Earth Day, 2008

We are accustomed to think of global warming as serious, but not that serious. The powers that be say individual recycling and "sustainable" living, along with a corporate-led "green revolution" will save the Earth. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. The problem of global warming is so mammoth and so entangled with the crisis of capitalism, that it cannot be solved by individual action, nor by corporate America. It can only be solved by society taking over the corporations. We must examine the root cause of the environmental crisis to see why.

Global warming is caused by a concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, emitted primarily by the burning of fossil fuels and the clearing of forests. Over the earth's history, the amount of energy sent from the sun to the earth was about the same as the amount of energy radiated back into space and the temperature of the earth's surface remained essentially constant.

What has changed is that as greenhouse gases trap the heat in the atmosphere, the earth gets warmer, which melts the polar ice. Since there is less ice, the earth becomes even warmer. The hotter the earth, the more the ice melts. The more the ice melts, the more the sea level rises. Now there are predictions of deadly heat waves and floods that threaten the world's coastal cities, of agricultural regions becoming deserts, and of a huge section of humanity dying over the next 50 or 100 years. So it is a constantly escalating, increasingly dangerous process. Scientists say the earth could soon pass into a morbid fever. Once it starts, it will be irreversible. Clearly, human civilization is in danger.

Only Public Ownership Can Save Civilization

We must achieve a rapid move away from fossil-fuel-powered society. This will require that the masses of people take over the corporations and run them in the interests of humanity. Why?

One, because capitalism, a system where private interests supersede public interests, is, in the name of profits, wantonly destroying the earth, drowning the people in poverty, and entangling the world in war and violence. Global warming cannot be solved apart from who rules the planet.

Two, the capitalists cannot change fundamentally, because if they did, their whole house of cards would come apart. The rules of the market economy are that if you take measures to protect the environment at the expense of profit, you will be taken over by corporations who have no such concerns.

Three, the fundamental problem is that socially necessary production, such as energy, is privately owned and distributed only for profit. The huge energy consortiums don't give a hoot about our welfare because they can't. They have trillions of dollars invested in a global fossil fuel energy financial infrastructure that was developed in the past industrial period. They are not about to change it unless it becomes profitable to do so. Only the masses of people can bring about change in the interests of humanity.

The people themselves are capable of rapidly inventing and implementing the solutions to sustain the Earth. For one thing, energy can be tapped from many sources. There are already proposals to power communities from the Sun. New cars are being invented that will be powered by compressed air. Yet no proposal will be implemented on a scale that is needed, as rapidly as is needed, until society takes over the corporations and develops a planned global economy with the interests of humanity, not profits, at the forefront. Our choice is the consolidation of the power of the corporations over society -- and the possible end of civilization -- or consolidating the power of society over the exploiters.

From the Editors
Those of us who seek fundamental social change are engaged in a battle to win the hearts and minds of the people. This can't be done without a revolutionary press. Every month, the People's Tribune strives to bring our readers the stories of those who are struggling to move forward in a world where corporate power is threatening to crush them. Along with those stories, we try to offer some strategic perspective to help put the struggle in context and point the way toward victory. We need your help to continue doing this. The People's Tribune gets no grants and has an all-volunteer staff. We rely completely on subscriptions and donations from our readers to enable us to go on telling the truth. Please donate whatever you can. See the subscription/donation form at the bottom of this page. You can also donate using Pay Pal on our web site, http://www.peoplestribune.org.