Eco-Socialism Conference 2019

The clock is ticking. The enormous dangers of rapid climate change and ecological devastation must be reversed as a matter of survival.

At the present rate of emissions, out-of-control climate change will catapult global average temperatures so high that it will usher in a period of irreversible environmental crisis within the lifetime of many people alive today. The accelerating problems can already be seen: melting of Arctic and Antarctic ice, disappearing glaciers, devastating droughts, species extinction, ocean acidification.

There are other severe environmental crisis that represent grave threats: contamination of air, pollution of drinking water used by millions of people, wholesale destruction of forests and biodiversity, degradation of soil and the world’s agricultural lands.

The wealthy will use their money to escape the consequences, and working people and the poor will be left to suffer. The developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, responsible for a tiny fraction of global emissions, will face the worst impact!

The attack on the ecology of the Earth is caused by capitalism, the system that dominates nearly every corner of the world, a system that conflicts with environmental sustainability. Capitalism’s basic driving force is the endless expansion of profits and wealth for corporations, regardless of environmental boundaries. For capitalism, the environment is not a place human beings must live together with Earth’s other species, but a place to be exploited in the process of accumulating profits.

It is becoming more apparent every day that the system itself is the biggest barrier to resolving the crisis.

Socialism is the alternative to capitalism’s war on the planet. Socialism represents a future where workers have seized political and economic power away from a handful of billionaires, and deploy resources according to a plan for what society needs. Socialism means organizing the economy, investing in and implementing already existing technologies to quickly transition towards the end of fossil fuels.

Today, at this urgent period in human history, we must fight to preserve the planet! The solutions are there! Collectively we can overcome the odds. The ecological and socialist transformation of society is possible!