Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

#COP17 : Capitalism is the Cause of Climate Change

Chris Bisson | 04.12.2011 15:48 | Climate Chaos | Policing | World

Yesterday I attended a march for the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice. The atmosphere was lively as thousands of protesters (estimated at 6,500) demonstrated against the failure of parties to negotiate fair and ambitious solutions to the current climate crisis. As the global working class filled the streets of Durban today, one message became very clear. Capitalism is causing climate change.

The event was organized by a coalition of the Democratic Left Front, the Rural Women’s Alliance, Climate Justice Now!, Climate Action Network, and attended by many other organizations in solidarity such as Canada’s own Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, the Polaris Institute, and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. The rally began at 9:00am and started marching around 10:30am. The march went on for about five hours taking the streets from central Durban, past the International Convention Centre, and to the North Beach.





This coalition of movements were strongly directing their messaging at the fact that the global elite is gambling with our planet for the sake of their personal gain. With word that an agreement on a second protocol on climate change to start in 2020, it is clear that politicians and business leaders are colluding to support the interests of the rich at the expense of the poor. As the historical responsibility of rich countries for causing of the climate crisis is ignored, the world’s peasant farmers, labourers, and Indigenous peoples are already facing the impacts of extreme weather events and long-term climatic changes.

The latent failure of this COP is clear, the world is currently in an international struggle of the poor and working peoples against political, industrial and financial elites over control for the global commons. It is in this struggle that one can see the cause of climate change is capitalism. The origins of climate change is based on the bourgeois project of rich land owners in 18th century England to enclose land to rent farms out to peasant farmers, and subsequently to industrialize cities to increase the separation of wealth of the working class from their labour for private profit.

This political economy set in motion a system that demanded constant exponential growth in profitability in order to maintain the power of the owners of factories and machines over the workers. What resulted was the unprecedented drive of the capitalists and the state to seek more energy, resources and labour from further afield of Europe. This pressure drove the imperial project of “developing” the world through colonial exploitation and converting nature worldwide into consumable commodities. This process of “creative destruction” has come to privilege the drive for energy over the needs of the people and planet.

The present stage of the global capitalist project that witnesses the current climate crisis is simply a continuation of the project started by the industrial capitalists, and it is no coincidence that it strongly resembles the strategy of enclosure used by English landowners. Projects such as REDD, other clean development mechanisms and the greater carbon credit market is an attempt of the capitalist and political classes to use the climate crisis as an opportunity for accumulation. What these mechanisms would do is enclose the world’s atmosphere, soils and forests for global financial trade. As markets fail, as they inevitably do, property – regardless of use or function – is returned to its owners: industry. I cannot think of a more irresponsible project than to invest immense political and financial capital, as well as waste the time of international climate negotiations, in order to place ownership of the world’s forests and atmosphere into the hands of the most violent and destructive people in history. The UNFCCC and its parties are literally fighting fire with fire.

As we come halfway through COP17 it seems evident that the messaging that ought to be carried forward to Rio+20 by international civil society, and dissenting parties ought to be the liberation and democratic control of the global commons. Capitalism caused this crisis, it is not going to fix it, and we as a global society are not going to fix it until it is gone.

Chris Bisson
- Homepage: http://canadianyouthdelegation.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/capitalism-is-the-cause-of-climate-change/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech