benefit us and our children?

     Fundamental change is needed to meet the global environmental threats. Fundamental change means economic and social change, and a new politics built on the new economic base.

     We have only ten to 15 years to address the crisis of climate change and to prevent catastrophe. What humanity does now will determine the future of planet Earth.

What is global warming?

     The overwhelming scientific consensus is that global warming and climate change are caused by human activities that emit "greenhouse gases" such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and others into the atmosphere.

     The Union of Concerned Scientists put it this way: Think of a blanket, covering the Earth. When carbon dioxide and other gasses are released into the atmosphere, they act like a blanket, holding heat in our atmosphere and warming the planet.

     The rising concentration of these gasses, primarily as a result of capitalist forms of production, has driven an unprecedented increase in average global temperatures in recent years.

     Corporations are pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere much faster than plants and oceans can absorb it. These gases persist in the atmosphere for years, meaning that even if emissions were eliminated today, it would not immediately stop global warming or climate change.

     Earth has experienced warming and cooling cycles roughly every hundred thousand years. However, these changes have occurred over the span of several centuries. Today's changes have taken place over the last 100 years or less.

     Every country emits greenhouse gases. The level of responsibility to reduce emissions should not be assessed on total emissions, but rather on the per capita emission rate and level of development of each country.

What causes global warming?

     In February 2007 the 300‑member Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report, based on the work of some 2,500 scientists in more than 130 countries, which concluded that humans have caused all or most of the current planetary warming.

     The primary cause of global warming is human activity, most significantly the burning of fossil fuels to drive cars, generate electricity, and operate our homes and businesses.

     Most greenhouse gas emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels for energy. When oil, gas or coal burns, carbon contained within it combines with oxygen in the air to create carbon dioxide.

     Many industrial processes such as aluminium, cement and liquid natural gas production and coal mining produce greenhouse gases.

     Deforestation (land clearance and logging) is another major contributor. Plants take up carbon dioxide from the air during photosynthesis. When land is cleared, the stored carbon is converted back to carbon dioxide. Denuding land of trees also causes erosion and flooding.

     When forests are burned, they release huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. When the forests are gone, they can no longer absorb CO2.

     In 1987 alone 8 million hectares of the Amazon Basin were denuded of forest. The devastating floods in Bangladesh were partly the result of forest being stripped away from the foothills of the Himalayas.

     Animals, particularly sheep and cattle, produce large amounts of methane. Some fertilisers also release nitrous oxide, which is another greenhouse gas.

     Carbon dioxide and methane are released during the decay of food, vegetation and paper dumped in landfills. The same thing occurs when sewage wastes break down.

Is global warming a real threat?

     Changing climatic conditions have already contributed to an alarming rise in extinction of species and extreme weather events.

     Overloading our atmosphere with carbon has far‑reaching effects for people all around the world - more extreme storms, more severe droughts, deadly heat waves, rising sea levels, extreme bushfires and more acidic oceans, all of which affect the food chain.

     An April 2007 IPCC report warned that global warming could lead to large‑scale food and water shortages and have catastrophic effects on wildlife.

* Recent studies show that sea levels could rise by half a metre or more. Rises of just 10 centimeters could flood many South Seas islands and swamp large parts of Southeast Asia.

* Some hundred million people live within one meter of mean sea level, and much of the world's population is concentrated in vulnerable coastal cities.

* Glaciers around the world could melt, causing sea levels to rise while creating water shortages in regions dependent on runoff for fresh water.

* Strong hurricanes, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, and other natural disasters may become commonplace in many parts of the world.

* The growth of deserts may cause food shortages.

* More than a million species face extinction from disappearing habitat, changing ecosystems, and acidifying oceans. The loss of forests and other wild lands extinguishes species of plants and animals and drastically reduces the genetic diversity of the world's ecosystems. This process robs present and future generations of genetic material with which to improve crop varieties, to make them less vulnerable to weather stress, pest attacks and disease.

     The loss of species, many not yet studied by science, deprives us of important potential sources of medicines and industrial chemicals. It removes forever creatures of beauty and parts of our cultural heritage, and triggers further losses of plant and animal species as finely balanced ecological systems are broken up.

     Current evidence suggests that the Arctic Ocean could become ice free in summer as soon as 2013. With the Arctic summer sea ice melting, the disintegration of the Greenland ice sheets becomes largely unavoidable, threatening to raise the sea level by five metres or more within this century.

     About half the world's 50 largest cities would be at risk and hundreds of millions of people would become environmental refugees.

     With the disappearance of the Arctic summer sea ice, the Arctic Ocean will absorb more heat, threatening global warming of 2.7 degrees. This would take our world dangerously close to the 30 degree threshold which would amount to a global collective suicide by humanity, driven not by the people but by capitalist corporations.

What can be done?

     Burning fossil fuels has fired the engines of capitalism's exponential growth. The inescapable drive of capitalism for economic growth, accumulation and profit means the system is unable to comprehensively deal with the climate crisis. Capitalism has always failed to provide hundreds of millions of people with food, education and health care. With the climate crisis, it will eventually fail all humanity.

     However, the power of the corporations, their immense wealth and political power, can be constrained. With a massive mobilisation of working people we can begin to take steps towards environmental sustainability and towards the social transformation necessary to complete this process. We have perhaps two decades to achieve this in order to save our planet and humanity.

A new approach

     Solving the climate crisis means changing how, how much and what humans produce and consume.

     Sustainable development must be based on renewable energy sources. The sun, wind and tides can create clean, safe power that will never run out. Renewable energy means new investment, new industry and many new jobs.

     Sustainable development requires policies that replace privatisation, deregulation and market mechanisms with regulation, controls on monopolies, planning and an expanded public sector.

     This requires a new kind of government, one which is made up of representatives of the people, a government prepared to challenge the power of the monopolies in the interests of the people and the environment.

     A planned transition from fossil fuels to sustainable energy requires public control of energy infrastructure. Public ownership, democratic control and planned development are essential.

     The rights of local communities to democratically determine the sustainable use of their food, water and energy use based on sufficiency and equity must be secured.

     Destruction of the environment is a crime which threatens the future of humanity.

     The struggle for sustainable development is in essence a struggle to restrain and restrict capitalist corporations and to compel an end to environmentally damaging production processes.

It is a struggle to fulfil human needs through more creative, democratic and ecologically respectful practices. The contrast with uncontrollable capitalist growth is stark.

(The above article is from the April 16-30, 2013, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)