(CrashListers, An earlier version of this piece is in the September/October 2000 issue of Because People Matter, Sacramento's progressive newspaper. Seth) One Contradiction of Capitalism: Fossil Fuels and the Environment Under capitalism, we live in a world of many contradictions. One capitalist contradiction is the consumption of gas and oil (fossil fuels) and the destruction of the environment. Such a view is blocked from the US mainstream media, owned and controlled by a few. At the same time, trucks and vans powered by fossil fuels bring us food from the fields and factories to the grocery stores. From high- to low-income neighborhoods, cars and vans powered by fossil fuels take us between home and school and work. Jets use fossil fuels to fly people and products to and from many points every day. Electronics, fertilizers and plastics also use fossil fuels. Fossil fuels have been and are the driving force for capitalism�pro-duction and distribution to create ever greater wealth for the super rich and corporations. They call this �prosperity� today. The vast majority of people whose lives are becoming more precarious might disagree. Meanwhile, our reliance on fossil fuels is also fouling the air, land and water. �Bad air days� during the summer when car smog blankets my hometown of Sacramento are a case in point. This poor air quality is in big part a result of Sacramento�s location in a valley surrounded by mountains, plus a growing population that depends greatly on cars. More people than ever are driving cars. World consumption of oil was 76 million barrels a day during January-April 2000, an increase of eight million barrels a day since 1990, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA was formed in 1974 by the rich nations after the price of oil quadrupled in 1973 [www.iea.org]. Later that decade, the rich nations lent money from the increased oil prices to the poor nations. Their indebtedness has grown sharply since then. At any rate, in 1996 the IEA forecast that, �World demand is pro-jected to rise from 70 million barrels at present to between 92 and 97 million barrels of oil per day in 2010.� This exponential growth in the use of fossil fuels is worth careful deliberation and reflection. Here�s why. In 1998 the IEA reported, �Fossil fuels are expected to meet 95% of additional global energy demand from 1995 to 2020.� In other words, future energy alternatives to fossil fuels will be no alternative under capitalism for the next 20 years. The IEA report doesn�t come out and say this, of course, but there it is. The 1996 IEA report continued: �Rising fossil fuel consumption im-plies rising greenhouse gas emissions [mainly carbon dioxide]. By 2010, world carbon emissions could be between 36 and 49 percent above their 1990 level.� Using fossil fuel for energy creates greenhouse gas emissions. This process, in turn, traps the Sun�s heat near the Earth. The result is global warming. �The warming trend in global-mean surface temperature observations during the past 20 years is undoubtedly real and is substantially greater than the average rate of warming during the twentieth century,� (Reconciling Observations of Global Temperature Change, US Commission on Geosciences, Environment and Resources, 1999 [a free book at http://books.nap.edu/books/0309068916/html/3.html#pagetop]). During the past 100 years of capitalist industrialization, the Earth�s surface temperature has climbed about 0.4 degrees Celsius from 0.7 to 1.4 degrees, reported the National Research Council (1-12-00). In brief, global warming has potential catastrophic results. They in-clude melting Arctic ice cover, rising sea levels, and increasing droughts, famines, floods and crop failures. The heating up of the planet is already underway, with effects that are plain to see. �As is noticeable in Europe and elsewhere, the seasons have slipped out of synch with the calendar, because of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming,� notes historian and writer Mark Jones (6-19-00, [EMAIL PROTECTED]). �You don�t need a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows,� sang Bob Dylan during the active 1960s. That was true then and now. However, today�s winds are blowing hotter than ever. �Global warming appears to be heating not just the air but the ocean waters-�and it is the thermal energy of the water that sparks storms,� adds Leslie Logan. �Scientists are warning us that with such warming, the twenty-first century may introduce us not only to more storms, but furious storms of unimaginable magnitude� (Native Americas, www.nativeamericas.com, Spring 2000). In 1992, Hurricane Andrew devastated sections of Florida and Louisi-ana, the most expensive natural disaster in US history. Last year Hurricane Floyd forced three million people to flee inland from coastal Florida. A super-storm hit Sacramento, which barely escaped severe flooding in 1986. (The Sacramento and American rivers run through the city.) Then in 1997, the amount of rainfall in Sacramento nearly matched 1986�s downpour. Sacramento�s 1986 and 1997 storms dropped 60% more rain than storms in the 1956-1985 period (Sacramento Business Journal, 7-28-00). Sacramento flood control projects are in part a response to global warming, without mentioning it as a cause. In the meantime, with 5% of the world�s population, guess which na-tion emits the most greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels? That would be the US, �which accounts for 25% of the world�s production of carbon" (The Guardian [London], 9-20-99). Each year, six billion tons of carbon dioxide is dumped into the at-mosphere worldwide. The US contributes 1.5 billion tons of carbon emis-sion to that total. US oil consumption was 19 million barrels per day during January-April 2000 versus 17 million barrels in January-April 1990. We�re number one in oil consumption and carbon emission. Meanwhile, the US mainstream media turns Americans� eyes away from this capitalist contradiction. That�s information power. To spur short-term corporate profits, the US mainstream media pro-motes the use of fossil fuels (through car ads) like there�s no tomorrow. As you read, capitalism is carbonizing the environment. This deadly process is becoming clearer to more and more people as the air, land and water is dirtied. Much depends on their self-liberation from this capitalist contradiction. The recent demonstrations for social change at the Republican and Democratic presidential nomination conventions are steps in that direction. ### Seth Sandronsky Sacramento [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. _______________________________________________ Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
