The environmental crisis is not the result of exceptions nor of any aberrations to the market and profit accumulation system of capitalism. The system of capitalism is at the centre of our climate change emergency with its production of commodities for the sake of realising surplus value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The World Socialist Movement (WSM) exposes the capitalist system\u2019s destructive relationship with nature and its disastrous consequences. Our planet is being poisoned and polluted with the threat to our civilisation, the main factor being the plunder of our natural resources by capitalism. The main impulse of our social system is the quest for profit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0Environmentalists first need more clarity.\u00a0One lesson they should understand is\u00a0that there are no shortcuts to a sustainable world without first ending the current economic structure of society. The reluctance of identifying the core cause of our ecological problems has meant socialists such as ourselves lecturing the environment movement from the outside to have our\u00a0perspective\u00a0made known. Few ever receive the message that we deliver. Most environmentalists do not provide a full-blown analysis of capitalism\u00a0and they lack familiarity with the ideas of the socialist tradition represented by the WSM. Many environmental activists feel uncomfortable with our\u00a0emphasis upon doing away with private ownership and introducing\u00a0social ownership,\u00a0the democratic planning of production and distribution. Many Greens simply cannot go\u00a0beyond reforming capitalism, despite the fact that their\u00a0goals cannot be reconciled with a capitalist economy<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An ecological zero-growth, steady-state harmony between society and nature is not compatible with capitalism\u2019s insatiable and existential\u00a0compulsion to expand and grow.\u00a0Capitalism\u00a0will be forever a\u00a0barrier to the realisation\u00a0of their hope of an eco-friendly world. Making what one believes to be radical anti-capitalist and anti-corporate demands should not be mistaken as challenging the essence of the capitalist system itself. Our respective visions\u00a0are very different. The realisation that humanity\u00a0faces a critical challenge from global warming\u00a0brings with it a rising consciousness about other crises and dangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0With the deepening of the global warming\u00a0crisis,\u00a0the WSM will endeavour to\u00a0persuade environmentalists\u00a0to embrace our\u00a0revolutionary socialist\u00a0platform\u00a0for a world cooperative commonwealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\u00a0is a crisis not generated by humanity because capitalism is not motivated by human needs or desires.\u00a0The only solution\u00a0to the climate emergency\u00a0is the creation of a planned society in which the quest for profits has been abolished and the results of our science and technology are used for the benefit of the people.\u00a0Our ecology problems not only dangerously affects the lives and health of people today. It perhaps threatens life on this planet\u00a0under the worse scenario. The fact that it may not lead to a mass extinction\u00a0should not lead to complacency about the urgency of a solution.\u00a0The environmental\u00a0crisis\u00a0has brought into sharp focus the irresponsible practices of the capitalist corporations that ignore all human and social concerns in their drive for profits.\u00a0Criminal destruction of the environment is\u00a0not limited to corporations. It\u00a0extends\u00a0to government bodies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is important? Profits for a few already rich, or an environment in which life on this planet can continue?\u00a0The incessant drive for maximum profits by the corporate interests has been and is ever more in conflict with\u00a0the overall general interests of society.\u00a0This is an inherent characteristic of capitalism.\u00a0This drive for profits is\u00a0incompatible\u00a0with the ability of human society to continue to thrive\u00a0on this planet\u00a0and for many species of nature to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Humanity must ask itself \u201cWill it be capitalism or civilisation\u2019s progress?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0Capitalism has never been concerned with human life, launching wars and neglecting health. Why should anyone think capitalism is going to change now?\u00a0\u00a0We can continue with business-as-usual to create profits for a few and a disaster.\u00a0Or we re-programme the system for the\u00a0well-being of all. Socialism corrects the basic flaw of capitalism. It re-sets human society on a new path\u00a0where the means of production\u00a0become the property of the people\u00a0to operate and produce\u00a0only\u00a0to fulfil human needs\u00a0and\u00a0not motivated by private profits. A clean, healthy\u00a0environment is for the common good.\u00a0Under capitalism, \u00a0production is for maximum private profit. Capitalism cannot function any other way. The environment\u2019s destruction\u00a0is unavoidable collateral damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Socialism\u00a0serves society as a whole and prioritises the preservation of the environment as a part of the overall human activity.\u00a0Socialism rethinks\u00a0our attitude to the problem of protection of nature and its resources\u00a0to resolve the problem successfully. It means creating\u00a0a technology\u00a0of a new type, without carbon-spewing chimneys or industrial waste, where all the raw materials are turned\u00a0into products useful to mankind and not armaments, using processes that will not harm living things. The sooner such industry is created throughout the world, the more hope will there be for a good life for our grandchildren. The basic solution to the environmental crises is to put an end to a system that perpetuates exploitation for profits. The basic solution is to abolish capitalism and build in its place a system that does not permit exploitation for profit. It means socialism\u00a0at the service of\u00a0all humankind. The WSM\u2019s aim is to create a liveable environment\u00a0for all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The environmental crisis is not the result of exceptions nor of any aberrations to the market and profit accumulation system of capitalism. The system of capitalism is at the centre of our climate change emergency with its production of commodities for the sake of realising surplus value. The World Socialist Movement (WSM) exposes the capitalist system\u2019s destructive relationship with nature and its disastrous consequences. Our planet is being poisoned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3901,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3899\/revisions\/3901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}