Climate Change & Environmental Crisis : Book Introduction

Paryavaran Lok Manch has brought this book to develop a holistic view on climate change. This book presents a correct perspective to understand the ongoing climate change and environmental crisis that is based on a class approach. An attempt has been made to identify the cause of the crisis and who is responsible for it.

Mother Earth and Human civilisation are in grave danger due to the cataclysmic effects of climate change.

Our planet, the Earth, is heating up continuously and rapidly. Its glaciers are melting and its sea levels are rising. Scientists believe that if this situation persists, from Bangladesh to Florida, villages, and homes of millions of people will be inundated. A rapidly-changing climate can also bring about the contamination of drinking water, heavy rainfall in some places and droughts in others, destruction of agriculture, extinction of animal species and desertification of forests. These are not but some of the problems that have already begun rearing their ugly head. In order to remedy this situation, it is imperative that action be taken immediately. Unfortunately, instead of taking quick measures, policy-makers around the world are adopting delay in order to serve their petty interests and satiate their hunger for profit. If they continue to tread on such a path, the crisis will worsen, rendering restoration of the environment close to impossible.

The developed capitalist countries are major contributors to climate change. Despite generating the most carbon dioxide emissions, they shy away from adopting concrete solutions to combat climate change. The price of this apathy subsequently is borne out by the poor across the world, with over 10 million children under the age of five succumbing to diseases wrought by environmental pollution, including diarrhea and respiratory diseases, which are the major outcomes of environmental pollution and the inhuman condition of the marginalised sections they are living in. The last two hundred years of industrial development have bought prosperity to a few but pushed millions into the trenches of dire poverty. The poor mainly depend on natural resources such as water, forests, and land for livelihood. Degradation of these resources thus spells doom for them.

Mother Earth does not discriminate among her children on the basis of developed or undeveloped, rich or poor. The rich however remain largely insulated from the effects of climate change. They have access to technology that helps them beat the heat, unlike the poor who often sweat it out in the sun to earn their bread. The helplessness of this population is heightened even more in the face of floods or droughts wrought by changes in climate. Negligence by governments adds to the misery. It is the women whose mobility is restricted by social norms who bear the maximum brunt of such calamities. Unlike their menfolk who travel from one place to another in search of work, they are pushed into a corner in the fight for survival. A grim example of this was seen in the year 2010 when women residing in drought-hit Bundelkhand were forced to enter the flesh trade to ensure food on the plate.

According to the World Health Organisation, climate change has left around 5.5 million people physically impaired in 2000. Of these, eighty-four percent belong to poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and Eastern and South Asia. With the arrival of the summer season, malaria and dengue start wreaking havoc in developing countries. Drought, flood, and depletion of groundwater level continue to ruin agriculture and with it the lives of farmers. While the government's anti-farmer policies add to the woes, starvation, and malnutrition are continuously increasing due to low production of food grains. Due to unhygienic habitation and malnutrition, the resistance to diseases is on the decline leaving the poor susceptible to diseases. In the midst of such crises, heartless market powers are only added to the sufferings of the poor people. Consequently, the economic and social structure is being upset.

In the past, natural calamities such as floods, droughts, storms, hail- storms and heat waves have destroyed several civilisations. Around 2300 B.C., the Mesopotamian civilisation, which extended from Turkey to the Gulf of Persia, was destroyed by a dreadful drought. Other civilisations have shared the same fate. In the year 1770, under the barbaric rule of the British, the famine that hit Bengal resulted in the death of ten million people, erasing one-third of the total population. From 1875 to 1900, around twenty-six million people lost their lives across the country due to natural calamities. The crippling economic policies of the British Government including exorbitant taxes, cess taxes on exports and imports, and the cultivation of cash crops like opium, rice, wheat, indigo, and cotton – magnified the intensity of the famine. But the rapid climate change that we see today is much more lethal. The relentless plunder of natural resources, by capitalist civilisation has invited this destruction, and its effect can be felt in all aspects of human life today.

