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Wage Slave News

Climate change?

22 October 2009

At a recent bookfair in Toronto, members of an organization called, “Supreme Master” (www.suprememastertv.com) handed out leaflets on climate change. The main thrust of their argument is that greenhouse gases are not the major cause of global warming, but de-forestation for cattle grazing land is. To support this contention they offer various statistics, some of which are interesting, and could well be true, e.g.

• Over 75% of tree cutting in the Amazon rainforest is done for meat production.
• Livestock produces more greenhouse gases than all world-wide transportation combined.
• The Arctic sea reflects about 80% of the sun’s heat, stabilizing the colder temperatures of the ocean.
• Greenland surface ice loss is now 400% greater than fifteen years ago.
• Unless urgent action is taken, all the ice in the arctic could be gone by the end of the summer melt season of 2012.
• That methane, a greenhouse gas currently being released from arctic permafrost and bubbling up through lakes is accelerating global warming in ways not currently accounted for.
• Research by Dr. Gregory Ryskin at Northwestern University indicates that methane explosions from the ocean caused extinctions of ninety per cent of marine species and 755 of terrestrial species some 250 million years ago. In his report, “ Methane driven Oceanic Eruptions and Mass Extinctions”, he explains how methane gas, which had been trapped in the stagnant waters, was released, leading to the die-off of most marine and land life. Dr. Ryskin states, “ If it has happened once, it could happen again.”
• Due to overfishing and the loss of tens of millions of sardines, the waters off the coats of southwest Africa are filled with a toxic gas that is bubbling up from the ocean floor, killing marine life over an area equivalent to the state of New Jersey

To remedy this situation, it is suggested that we should,

1. Go vegetarian
2. Drive Hybrid vehicles
3. Plant more trees
4. Change to sustainable energy
5. Pray

To a scientific socialist, #5 is out of the question as it has never been proved to solve any problems. That the other four ideas could be realized or, if so, whether they could solve the problem, shows a lack of understanding of how capitalism works. Remedies may have a small effect for a short period, but will never change the system that is the main cause of this and other major problems through its very operation. The profit motive is the engine that drives capitalism and it will continue so even if it means damaging the very environment in which we, and all species, live. Meat products are, like all commodities, sold top make a profit and through their organs of propaganda, particularly advertising, capitalists will constantly exhort people to buy them. As long as profit is realized and a company remains in business, it doesn’t matter to the capitalist that the environment is destroyed. The fact that such destruction affects him/her is beside the point, capitalist production must continue. Long- term effects are ignored until they become critical or affect profit. Socialism, when established, will have the task of reversing the damage done to land, sea, and air by the effects of capitalist production. Chances of success would be good because the majority of the world’s population, being socialist, would cooperate in whatever ways would be necessary to make sure the environmental madness of today is stopped and replaced by clean production.