Environmental destruction isn’t driven by human nature or mistaken ideas. It is an inevitable consequence of a system built on capital accumulation.
Climate & Capitalism editor Ian Angus spoke at an educational conference organized by Socialist Action in Toronto, on November 16, 2019. His talk has been edited for publication.
These sentences are from a recent report on the consequences of climate change:
As enthusiasm for a Green New Deal for Canada grows, what type of planning will bring about a just transition to a low-carbon society?
Specifically, we turn to two questions.
First, how can plans for a just transition, from their very beginning, respect the principle of free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples?
If, as the maxim goes, “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” we ought to ask just why it is that good people so often do nothing.
“The Earth System may be approaching a planetary threshold that could lock in a continuing rapid pathway toward much hotter conditions. … Incremental linear changes to the present socioeconomic system are not enough to stabilize the Earth System."
Can the global climate be stabilized before runaway change creates conditions that are too hot for human civilization and deadly for most species?
