The world seems to be heading to a climate apocalypse. Many people feel desperation and despair. But humanity is not doomed.
Climate change is driven by a small minority of humanity, the capitalist class and the super-rich. They make the decisions about what to produce and how. It is in company boardrooms that plans for new oil fields are decided. The ruling class decides to go to wars that cause mass deaths and devastate the environment and climate.
The entire capitalist class is wedded to fossil fuels. Humanity cannot rely or wait on big business and politicians to act. While a minority decides things now, we can change to a world where the majority decides.
Workers’ Power
The working class is the vast majority of humanity. Workers live by going to work and getting paid. They sell their time to the bosses and with their wages they buy the necessities of life. Children and students are future workers. Older people contributed to their pensions during their working lives. Small farmers and peasants also work to live.
The working class produces all the goods that are made and transport them around the world. They are the nurses, teachers and care workers that look after people. They produce electricity, ensure safe water, clean the garbage, run the internet and everything else we need in life. Culture — movies, music and books — all come to us because of workers.
Without workers nothing gets done. The power of workers was shown by the rail workers. A few hours on strike and the capitalist class was in a panic.
With all this power, why are bosses still ruling? Much of the media, the law and police back them. They spend a great deal of time and money pumping out propaganda claiming how important they are to society, claiming that without them there would be chaos. They constantly tell the working class the lie that workers could not run society.
The working class, well organized and united, has the power to overthrow capitalism and build a society that protects the environment and provides a decent standard of living for all.
Tackling Climate Change is Realistic
Climate disaster is caused by burning fossil fuels that increase carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This acts like a blanket holding in more heat and energy. Methane also acts like a blanket and most of it comes from fossil fuels and harmful agriculture. The answer to climate disaster is to stop producing and burning fossil fuels.
Politicians and the oil industry claim this would be the end of civilization. A lie! The world is awash with energy. The sun powers photosynthesis, its energy drives the winds, waves and rainfall. The moon’s gravity powers the tides. Metres below the earth’s surface is heat. These sources can be harnessed for power with today’s technology.
Harnessing these, and other actions such as making cities livable (page 4), retrofitting buildings and building good public transit, would provide millions of good paying, rewarding jobs.
The barrier to this transformation is not technology or the lack of jobs. The barrier is capitalism.
Program for Change
Stopping climate disaster will not be done by politicians, big business and the rich.
The working class, Indigenous land defenders and environmentalists have a common cause. Capitalism exploits them all.
Throughout history all changes that benefited humanity came through mass action — the right to vote, public health, building unions and much more. Building a powerful movement is helped by having a clear understanding that the root cause of many problems is capitalism. One of the most powerful ways to build a movement and pressure is with strike action — this hits the bosses’ profits.
Today, the climate movement is debating the way forward and what program and actions are needed. Socialist Alternative’s program to tackle the climate disaster includes:
- Health and safety protections for workers to defend against extreme heat and other climate disasters.
- No new taxes on working-class people — tax record corporate profits and wealth instead.
- Invest in publicly-owned, free, high-speed transit networks within cities and between urban and rural areas.
- Public ownership of the energy industries, under democratic control and oversight by workers, for a planned energy transition including:
- Rapid phasing down of fossil fuel production, replacing it with renewable energy production and storage.
- Guaranteed jobs and voluntary re-training for displaced workers.
- End planned obsolescence — make quality goods that last.
