Written by Alex Sivitilli
In the past year, we were able to see streets and highways cleared of traffic, birds and wildlife returned to the cities and the air through our masks seemed a little bit easier to breathe. Meanwhile, greenhouse gas emissions made their biggest drop in human history. We saw the potential of a natural environment without the burden of a relentless pursuit of profit by the ultra-wealthy bringing about its demise.
NGOs and centre-left political groups fool themselves into thinking world leaders will learn from this and hit the reset switch in planning a post-Covid world. They envision a parasitic capitalist framework working in harmony with a healthy planetary ecosystem. With lack of travel and decreased energy demand dealing a major blow to fossil fuel companies, it is tempting to be drawn to such a naïve outlook. But, the wheels of capitalism are already turning to dampen these hopes of a green future.
Despite a record drop in emissions as a result of the pandemic, when put into the context of a general acceleration since the Industrial Revolution, it means little for our warming planet. We are still on track to pass the 1.5°C pre-industrial global average temperature increase that the 2016 Paris Agreement set out to avoid. This relied on voluntary and market-based solutions. In fact, in the four years since the agreement, the world’s largest investment banks have poured more than R45 Trillion into expanding fossil fuel extraction.
Some politicians now even point to the pandemic as reason to ease the already pathetic environmental targets set out. The ANC government itself has delayed the implementation of a carbon tax on the South Africa’s major polluters as part of last year’s Covid-19 “economic relief”.
Meanwhile, blank cheques for bailouts continue to be pumped out worldwide to rescue fossil fuel companies facing bankruptcy. These are companies that find themselves in trouble because of the debt they accumulated expanding their operations. Fuel and chemicals company Sasol, the second largest greenhouse gas emitter in South Africa behind Eskom, received a profit boost of over R8 Billion in the past year from fuel subsidies and its exemption from carbon tax.
Capitalists will never develop an effective means to mitigate the warming of our planet because its continuation is a win-win scenario for them — they maintain their current source of capital while new markets can be created from environmental catastrophe. Droughts, for example, are already being weaponised to take water from the people so it can be resold at a profit, as was witnessed with Cape Town in 2018.
Meanwhile, it is the working class that suffers. Rising sea levels threaten to destroy low-lying communities such as the Cape Flats. Increased pollution causes heart and lung problems in poor communities – especially in mining and industrial areas. The reality is that protecting the environment is a working class issue that demands working class action.
Avoiding ecological disaster is not something that we can expect the free market to accomplish. At the same time, solutions need not compromise between climate and jobs – a myth often peddled by leaders to excuse inaction. We need programmes for workers of the fossil fuel industry to be re-trained for community-controlled energy sectors based in green technology. For this we would also need massive public works programmes to transition from fossil fuel dependence to wind and solar for our energy needs. South Africa is ripe for such tech given its extended windy coastlines and ranking as one of the sunniest countries in the world. Public housing needs to be built to be energy efficient and close to jobs. Public transport must also be expanded, made safe, and of course, made free. These are all demands that must accompany our placards when we take to the streets calling for higher wages and insourcing.
Ultimately, we must transition our economy to one that is democratically controlled by workers and communities so the people can decide how to address climate change instead of waiting for the capitalists. We are the class that keeps society running and we demand to run it in a sustainable way that keeps us and our children alive.
