Earth Day 2020: A Planet “On Fire”

April 20, 2020 | revcom.us

 

This is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, an annual global event in support of the environment. Even as humanity confronts the COVID-19 pandemic, the destruction of the environment and ecosystems around the world continue at a rapidly accelerating pace, furthered by fascist anti-science regimes like the Trump/Pence regime in the U.S. and the Bolsonaro regime in Brazil. More than one billion people (!) are estimated to be driven from their homes over the next three decades due to the effects of global warming, along with rising sea levels, extreme weather events, droughts and famines, mass extinctions, and destruction of ecosystems like mangrove swamps and coral reefs, and much, much worse. More than one billion people (!) are estimated to be driven from their homes over the next three decades due to the effects of global climate change and its impacts, which (along with other forms of environmental destruction) is driving rising sea levels, extreme weather events, droughts and famines, mass extinctions, and destruction of ecosystems like mangrove swamps and coral reefs, and much, much worse.

At this moment, it is important to return to—and reground in—fundamental questions, and urgently go to work on that basis: What drives the plunder of the planet and global warming? Can this be resolved under this system of capitalism-imperialism, and if not, why not? What about reformist programs like the Green New Deal? What is the solution, what will it take?

We direct our readers and others to the Special Resource Page: Capitalism-Imperialism Is Destroying the Planet... Only Revolution Gives Humanity a Real Chance to Save It.