Capitalism = climate catastrophe

Climate warming and forest fires (photo: 80 trading 24/CC)

First the good news – it is still possible to avoid a climate apocalypse. And the bad news? It is already too late to avoid climate catastrophe!

This is the verdict of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest report published ahead of the international climate summit in Glasgow this November.

The IPCC’s 2018 report gave us the handy slogan “1.5 to stay alive” – pointing out that even a 1.5°C increase in global average temperatures above pre-industrial levels would result in disastrous effects on the eco-system, but would still allow global warming to stabilise and human life to survive.

The latest report shows that we are already at +1.1°C, set to smash through 1.5°C, and headed for the 3°C – beyond which you get a series of ‘tipping point’ events. These would set the planet on a course for a runaway greenhouse effect, which would be irreversible and could make human life unviable.

This year’s IPCC report tells us that no matter what carbon reductions are carried out we are going to hit 1.5°C by 2030.

This tells us what we already know. We’ve seen the deadly floods that tore through communities in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, the wildfires that have laid waste to swathes of California, Australia, Russia, Greece, and Turkey, and the unprecedented heatwave in America’s Pacific North West. Thanks to the lack of action by capitalist governments to reduce emissions, more such events are expected.

Of course, our rulers are not silent. With the UK government hosting the UN’s ‘Conference of Parties’ (COP26) talks, we can expect to see plenty of photo-ops at wind farms and the announcement of ambitious new targets for carbon reduction. What we will not see is any meaningful action to meet those targets.

COP26 should be facing up to the fact that the system of ‘cap and trade’ – selling the right to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere – has been a complete failure. Canada has actually increased its carbon emissions since agreeing to the ‘Paris Accords’!

The British government’s performance fares a little better. True, there’s been a 29% reduction in carbon emissions in the last decade (mainly due to continuing deindustrialisation), but this still leaves it about 20% short of its target for 2030.

Tory Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s response is to announce ambitious new targets, while also giving the green light to further oil and gas exploration, a new coal mine, and a big expansion of the national road network.

Call to action

The ‘good news’ aspect of the IPCC report should be a call to action. But although it’s in capitalism’s overall strategic interests to avoid climate catastrophe, its political leaders seem determined to soldier on with profit-friendly climate change schemes that have already failed.

For meaningful action, we need to fight for a change of direction. But it’s not enough to ask the villains of this story to change their ways. Capitalism is the climate crisis.

Only the working class, which has no stake in capitalism but whose collective power can halt capitalist production, is the key to changing society. Armed with a programme for the socialist transformation of society, it can bring about the global reconstruction that can save us from a climate inferno.

It can replace the chaos of capitalism with democratic socialist planning of the economy, to meet the needs of humanity and the environment.

From The Socialist newspaper, 11 August 2021 (https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/32913/11-08-2021/capitalism-climate-catastrophe)

 

Special financial appeal to all readers of socialistworld.net

Support building alternative socialist media

Socialistworld.net provides a unique analysis and perspective of world events. Socialistworld.net also plays a crucial role in building the struggle for socialism across all continents. Capitalism has failed! Assist us to build the fight-back and prepare for the stormy period of class struggles ahead.
Please make a donation to help us reach more readers and to widen our socialist campaigning work across the world.

Donate via Paypal

Liked this article? We need your support to improve our work. Please become a Patron! and support our work
Become a patron at Patreon!
August 2021
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031