Climate Change, Profits over Life

The Copenhagen Summit did not take the right path?

                                                                                                                     Alex Tuscano

 “When the last tree is cut down, when the last fish is caught, when the last river is polluted then the humankind will realize that it cannot live by eating money.”

The heads of the states had been fighting among themselves at the meeting in Copenhagen last year  to make tough decisions about who will be willing to cut how much of carbon emission.  All are concerned and see that there is an urgency to save the planet from falling apart.

If the heads of the states restrict themselves to cutting down the carbon emission and preventing the rise in the global warming or trying to take decisions to reverse the climate change then it will be a poor show and no problems will be solved.   After a period the planet will land up again in Crisis.  Just as capitalism lands up in crisis periodically, one larger than the previous the same way the plant too will continue land up in crisis.

The fundamental question before the international community is not the climate change; it is not about global warming.  The fundamental question is about the destiny of human kind; it is about the path the humankind has chosen to follow.  There have been several indications to tell humankind that the path they have taken is wrong and therefore the solutions they will find will be ineffective.  The only solution is to change the path of development.

The humankind has seen two world wars.  The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and what happened after that did not prevent the humankind from building nuclear arms. It had piled up nuclear arms enough to destroy this earth twelve times over.  It has been waging wars even after the disastrous consequences of the world war two.  America did not learn anything from the lessons of Vietnam War.  Their wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have solved no questions.  The world community at large with massive power is powerless in solving the problems in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Terrorism has gripped the entire world and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.  Because the world community leaders have no intellectual honesty to recognize that the real problem is the path of development we have followed.

The world witnessed the global financial melt down and economic crisis.  It was rated to be worse crisis compared to the crisis of 1930ies.  What was the meaning they saw in this crisis?    The kind of solution they came out with and are trying to apply is bound to build up another crisis.

The world is facing the father of all crises, called the global warming, or climate change.  The world community sees all these crisis as separate and independent and is trying to find independent solutions.  One solution will not have any link with another as one problem is seen in isolation from the other.

The humankind essentially is facing the crisis of the purpose of collective life.  This civilization has seen great religions with very lofty ideals.  There have been great philosophers and saints on this earth.  Every nation has given birth to great leaders.  But collectively the humankind has failed to itself.  Humankind has lost sight of their destiny.

Humankind has removed themselves from the centre of their lives.  They have brought in a particular politics and economics in the centre.  They are busy gaining and retaining power so that they can use this power to maintain their supremacy in economic sphere.  What is economics is all about.  It is about production, consumption and finally making profit.  Profit sounds very innocent word but it the most explosive reality.  It defies all human values.  If the entire purpose of production is to make profit and if there is no profit in any production then that production will not take place.  People will produce those things that will give them maximum profit. As a result, the humankind not only produces useless things which will not solve the most central needs of their fellow people, like food, clothing, shelter and health care, but they have indulged in production of arms of the most deadly nature that will destroy themselves and the earth.

In the name of security they have produced arms of mass destruction and in the pursuit of profit they destroy the nature and environment that to day the earth is in danger.  The private property and private profit has left the common property resource to the mice.  There is no concern for the protection of environment.  In the production for profit what is counted is what they pay for.  The environment is no one’s property and no one pays for it and hence it is not any one’s concern.  But it has a cost.  It will cost the producers to ensure that while in the process of production if they are destroying the environment then they should ensure that they restore the environment or employ methods of production that will safeguard the environment.  This would mean that the producers have to incur costs for protecting the environment because they are the single largest agency that destroys the environment.  But this would mean cutting on their profit level.  To maximize the profits they employ means which are most disastrous to the environment.

The next central concern of the humankind after profit is growth.  They want to accumulate their profit to make their capital grow.  There is a great debate on the growth of the economies.  Growth is a growth of private entity, growth of private capital.  The growth is not measured in comparison to the harm done to the earth.  It is not measured in terms of poverty, starvation prevailing on earth.  It is not measured in terms of terrorism that is growing on earth.

The world is admiring the highest growth China has been able to achieve.  But what is the track record of China.  China is using cheap labour in their country and sells their product to the rest of the world cheap.  It is shutting down the businesses of the poor countries. Scores of people are loosing on their business.  They are becoming unemployed.

