by Miguel Lamas, a leader of the IWU-FI
12 August 2021
The forest fires that have been raging in southern Europe since July, and also in Latin American countries, whether caused by lightning strikes or intentionally set, are spreading because of drought and extreme heat. Scientists know that climate change is the main reason.
Many of these fires, especially in Latin American countries, have an intentional start. They burn forests to “free” land for capitalist agribusiness or real estate speculation.
These fires, aggravated by climate change, have a speeding up effect on global warming because forests absorb CO2 (carbon dioxide), a greenhouse gas, and release oxygen. They also change the water cycle, leading to prolonged droughts and excessive rainfall with flooding.
According to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released on 9 August, scientists monitor unprecedented changes not seen in hundreds of thousands of years. Some, such as continued sea-level rise, may not be reversed for centuries or millennia.
Scientific representatives of 195 governments carried out this report based on over half a century of research.
However, nobody has taken the urgent and fundamental measures required by the situation. Governments have not cut carbon dioxide emissions or stopped mining by destroying forests and rivers because the technological changes would reduce capitalist profits.
That is why it is necessary to FIGHT for fundamental measures in defence of the environment and stop climate change, developed on a world scale with the destruction of the capitalist system. Only governments of the working people under socialism will save humanity from a catastrophe foretold by scientifically planning production.
Originally published in El Socialista (Argentina, 2021)
