The blows of Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast, and a summer of floods, severe droughts and monster forest fires, left the people of this country reeling. Now huge blizzards add insult to injury. And still the politicians continue to deny that climate change exists. Or they remain silent on it, or give weak lip service to combating it. Even worse, they push through plans for destructive and polluting ‘fracking’ [fracturing the earth] to wrest gas from tar sands, a form of mining which rips up the earth, poisons the groundwater, kills cattle, and sickens people. This practice shatters communities and pumps into the atmosphere huge amounts of the greenhouse gasses responsible for climate change.
In recent mass demonstrations this February, people rallied against these practices, and against the construction of the XL Pipeline that will transport oil down across the entire US from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico. The BP oil spill still poisons the waters and sea life in the Gulf and continues to foul the coast. People are alarmed and outraged that instead of taking aggressive action to protect the earth, the government colludes with corporate polluters to further lay waste to the environment and change the climate forever.
People have also organized to stop the ecocidal practices of mega-corporations such as Monsanto, which spreads genetically modified crops across the heartland and around the globe. This frankenfood—genetically engineered to be dependent on larger and larger doses of dangerous pesticides that kill off birds, butterflies and the bee colonies needed for pollination—has been proven to cause cancer, and is banned in many countries.
Why aren’t the “powers that be” rallying to solve the looming and soon irreversible climate crisis that’s imperiling the planet and all life on it, including human civilization? Why do they side with corporations that pollute, destroy the environment, poison our food and rape the earth? Monsanto and the big oil and energy corporations have merged with and control the government. This is the formula for fascism, with its exploitation, violence, resource wars and plundering of the planet. Under capitalism, corporations must make profits. That is their only function. If they don’t make profits they don’t survive. Corporations will struggle to the death—and the death of the planet— to make these short-term profits. That’s how the system of private property works.
People are demanding that government represent their interests, not those of the corporations. The fight to protect the planet is the fight for a system that is organized around our common interests—that is non-exploitive, cooperative and truly democratic. Only this way can we guarantee the wellbeing of humanity and the beautiful planet that sustains us.
