Capitalism means climate chaos, fight for socialism
Sam Morden, Tyne and Wear Socialist Party
The bosses of two of the largest global oil companies are getting a hefty pay rise – emblematic of rotten capitalism. Shell’s CEO Wael Sawan is getting £13.8 million, up 60% on the previous year. Not to be outdone in staggering rises, BP’s new boss Meg O’Neill is getting more than double the pay of her predecessor at £11.7 million.
These two companies, like their counterparts in the industry and the capitalist system of which they make up an integral part, preside over an ecological and climate disaster unfolding on a local and global scale.
Oil companies have for decades applied pressure on governments and politicians to – initially – bury the science around man-made global warming driven by greenhouse gas emissions. When that became impossible, they worked to water down as much as possible any measures that might impact their profit margins or ability to exploit natural resources. This has left its mark in the trail of failed climate initiatives, from the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, or the 1.5°C target set at Paris in 2015. Its current incarnation is the “Drill, baby, drill” rhetoric from Donald Trump, prompting even more fossil fuel extraction in the US and across the world.
£5,000,000,000 – Expected profits for Shell and BP due to the current war in the Middle East
Oil pollution is more than just the effects of its burning. In Nigeria, much of the Ogoniland region is left poisoned by Shell’s exploitative practices, with the company repeatedly scuppering clean-up efforts and avoiding responsibility. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused by BP in 2010, the worst environmental disaster the US has faced, has caused significant lingering damage to the area, some of which science is only beginning to uncover.
It’s time to end this global terror. Capitalism is incapable of solving climate change – an issue of its own making – in an equitable fashion, if at all. Only through a democratically planned economy, through socialism, where the energy companies and all like them are nationalised with compensation only on proven need, can we begin to free ourselves from this existential threat. We could take the billions poured into oil and gas subsidies, along with the profits that go to shareholders and bosses, and plough that into transitioning to environmentally friendly renewable energy sources without making the working class of any country pay the price.
