Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/336/5649
From The Socialist newspaper, 28 February 2004
Global Warning
Profit threatens our future
Fight for socialism
A NEW secret report warns that climate change could kill millions of people worldwide through violent storms, searing heat, flooding, famine and drought.
It could also increase the risk of warfare - including nuclear war - over dwindling reserves of food, water and energy sources.
Embarrassingly for President Bush, this message of catastrophe came from the US Pentagon. George W boycotted the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, a half-hearted attempt to tackle global warming. Bush sees no problem, although the USA accounts for a quarter of all greenhouse gases that cause climate change!
The Pentagon report, obtained by The Observer newspaper, says climate change and the possible 'climate wars' are a bigger threat to world security than terrorism.
People might hope that Pentagon predictions such as a Siberian-type climate in Britain within 20 years are as unreliable as the US defence establishment's intelligence briefings about WMDs in Iraq. Unfortunately their forecasts echo the warnings of many people in the scientific world.
The poorest people on earth will suffer most. The main problem is the unplanned and unfettered burning of fossil fuels, which causes global warming by building up "greenhouse gases" in the earth's atmosphere.
And who's most responsible for that? A tiny minority - the rich owners and top shareholders of the world's biggest capitalist companies!
Research programmes to develop alternative sources of energy - such as wind, water and solar power - should be a top priority. But the world's most powerful corporations make massive profits out of fossil fuel, especially oil.
Capitalist leaders, especially Bush, give their priority to increasing the big corporations' profits before everything else. Bush and Blair made war on Iraq to defend these interests. The rule of profit already gives us war and widespread poverty - don't let capitalism destroy the environment as well.
This disaster is avoidable. The Socialist Party is fighting for an international socialist solution where planning could tackle the threat of global warming. A socialist society would put people's needs and interests, immediate and long-term, before profit.
A socialist plan could carry out the measures needed to cut down and then get rid of greenhouse gases - for example through investment in renewable energy sources, such as wind, wave and solar power and new technologies.
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In The Socialist 28 February 2004:
EU Enlargement Brings Benefits For The Bosses
Workers Must Fight Attacks On Democratic Rights
University strike: Why Cardiff closed down
Socialist Party workplace news and analysis
Fighting The Bosses And The BNP
When Workers Beat The Heath Government
Gershon's "Cunning Plan" For The Public Sector
International socialist news and analysis
World Currencies - Turbulent Times Ahead?
Netherlands: Government Scapegoats Asylum Seekers
Pakistan: Workers Fight Musharraf's Regime
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