From Central America to the Mediterranean countries of Europe and North Africa... from India to the Middle East, and the U.S. to Mexico... much of the planet is in the grip of deadly heat waves. These global heat waves have already killed thousands of people this year—including over 1,300 in Saudi Arabia as part of the Hajj, or Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. In India, a months-long heat wave has killed over 100 people, afflicted over 40,000 others with heatstroke, and is fueling dangerous water shortages.

In Mexico, which has been in the grips of sweltering heat since March, at least 125 people have died and thousands more suffered heat stroke in late May and June. Temperatures there reached 125 degrees Fahrenheit on June 13—the hottest day ever recorded in Mexico in the month of June. A recent study by climate scientists of the World Weather Attribution (WWA) found that this heat wave in Mexico and much of Central America was 35 TIMES MORE LIKELY because of human-caused climate change. 

In all, nearly FIVE BILLION (!) PEOPLE were forced to endure extreme temperatures in June, pushing many to the brink of what humans can survive. 

The Planet Is Boiling, Capitalism-Imperialism Is the On Switch

Many of these heat waves, like the one currently baking much of the United States, are the result of what’s called a heat dome. Heat domes cause hot air to become concentrated close to the Earth’s surface due to a high-pressure area forming in the atmosphere. This prevents the hotter air from dissipating, trapping it like a lid traps heat in a pot.

And why is this happening? It is the system of capitalism-imperialism and the catastrophic climate crisis it has brought about. 

Let's step back. Global temperatures have risen 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit since the mid-1800s when capitalist industrialization took hold and spread on a massive scale. Climate change is caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels—oil, natural gas, and coal. Fossil fuels emit carbon dioxide, a gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. 

And what's the connection to capitalism? The answer is that fossil fuels have been highly profitable to produce... and their use in industry and agriculture, in the generation of power, and in transport has been vital to the profitable functioning of the capitalist-imperialist system as a whole. Capitalism is ruled by competition for profit and more profit, based on exploitation. The health of the planet and humanity be damned!

A 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit rise in global temperatures may not seem like a lot. But this temperature increase has dangerous and devastating effects on the delicate ecological balances and life-support systems of the planet. We are experiencing more frequent and more intense heat waves—along with climate change’s other nightmarish consequences: rising sea levels, more frequent and intense storms, the destruction of coral reefs and other marine ecosystems, mass die-offs of species, and the depletion (using up) of safe-for-human consumption water sources, among others. 

And how are the leaders of this system in the U.S., the country most responsible for the climate crisis, responding to it? By declaring a global emergency and calling for an immediate halt to the burning of fossil fuels, the main source of global warming, as any rational leader would do? The exact opposite, in fact. 

A System Utterly Unfit to Repair and Protect the Planet

Exhibit A: Under Joe Biden, leader of the Democratic Party that claims they are “committed to curbing the effects of climate change,” oil and natural gas production have reached all-time record highs! Read that sentence again. Meanwhile, the other major section of the ruling class, the Republi-fascists, deny that climate change exists at all! They want to INCREASE the speed at which this system is driving humanity and the planet off a cliff. A choice between a very fast death for humanity and a slower one is NOT a meaningful choice—and it is not our ONLY choice, either.

Exhibit B: On June 28, the fascist-dominated Supreme Court overturned what’s called “the Chevron doctrine,” which allows agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make rules and regulations protecting the air, water, and land from pollutants. As terribly insufficient as these regulations are, this is a stark example of the utter ecocidal madness of this system, barreling humanity even faster toward a deadly precipice. 

Exhibit C: For all the hype about renewable energy (like solar and wind) and a “green energy” transition, there is NO “phaseout” of fossil fuels: fossil fuels account  for 80 percent of U.S. energy consumption. The inconvenient truth is that renewable energy is not nearly as profitable as fossil fuel production. Or to put it differently, it's not fucking profitable to fix the climate. 

Exhibit D: This is an existential climate crisis that knows no borders. Addressing this crisis demands unprecedented global scientific, technological, and economic cooperation and planning. Yet the world imperialist powers, with the U.S.—#1 plunderer of the environment and its people—leading the charge, are turning solar energy into an arena of trade war and competition. The U.S. and European Union (the trade bloc of European countries) are in competition with imperialist China in the solar power energy sector. They are limiting solar cell and solar panel imports (and electric vehicles) from China—seeking to undercut China's renewable energy production.

This is insanity! Meanwhile, some 489,000 people die each year due to heat-related causes.

Climate scientists for years have repeatedly warned the world that in terms of stopping the worst effects of the climate crisis that is putting the very survival of humanity at risk, we are in a “now or never” moment. They have made the scientific case that we must immediately reduce the burning of fossil fuels to near zero. Yet what these scientists have not  said, but what is as scientifically accurate as the existence of the climate crisis and its impacts is this:

To address climate change, we need system change... and to bring about the necessary system change, to the liberating and sustainable socialism set out in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America... we need revolution.   

The climate crisis and these deadly heat waves bring to life the stakes of what we are facing—and this timely truth from the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian, author of that constitution: 

We, the people of the world, can no longer afford to allow these imperialists to continue to dominate the world and determine the destiny of humanity. They need to be overthrown as quickly as possible. And it is a scientific fact that we do not have to live this way. 

There is no time to waste. Get with the vision, strategy, and plan for the revolution to emancipate humanity and save the planet.