The Republic of China began with a noble goal of building socialism in China, to ensure that all have three square meals, clothing, shelter and health care.  The Republic of China had founded its nation with the sole objective of providing prosperity to the majority of the people in China.  The Republic of China did not talk about profit, growth.  It was even reaching out to the poor nations to help them bring about change so that these nations too could follow the foot steps of Republic of China to eradicate poverty and bring about equity and justice in their society.

To day China has gone the ways of the main stream world.  The Republic of China of 21^st century has gone all the way to exploit and plunder the poor and the weaker nation for their own growth.  “China has adopted an aggressive policy of extracting Africa's natural resources. China is giving aid and loans to African countries and obtaining rights to exploit the natural resources. t China National Petroleum Corporation is the single largest shareholder in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, which controls Sudan's oil fields. China has invested $3 billion in refinery and pipeline construction in Sudan since 1999. Beijing extended a $2 billion loan to Angola in exchange for a contract to supply 10,000 barrels of crude oil per day. PetroChina has concluded an $800 million deal with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to purchase 30,000 barrels of oil per day for one year. China National Offshore Oil Corporation purchased a 45 percent stake in a Nigerian offshore oil and gas field for $2.27 billion and promised to invest an additional $2.25 billion in field development. China is reported to give huge bribes to the leaders and officials to obtain the rights to extract resources. A report in the New York Times tells that a Namibian public service commissioner was arrested after a Chinese company deposited $4.2 million in the account of a consulting company she set up. "China is using this financing to buy the loyalty of the political elite... It is a very effective tool of soft diplomacy. But it is bad for the citizens who have to repay these loans for graft-ridden contracts."

Mankind is called the crown of the universe, the glory of evolution.  All material forms culminated and reached its perfection in the birth of humankind that stands tall with its mind and spirit, with its rationality and spirituality.  That crown and the glory of the universe has turned into its opposite.  It has become the enemy of the universe, the destroyer of the earth.  This stems from the most irrational matter called capital, profit and growth.

Politics has been turned into its opposite.  Instead of coming to the rescue of humankind, of the rational mind and spirituality, to the unity and collectiveness of humankind it has become a question of acquiring and exercising power – power to protect and defend capital, profit and growth which divides, separates and casts aside the great majority of humankind. Nay, it dominates and subjugates the great majority of humankind to slavery of wage labourers, uses them as mere tools to make profit, accumulate and grow. The people have been removed from the centre of their national goal and Growth has become their national goal.   Plato has been proved wrong.  Politics, for him was meant to be in the hands of philosophers who understand the dignity of humanity, who would nurture this humanity.  But it has gone to the hands of the demons (vulchers) who want to exploit and extract profit and torture humankind and even put them to death.

I think the time has come to recognize that the real need is to put the humankind, the majority of the humankind in the centre of all pursuits.  All plans and development should be focused on the well being of the maximum people.  There is an urgent need to fight poverty, hunger, disease and homelessness. This well being will also mean the protection of the home of the humankind, our Mother Earth.  There is no need to produce arms and nuclear bombs.  In the climate change summit they will talk about helping the developing and the least developed nations to implement carbon reduction.  This talk is again to make sure that the developed world will continue to exploit the rest of the humankind and maintain its position of supremacy in economic development and political power.

The earth belongs to all who are born on this earth.  They have right to this earth and should enjoy this right.  Capital, profit and growth of a few cannot deprive the humankind of their rights.

We need to question the path of development on which the most powerful nations are controlling the earth.  Some where Marx was right and the bloodless Russian Revolution had probably set on the right path. But the capitalists saw that it was defeated.  America’s war in Vietnam was principally aimed to checkmate Socialist path of Communism.  It is still holding Cuba under the universal boycott.  One can say that the socialism was turned into demon by Fascist war and the capitalist blockade. There is a need to rethink our priorities.  Look back on our history and take a path different from capita, profit and growth.

Was not the communism immediate out come of the Resurrection of Jesus and descending of the Holy Spirit on the followers of Jesus?  Does “The Acts of the Apostle” tell us a lie?