Walk the Talk

FOR THE WORLD SOCIALIST COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH

Action across the economy is needed in the next 12 months if Scotland's new target for greenhouse gas emissions is to be met, a report has warned. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said Scotland's 2045 date for net-zero emissions was a "step-change in ambition" for the country. It said Scotland now needed to "walk the talk" ahead of the COP26 summit. The CCC report said the Scottish and UK governments must now demonstrate to the rest of the world a "clear and credible commitment" to achieving net-zero by the middle of the century. Most of the rapid reductions achieved in recent years have been explained by the ending of coal-fired power stations at Cockenzie and Longannet.

"The new legally-binding target for 2030 - a 75% reduction in emissions compared to 1990 - is extremely stretching and demands new policies that begin to work immediately. The spotlight is now on Scotland's plan to deliver meaningful reductions across all sectors of the economy."

The wastefulness of capitalist production should be obvious to all. A serious critique of capitalism is essential to address our environmental crisis. Capitalism cannot save the planet from ecological disaster. Every time someone asks if it is possible to live in a low carbon society, the issue of capitalism is unspoken in the background. The ecological movement needs to recognise that capitalism’s inherent tendency is to turn all aspects of nature into a source of private profit. We must take into account that capitalist accumulation is limitless. Environmentalists fail to recognise the anti-capitalist conclusion. Capitalism is beyond the control of any nation. In fact, governments are the servants of their corporations, poised to defend their profits around the world and disrupt any serious resistance at home. In other words, this system cannot be reformed. It is based on the destruction of the earth and the exploitation of the people. There is no such thing as green capitalism. Ecosystems must be destroyed to make its profits. This is why eco-activists must be socialists and socialist politics indispensable to any real struggle against the environmental crisis capitalism exposes the system’s destructive and contradictory relation with nature.

A  misguided idea is expressed by some that the root cause of environmental problems is population growth. They draw the conclusion that it is not a particular form of human production, capitalism, which leads to disaster, but any form of human action that involves intervening with nature. It is not less human intervention we need, but more to enable people consciously control production and distribution on a world scale, instead of leaving it all to the blind workings of the market. Population growth rates have slowed in many countries, environmental conditions continue to get worse. This is not to say that the increasing global population growth has no effect on environmental conditions but reducing population growth alone will not solve our environmental problems. When a woman’s quality of life improves through increased economic opportunities, better and more comprehensive health care services, and access to education and political participation, fertility rates and family sizes go down.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-50808243