There is a raging debate across the globe over the phenomenon of climate change. Different social sections in society, taking into account the nature, causes, and solution of the crises, have taken divergent stands according to their self-interest. There are some pertinent questions that arise in this debate. Is climate change an inevitable and normal phenomenon or a result of the sordid, uncontrolled plunder of the Earth by human beings? Who is responsible for this crisis and who should pay the price for it? What is the reason for the failure of world summits held on it? What is the view of different classes, communities, and organisations about climate change? What is the cause of negligence and irresponsibility towards these crises? Is this calamity really dangerous or is it an exaggerated truth? We have tried our best to answer these in this book. 

 Two important documents are provided as appendices in this booklet. The first is a speech by Fidel Castro made at the 1992 Earth summit, where he said: “An important biological species — humankind — is at risk of disappearing". In our view, this statement presents the environmental problem in an apt perspective, stressing the need to take serious action. The second document, 'World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth; April 22nd, Cochabamba, Bolivia,' deals with the issue in its totality and proposes a realistic and permanent solution to this problem.

In the course of writing this book, articles by John Bellamy Foster, editor of the Monthly Review, and various other articles published in this prestigious journal have been used as references. We are very thankful to them. Two books by Foster, Vulnerable Planet and Ecology against Capitalism cite many important, facts and put forth precise data, and provide an ideologically exciting set of literature on the climate crisis. 

We invite criticism and suggestions about the booklet from our readers and friends.

Contents
Preface
Time to Entangle the Question of Climate Change with 
the Goal of Radical Change in Social Relations
Multidimensional and All-pervading Effects of Climate Change 

• Global Warming
• Poisoning the Air
• Polluted Water
• Agriculture and Climate Change
• Disappearing Glaciers and Dying Rivers
• Climate Change and Diseases
• The Existence of Species under Threat
• The Extinction of Tribes
• Different Types of Pollution in Capitalist Society
• Gloabalisation and Plunder of Natural Resources

The Real Story Behind International Summits on Climate Change 

• Kyoto Protocol and its Failure
• Bali Map
• Copenhagen Summit
• Cancun Summit
• Why are Summits on Climate Change failing?
• Capitalism, the Automobile Industry, and Pollution     

Different Views on Climate Change

• The Attitude of Environmentalists and NGOs 
• The Attitude of the Government
• Attitude of Imperialist Countries and Their Scientists
• Illusions of Sustainable Development

The Roots of Climate Change Lie in the History of an Exploitative System

• Colonial Age
• Imperialist Age
• The Conflict over Petroleum in the Present Age of Globalization

Can Capitalism Solve the Environmental Crises?
What is the Alternative?
Appendixes

• Fidel Castro at Earth Summit
• People’s Agreement of Cochabamba
• Environmental Destruction Is a Result of the Capitalist System

Time to Entangle the Question of Climate Change with the Goal of Radical Change in Social Relations

Today the world is going through an unprecedented situation. Existence of billions of species of plants, animals, flora and fauna including humans is under threat due to climate change. This crisis is much more severe than the world wars, more dreadful than epidemics, and deadlier than nuclear bombs.

There is an increase of holes in the ozone layer and in the acidity level of sea water. Nitrogen and phosphorus cycles are already dismantled. The planet is warming up day by day. The consequence: melting glaciers, increasing sea levels, aggression of deserts, extinction of animal and plant species, unexpected drought and flood situations every day somewhere on the earth. The more dangerous consequence is climate change, which is devastating agriculture, giving cancer and T.B. an epidemic form, submerging coastal areas and threatening coastal populations with displacement. Drought in Bundelkhand, devastating calamities in Uttarakhand especially in Kedarnath valley, floods in Jammu & Kashmir and increasing incidents of landslides tell the heart wrenching story of environmental crisis. This brings about food grain deficit, blows to the working class and a miserable life for women.

The race for more and more profit rolled the wheel of environmental exploitation after the Industrial Revolution, which increasingly ruptured the consistency and relation between human society and nature. The change in balance of power that took place in 1990 accelerated the unipolar world system and imperialist globalization. Now the rate of environmental exploitation and destruction of the planet have received a greater impulse. Subsequently the phenomenon of climate change has crossed all limits. As evidence, the following information will be enough: carbon emission between the years 2000 and 2013 was one fourth of that during the preceding 250 years, from 1750 to 1999.

