And capitalism must be destroyed to stop this, says…
(Socialist Worker) Â In the Midwest and Northeast U.S., “February 2015 ranked as one of the coldest Februaries on record for many major cities,” wrote Chris Dolce at weather.com. “In Syracuse, New York, and Bangor, Maine…it was…the coldest of any month since records began.”
The cold winter prompted Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe, speaking on the floor of the Senate, to foolishly attempt to disprove climate change because of…the existence of a snowball. “In case we have forgotten,” Inhofe lectured, “because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I ask the chair, you know what this is? It’s a snowball. And that’s just from outside here. So it’s very, very cold out.”
As chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Inhofe ought to know that one of the effects of climate change in certain areas is extreme winters–which doesn’t negate the fact that 2014 was, indeed, the warmest year on record. In fact, 13 of the 15 warmest years in history have all happened since 2000.
Huh. So warming causes extreme winters? Is it any wonder I refer these people as members of a cult?
But given that most political and business leaders acknowledge the existence of climate change, then why won’t they do anything to stop it? To answer that question, we need understand that the root cause of climate change is the capitalist economic system. (snip)
Thus, climate change, along with other environmental destruction, is the result of capitalism’s very DNA–the unending competition to expand capital. (snip)
It is also essential to fight for reforms under capitalism. Doing so will further radicalize a new generation of activists and move class struggle towards an anti-capitalist perspective, as it becomes more and more clear that capitalism is the problem.
Just as important, however, is the fact that even a revolution may not be enough if climate change has gotten too far along. We need to buy time. While abundance is the enemy of capitalism, scarcity is that of socialism. Abundance is needed for the realization of a sustainable and just society.
In other words, get rid of capitalism in favor of a socialist economic system, which, let’s be clear, means the Government being heavily in control of all facets of the economy, massive regulation, input from government employees on exactly how a business should operate, and even ownership of the means of production.
