Capitalism is destroying our planet, fight now for a socialist planned system

Last year in 2012 in the UK it was estimated to be one of the wettest years on record. I don’t doubt this it was bloody wet for days it felt like it wouldn’t stop raining. Floods after floods affected people in communities across Britain. The past 12 months were the second wettest on record in the UK, according to data released by the Met Office. The total rainfall for the UK during 2012 was 1,330.7mm (52.4in), just 6.6mm short of the record set in 2000. Most areas were affected by the extreme weather, with thousands of homes flooded and farmers struggling to grow crops in the saturated soil. The latest data comes as analysis says the frequency of extreme rainfall in the UK may be increasing. Top five wettest years in the UK 1. 2000 - 1,337.3mm 2. 2012 - 1,330.7mm 3. 1954 - 1,309.1mm 4. 2008 - 1,295.0mm 5. 2002 - 1,283.7mm (Source: Met Office) BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin said statistics showed that days of particularly heavy rainfall had become more common since 1960. The study into extreme rain was based on statistics from the National Climate Information Centre, the UK's official climate record. The Met Office said this was the wettest year on record for England, the third wettest for Wales, the 17th wettest on record for Scotland and the 40th wettest for Northern Ireland. This is a local look at extreme weathers but of course this is a global issue. This past September saw the lowest amount of Arctic summer sea ice recorded in 33 years of measurement. Climate change experts warn that the Arctic could be ice-free as early as 2020, 30 years earlier than the last estimate published in 2007. A complete loss of summer sea ice has devastating consequences for not only the fragile Arctic ecosystem, but also the entire global population. The loss of the Arctic ice cap nearly half a century earlier than predicted suggests we are far closer to a point of no return and have less time to act than we thought just a few years ago. If we are to seriously tackle global warming we must challenge the logic that got us into this mess in the first place—capitalism and its inherent need for profits at the expense of humanity and the environment that sustains it. Global warming, caused by human activity, has already warmed the entire planet by nearly 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. But, the warming is not uniform across the planet. Disproportionately affected are highly sensitive regions like the Arctic, where the average air temperature has risen twice as fast as the global average. The retreating sea ice is exposing the dark ocean, which absorbs far more sunlight than the reflective ice, further destabilizing our climate system. Melting sea ice isn’t just bad for polar bears. Declining levels of sea ice affects food production (Washington Post, 1/14/2012), sea level rise (NY Times, 9/19/2012), and the likelihood of extreme weather events. Extreme weather events, like the frankenstorm Sandy that pummeled the east coast in late October, are predicted to increase in frequency as more energy from the sun is absorbed by the Arctic Ocean (NOAA News, 10/19/2012). Sadly what should be a wake up call has instead turned into a race to extract more fossil fuels from the now ice-free areas of the Arctic Capitalism’s unrelenting quest for more profits and economic expansion comes at the expense of human life and environmental sustainability. The capitalist leaders tell us we must not act because of the economic costs. We must dismiss this false dichotomy and recognize it for what it is a glaring indictment of the economic system of capitalism. If capitalism can’t afford to take action against the biggest threat facing global civilization, then this is a system that does not meet the needs of humanity and must be overthrown and replaced with one that does. The mistake of current environmental activism is to limit its demands to the confines of the capitalist system. All the ideas that have been proposed—cap and trade, carbon taxes, commodifying land, air and trees to incentivize the system to make the right decisions—have resulted in practically nothing, except 30 years of kicking the can down the road and 30 years closer to climate catastrophe. The way forward to stop this madness can be found in the pages of history. Mass movements have been the only force for progress. All the great movements of the past century, the civil rights, women’s, labor, LGBTQ, and environmental movements, involved massive amounts of people and linked the common struggles within the movements. We must reject the false dichotomy of the environment versus jobs and instead link the struggle for environmental sustainability with the demand for jobs. A combination of labor demands with the knowledge of what is needed to reduce our ecological footprint could create a movement powerful enough to seriously challenge this system. The call for a green jobs program to put millions back to work and retool our infrastructure would meet the demands of both labor and the environment. If we are serious about halting global warming and mitigating the effects that have already come to pass, we should focus our efforts on building this coalition. With extracts taken from the CWI socialistworld.net Jess Spear, Socialist Alternative (CWI supporters in the US)

World food in crisis why a socialist plan is needed

here is more than enough food on the planet to feed everybody and for no one to go hungry but in this farcical system of capitalism a system based on meeting the profit margins of a few is far more important than meeting the needs of the many.

Even basic needs for the majority of people on the planet cannot be met under capitalism.

THE FINANCIAL speculators and hedge funds that so spectacularly contributed to the financial crisis resulting in the 'Great Recession' have now turned their attention to the international food market with devastating consequences.
These spivs are now trading heavily in the futures markets in food, speculating on prices and causing extreme volatility.
The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation reported: "Rarely have markets exhibited this level of uncertainty and sudden turns in such a brief period of time. World cereal production, which is currently put at 2,216 million tonnes, is 2% below 2009 levels, 63 million tonnes less than the forecast reported in June."
The UN has warned that food prices could rise by 10-20% next year after poor harvests and an expected rundown of global reserves. More than 70 African and Asian countries will be the worst hit.
Combined with the heat wave and fires in Russia and the floods in Pakistan, this has resulted in the prices of wheat, maize and many other foods traded internationally rising by up to 40% in just a few months.
Sugar, butter and cassava prices are at 30-year highs, and meat and fish are both significantly more expensive than last year.
Larry Elliot in the Guardian has argued that these massive increases are also due to speculators buying up farms in poor countries to profit from China's increasing reliance on imported food. This in turn increases poor countries' reliance on expensive imported food.
International food import bills could pass the $1 trillion mark and the speculators cannot resist getting their noses into a trough that size.
The 2007/08 food crisis saw food riots in more than 25 countries and 100 million extra hungry people. The UN fears similar for the next few years.
As Lester Brown, founder of the Washington-based World watch Institute, pointed out: "The poorest will suffer the most because they feel the effect of price rises directly".
With one and a half billion people globally struggling to get by on between $1 and $2 a day, capitalism has nothing to offer them - not even enough food in their bellies.
But while the world's poorest people are suffering, big business is enjoying a profits bonanza in global agriculture and its associated trade. In the advanced capitalist countries working people are also increasingly struggling with rising food prices.
Socialist nationalisation of the agribusiness multinationals and a democratically run, international plan of food production represent the only way forward for the poor and the working people of the world.


We also as socialists recognise the short term need for food banks but do not see them as the way to solve a food crisis for the poorest people in society.
We are not like new labour that earlier this year our comrades came in contact with one of their new rising stars of the party Stellar Creasy.
. This was recently underlined by an incident involving Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, and one of our comrades.
The Labour MP was collecting tins of food for the poor! When confronted on why she was acting like a Victorian 'do-gooder', collecting from the already poor for the destitute, and not fighting the cuts, she replied: "I'm just the MP -what can I do"!
. Little wonder that polls show that there is little faith in New Labour's ability to control the economy.


Its time for a socialist plan for producing and distributing food to the many taking away the profit motive and putting the need and meeting those needs back into the production of food.