The Future of Humanity and the Planet Itself Hangs in the Balance
April 16, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Even before the Trump/Pence regime took over, our planet’s environment was hurtling toward catastrophe. Polar ice already melting to the point of affecting weather patterns. Huge damage to coral reefs, source of much of the life in the world’s oceans. Record-breaking high temperatures year after year... rising sea levels... devastating droughts... deadly storms... causing great damage, especially to people in the poorest areas of the world.
Almost all scientists worldwide have been convinced by scientific evidence that if climate change continues on this course, it will be a catastrophe for human society and the natural world generally.
Under Obama, the U.S. said global warming was a reality, took steps to put some limits on greenhouse gases, and signed an international climate treaty. None of this came anywhere close to what is actually required in the face of the unprecedented climate crisis.
Now, lunatic fascist ghouls are in power in Washington, and they outright deny the fact of climate change—in line with their all-out assault on the very notion of truth that corresponds to reality. They are coming out with one environmental outrage after another, no matter the cost to ecosystems and human lives. A witch hunt against scientists who have been researching climate change for decades. A big “fuck you” to the international climate agreement. A 30 percent slashing of the Environmental Protection Agency budget.
Capitalism-imperialism has no real solutions for the problem of global environmental destruction and all the other horrors people face—even as there are sharp differences among the rulers over what is in the interests of their system. Trump/Pence represents those among the rulers whose “answer” is: full speed ahead with undisguised dictatorship, life-draining exploitation of the people, and unrestrained raping of the environment.
The hour for Earth and people who live on it is very late. A leading environmental scientist warned that “a Donald Trump presidency could be game over for the climate.” Looked at from the interests of all of humanity, this puts an exclamation point on the high stakes in driving out the Trump/Pence regime—as soon as possible.
The approach of revolutionary communists in taking on the Trump/Pence regime is not to return to the “normal” workings of the system—which meant untold horrors for the people of the world and ravaging of the environment. What is needed is moving forward toward replacing this system through an actual revolution and bringing about a radically different and much better society.
There is a viable vision and concrete plan for this—a socialist society aiming for a communist world, where human beings would be free of all relations of exploitation and oppression and antagonistic conflicts, and could be fit caretakers of the Earth. A society that supports revolution worldwide and develops an economy aiming to meet people’s needs and revive and protect the environment. A society that mobilizes the knowledge and creativity of people to address the global environmental crisis in a way that proceeds from the interests of all of humanity.
Coral worldwide has been heavily affected, including dying in large proportions, due to repeated “El Niño” events and human-caused climate change. Above, a composite photo of before, during, and after bleaching at Airport Reef, Tutuila, American Samoa. (Photographed by The Ocean Agency / XL Catlin Seaview Survey / Richard Vevers)
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