"The U.S. Must Lead" in Solving the Climate Crisis? Excuse Us, But What Planet Do You Live On!?
September 15, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Some forces in the environmental movement say that to deal with the climate catastrophe, "the U.S. must lead."
Bullshit! This line comes straight from the U.S. ruling class—and can only lead to further ruin of the planet.
Actually, the U.S. has long been "leading" on climate change—as the largest destroyer of the planet and the largest producer of greenhouse gases historically. Its military "leads" as the single largest institutional consumer of oil, in order to carry out its murderous wars for empire.
And huge sections of America's governing officials and representatives don't even accept the science of climate change!
As for "climate president" Barack Obama...
* His administration has opened up vast new swaths of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and federal lands to oil and gas exploration.
* Under Obama, the U.S. is on track to becoming the largest producer of oil in the world.
* The U.S. is now turning its vast new reserves of natural gas into weapons of great-power rivalry, as in its struggle with Russia over Ukraine.
* Obama maneuvered in 2010 to prevent the Copenhagen climate conference from achieving any substantive and binding agreements to tackle climate change.
Obama and the U.S. ruling class know climate change will bring disaster. But they can only deal with this from the economics and politics of capitalism-imperialism. And no matter what happens to the planet, they want to make damn sure this system survives and remains in power. So they try to fool people with puny "climate initiatives" and doubletalk, while they intensify the hunt for the fossil fuels that are destroying our planet.
As the UN climate summit meets in New York City later this month, the U.S. continues "to lead" as world-class oppressor and dominator. Bombing Iraq again... backing Israel in the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza... carrying out the mass incarceration of Black and Latino people.
Getting behind "the U.S. must lead" means lining up behind its mangling and devastation of the world's people and the planet. To say "the U.S. must lead" is like saying Nazi Germany should have led in protecting the rights of Jewish people.
The world we need is not one where the "U.S. leads" but one where the U.S. empire is no more.
Capitalism is destroying the planet—we need revolution nothing less.
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