The Arctic is melting. What might seem like a concern of the north should be recognized as one of the largest environmental issues of this century.
The Arctic region functions as a refrigerator for the whole world, as the sunlight is reflected away by the ice. But due to climate change, the Arctic sea ice is melting at an alarming rate each summer. Because of the decreasing ice layer on the sea new oil and gas resources have been revealed, and now multinational companies and governments want to exploit the region as fast as possible. Not only would the consumption of these resources lead to even further global warming, but the risks of an oil spill are huge in this region of extreme conditions and would lead to a fatal natural disaster.
The expert consensus is that a fundamental shift in the way we consume and produce energy must begin immediately and be well underway within the next ten years in order to avert the worst impacts of climate change. The scale of the challenge requires a complete transformation of the way we produce, consume and distribute energy. The current crisis of capitalism is not an excuse to refrain from environmental transformation, but on the contrary the transformation will be a crucial part of the solution.
The struggle for the environment cannot be separated from the the struggle for solidarity and equality. With fewer resources to share, the ongoing class war will escalate into a genocide of the working class. The environmental disaster will hit the poor and dispossessed peoples and countries the hardest.
We need a strong European ecosocialist movement to turn away from fossil capitalism and develop sustainable and available solutions. Nuclear energy with its risks and affiliated capital interests is not an alternative. All subsidies for unsustainable energy forms must to be phased out and and the electricity markets reformed to guarantee priority access to the grid for renewable power generators.
I want to support the motion presented by PCF for a broad campaign to influence the environmental decisions that will be made in Paris in 2015 at COP21. An energy revolution is unavoidable and this fight against multinational companies and capitalist governments is one we cannot afford to lose.
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Speech given at the European Left Party Congress in Madrid, 2013.
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