Combat Climate Change Through System Change!
Socialism Only Solution!
The imminent challenge facing the whole of humanity at this juncture in space and time is the looming climate catastrophe. In a report released by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8th October, 2018 it was emphasised that only 12 years remained to prevent catastrophic and irreversible damages to the environment by limiting temperature change within a range of 1.5°C. Obviously such a situation demands an emergency response from all nations that have a huge carbon imprint, particularly India, which is a huge emitter of greenhouse gases. However, no on-ground action is seen, rather every development, be it policy level or otherwise, points towards climate recklessness. One very recent example would be the Adani group swindling the people of India by selling low-grade coal with lower fuel efficiency for power generation leading to greater air pollution and high profits for the Adani group.
The situation demands an introspection into the fundamentals of this climate crisis. The origins of global warming can be found in an increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which in turn has been a direct consequence of unchecked economic activities pivoted on the use of fossil fuels. Capitalism as a form of production is based on the exploitation of nature that feeds the gargantuan machine of profiteering on a global scale. It being a system with only immediate gains in sight, the repercussions of every damage inflicted on nature are never accounted for. As Engels inferred precisely, “Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human conquest over nature. For each such conquest takes its revenge on us. Each of them, it is true,
has in the first place the consequences on which we counted, but in the second and third places it has quite different, unforeseen effects which only too often cancel out the first.”
Humanity is facing the cumulative brunt of that in the form of the present-day climate crisis. Surely, there have been epochs of global warming and cooling in the geological past, however, the current catastrophe is the only one that is purely man-made. There can be no piecemeal solution to it; only through a systemic change can climate change be combated. A cursory look at global policies led by Uncle Sam’s whims and fancies proves that there is neither any action, nor any intention to prevent the decimation of human civilisation in the near future.
One of the foremost forms of natural plunder that is keeping capitalism afloat is the imperialist exploitation of natural resources in the form of mining, deforestation etc. in the ‘developing’ countries of Asia, Africa, and South America. This is being done through a neocolonial form of political control by the advanced capitalist nations like the US, UK, Germany etc. With the intensification of the crisis of capitalism in all these countries, such imperialist excesses are also seen to be on the rise globally. India is no exception. There is a simultaneous attack on every mineral rich region in India through dilution of existing environmental laws, increased land acquisition, creation of ‘protected areas’, privatisation of ports etc. The brunt of these excesses fall disproportionately on the Adivasis, farmers, fisherfolk, and other toiling masses who are dependent on these natural resources for their livelihoods. Their fight against displacement and pauperisation hence is intertwined with
the demand for climate justice. The historically developed bourgeois notions of conservation of nature through displacement of indigenous people stand in stark contrast to the Marxist understanding of the interconnection of nature and humans. Studies have time and again revealed that indigenous inhabitants ensure preservation of nature in a symbiotic manner unlike colonial knowledge. With the increased commercial pressure, instances of displacement are on the rise all over India. One immediate instance would be the case of displacement of the Jenu Kuruba community of Nagarhole forests. Traditionally a honey-gathering tribe, the government is trying hard to displace the Jenu Kurubas. In Devanahalli, the Karnataka government is hell-bent on acquiring the land of farmers to hand it over to the corporates despite local resistance. One sees the same incidents playing out in Bastar, Niyamgiri, Hasdeo, Ladakh, Deucha-Pachami etc. Even the current water crisis in Bengaluru is a direct consequence of an unplanned urbanisation based on the destruction of the existing ecology.
Only in places where the local people have united against Company Raj and fought to preserve their rights over jal-jangal-jameen, the government has been forced to take a step back to devise newer plans. Echoing Bhagat Singh one may say that the state of war still continues even after almost two centuries of the Santhal Rebellion.
30th June is observed as the Hul diwas every year since on this day the Santhal rebellion broke out in the mineral rich, Adivasi dominated regions of eastern India in 1855. The exploitation of the British-feudal lord nexus had reached such an extreme that thousands of Santhal rebels rose in an armed revolt with their traditional weapons against the British administration and their minion Babus. The situation has evidently not changed much today.
There is a need to establish the idea that it is not possible to achieve climate justice without achieving social justice and work towards it. The ruling classes will always exercise their control over natural resources using the police, judiciary, paramilitary etc. Already, the earth is moving on to a situation of qualitative change with heatwaves, floods, and other extreme weather events raging across the globe, and each year getting hotter than the previous. Global warming is giving in to a phase of global boiling. Only through moving towards a mode of production i.e. a complete economic overhaul that is not based on profit-making, can the continuous assault on nature be mitigated. This shift is possible only through a political revolution that can smash the existing state structures. In the global context, the climate catastrophe has birthed a situation that can only be resolved through a shift to socialism. It is the only way to bring back the whole of human civilisation from the brink of an unprecedented tragedy. This is the time to act.
