The Revolutionary Socialist Network, Workers
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2NC -- Ext: OceansCapitalism is ruining the oceanTrotskyist Fraction, 2019 (“Capitalism Is Destroying the Planet – Let’s Destroy Capitalism!” September 15, 2019. https://www.leftvoice.org/capitalism-is-destroying-the-planet-lets-destroy-capitalism/ /// MF) Capitalism has prospered for centuries by exploiting nature, either as an “inexhaustible” supply of resources to produce commodities, or as a waste dump. But the earth’s ability to endure the destructive processes of capital is reaching its limit. Capital’s need for constant growth has led to the interruption of a complex natural cycle that took millions of years to develop. This has created a rift in the “metabolism” (to borrow Marx’s term) between society and nature. Climate change and the crises of the biological cycles of carbon, water, phosphorus and nitrogen; the acidification of the oceans; the accelerated loss of biodiversity; the changes in the quality of soil and chemical pollution by industry—these are some of the terrible expressions of a completely unprecedented situation for humanity, namely the tendency toward the destruction of our natural conditions for production and reproduction. This destructive tendency is directly related to the social and material deprivation of hundreds of millions of people who suffer misery, unemployment and precarious employment, which capitalism needs to ensure its profitability and reproduction. The barbarism represented by the recent fires in the Amazon—which were the product of incentives for deforestation (and which were intensified by Brazil’s right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro), the relaxation of environmental laws and the direct action of large landowners and ranchers who started the fires—is just another episode in the continual process of environmental degradation and destruction. The phenomenon of uncontrolled forest fires is growing more frequent, as shown by the fires ravaging Siberia and sub-Saharan Africa (which are more numerous, though less destructive than those in the Amazon), as well as the fires in California last autumn and in many regions of Europe. Climate change and the thirst for profit are intensifying them. Download 2.09 Mb. Share with your friends:
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