Environment

Capitalism, Socialism and the Environment

Written by Kevin Nance Thursday, 03 September 2009

Enhanced climate change exists, and we are not currently living sustainably. There is little argument on these points. We all know that the earth has a natural cycle of warming and cooling, but humans are more than likely having a considerable effect on the current warming cycle. The industrialized countries alone, such as the US and much of Europe, have had a great effect on our air, and carbon levels are higher than in the last 2.1 million years, according to the journal Science. The gases entering our atmosphere are byproducts of capitalist industry and, to a lesser extent, our cars.

Exxon Valdez: corporate greed and environmental catastrophe

Written by Daniel Read Thursday, 23 April 2009

On 23rd March 1989 the oil tanker Exxon Valdez left normal shipping lanes and smashed into the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Within hours, the once mighty vessel had spilled over ten million gallons of oil into the icy waters: the largest oil spill in ever recorded in US waters. As the company responsible, Exxon Mobile was slow to act.

Global-Warming Deniers and Climate Change Ideologues – Part Five: Green and Red

Written by Mauro Vanetti Tuesday, 08 July 2008

We publish the fifth and final part of Mauro Vanetti's article on Climate Change, which began as a reply to a contribution by Brian Baker. In this part petit-bourgeois environmentalism is exposed as an unviable response to global warming - green "ideologies of abstinence" simply play in the hands of the ruling class. What is required is a genuine Marxist programme on this issue, which is outlined at the end of the article.

Global-Warming Deniers and Climate Change Ideologues – Part Four: Bourgeois Ideologies

Written by Mauro Vanetti Tuesday, 10 June 2008

We continue Mauro Vanetti's article that looks at the different points of view within the world bourgeoisie on the question of climate change, and also explains that any real solution can only be achieved through international planning, which is only possible on the basis of world socialism.

Global-Warming Deniers and Climate Change Ideologues – Part Three: Debunking the Debunkers (2/2)

Written by Mauro Vanetti Friday, 30 May 2008

Mauro Vanetti continues the part of his reply to Brian Baker dedicated to "debunking the debunkers", revealing inconsistencies throughout Baker's arguments, the use of dubious sources and the ignoring of others.

Global-Warming Deniers and Climate Change Ideologues – Part Two: Debunking the Debunkers (1/2)

Written by Mauro Vanetti Wednesday, 28 May 2008

"The arguments used in Brian J. Baker's article to ‘debunk' global warming are many, and some of them are in contradiction with each other. Apparently, there are lots of blogs and websites (most of them run by conservatives and even overt reactionaries) devoted to climate-change denial. Most of their authors use the same set of arguments over and over again, and the same stuff has been pasted in Baker's article. I shall try to reduce each argument to its basic core."

Global-warming deniers and climate change ideologues – Part One: Basic Questions

Written by Mauro Vanetti Friday, 23 May 2008

Baker ridicules the concept of “scientific consensus”. It is true that the scientific community does not operate in a vacuum and that it is very often subject to pressures of politics, religion, social rules, prejudices and also directly from the market. But this does not invalidate the concept of scientific consensus altogether.