The effluents and smoke produced by the factories have toxified the atmosphere. River water is no more lifesaving, rather life threatening. Every year 2.4 million people die of diseases caused by air pollution. The neighbourhoods of Valsad district of Gujarat, Alang Port, farms of Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh are now engendering cancerous crops due to pollution. Medical science every day faces a new kind of challenge presented by the toxic environment. The ruling class of the world has not learned anything from the consequences of the dangerous radiation in Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima nuclear accidents. Yet the government is determined to build nuclear plants in Jaitapur (Rajasthan), Mithivirdi (Maharashtra) and Gorakhpur (Fatehabad) despite people's continuous opposition. Today the world is facing many such burning problems due to climate change and environmental crisis.

During last two and half centuries, capitalist development has relegated the medieval, nature-dependent feudal production system to the pages of history. On the one hand, it has built big industries, fast transportation and communication-led skyscrapers with heavenly facilities, and on the other hand, it has led the majority of the population to a hellish life of destitution and danger. The activities of Multinational Corporations are inviting destruction of nature each moment. These corporations exploit the environment relentlessly, destroy biodiversity and accelerate towards the crisis by making a nexus with the ruling governments across the globe. As a result, each year we are seeing 6 million hectares of land turning into deserts. Overuse of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, genetically modified seeds and over-pumping of ground water are making the land barren and destroying biodiversity.

Research and conferences by many governments and non-governmental agencies on environment have shown clearly that USA, Japan, the European Union and the oil producing countries are primarily responsible for climate change. These countries had a fixed target of reducing carbon emission by 5.2 percent, abiding by the Kyoto Protocol. They ended up increasing it by 11 percent. Now, developed countries are even denying the token responsibility of mitigation efforts, and the heavy cost is coming upon the poor population. Each year 10 million children die of enteric and respiratory diseases which are caused by polluted environments and an anti-human socio-economic system. None of the dimensions of human life is untouched by environmental crisis.

If we do not take action against this destructive game, soon the planet will become a hell where greenery, clean rivers and a healthy atmosphere will turn out to be only stories. Sharp debates on the reasons for and solutions to this crisis are going on along with local level spontaneous movements by people on various local issues pertaining to this crisis. Many are personally and/or through organisations working on reforms like plantation, water conservation etc. But without understanding this all- pervasive phenomenon, we cannot approach a solution. The ruling class' addiction to ever-growing profit has engendered the crisis, and is still continuing the disaster. None of the climate conventions (Kyoto, Copenhagen and Cancun) have provided a conclusive remark that would help. One can be sure of not getting any solution from the free market and consumerism promoting ruling class, which is going to discuss this issue in New York on 23 September 2014. So, we cannot leave it to them, or to the opportunists living on them. At this point, it is our responsibility to add this agenda to the programme of radical change in social relations along with building a mass movement on these issues. Along with a view that captures the totality of the issue, the participation of more and more people in this protracted struggle is necessary. To what extent are we supposed to sacrifice our present and future for the sake of an antihuman system called capitalism? The need of the hour is a collective effort in a right direction.

Our Objectives

1. To study, campaign and build up a mass movement on following issues –

2. Restore the balance of relations between man and nature.

3. Wild exploitation and pollution of nature in the name of development have to be stopped.

4. Ensure safe food, water and atmosphere for every citizen as their fundamental right.

5. Ensure protection of health from the diseases and natural disasters engendered by climate change and environmental pollution.

6. Take steps to replace consumerist and luxurious life style by a rationally and scientifically just socio-economic system.

7. Conservation of bio-diversity as a means to secure the existence of human species.

Programme

1. To unite all concerned scientists, environmentalists, intellectuals and activists for this global problem

2. To publish and distribute books, booklets, and pamphlets in order to improve understanding of the problem as well as to find a right solution.

3. To make people aware of this problem through mass campaigns, debates, seminars, conferences etc. Conduct debates, film screenings and other creative programmes among the youth.

4. Study and research on the results of environmental crisis, as well as take it to the people and raise the issue in front of the ruling authorities.

5. Reveal the government's anti-environmental policies and show concrete examples of such activities.

6. In place of carbon emission-driven consumerist life style, propagation of alternative development policy dependent on balanced relation between society and nature.

7. Opposition to displacement and destruction of lives and livelihoods of various tribes in the name of development.