Marcelo Colussi
Experts are already talking about a new geological era: the Anthropocene. That is to say: a period characterized by human activity that significantly changes the natural environment. He is changing it not in positive terms, but by actually changing it negative the living conditions of the planet, so much so that it could make the survival of all living species impossible – including humans, obviously – unless the course of events is changed.
The modern world appeared in the European Renaissance, today completely global, which led to modern industry, although it obtained magnificent results by solving the ancient problems of humanity, at the same time, because of the method in which production was taking place, he created. another new, today already very dangerous. That is why many experts believe that, since the middle of the last century, we have entered this new geological phase. Several strong elements indicate this: a) a dangerous increase in the emission of negative greenhouse gases, b) a high presence of radioactive elements in the air, soil and land nuclear weapons, c) an impressive collection of non-traditional plastics. – biodegradation, d) indiscriminate destruction of the forest cover, and all that does not generate more global warming but, as he has now begun to say: aglobal boil“.
In other words: there is no “climate change”, as if it were a spontaneous and natural transformation of geological conditions, but rather disaster caused by human activity related to the industry that produces products without stopping, forcing the population to eat in the same way. As a symbol of this nonsense in play, the planned disorder: to produce goods until, in a time set in advance by the production companies, they are no longer useful and must be replaced. Advertising, developed by the methods of the higher school, is responsible for promoting “new things”, creating false needs, which are essentially essential. In this sense, it is perhaps more correct to say that the Anthropocene: Capital: a moment in history marked by the appearance of the capitalist mode of production.
In this tide of production and consumption created by capitalism – based solely on the accumulation of capital, trying to ensure that the rate of profit never falls – the destruction of our common home, planet Earth, takes its toll the human race. Natural resources, that is to say: the raw materials with which the endless amount of products that reach the market every day are made, finished, they are exhausted. And the waste that all this means is today a problem of enormous proportions, which did not exist 150 years ago when Marx wrote Capital, a critique of political economy. The recent appearance of a new virus, SARS CoV-2, to which the population of the planet had no protection, thus causing more than six million deaths, is due to that lack of controls.
The World Health Organization -WHO- had expected it, and they are still showing the disaster playing out, with consequences for human health. In the words of its director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus:
“History shows us that this is not the last pandemic. (…) The pandemic revealed the close links between the health of people, animals and the planet (…) All efforts to improve health systems will not be enough if they are not accompanied by a critique of the relationship between humans and animals, as well as the threat posed by climate change, which is turning the Earth becomes a more difficult place to live.“
In that order of ideas, the current Covid-19 pandemic shows us several things:
- That the Anthropocene (or Capitalocene) is already a reality. Unplanned human action, based on excessive physical profit, wreaks havoc. Just for example: the Maldives Islands, in the Indian Ocean, with 500,000 inhabitants (currently a tourist paradise … boiling continues resulting in polar caps and glaciers a The sad thing is that the inhabitants have not dumped almost a gram of polluting agents, since there are almost no motor vehicles or polluting industries on the islands, only artisanal fishermen ‘ relationship with the environment the appearance of this new SARS CoV-2 virus, and it may continue to allow new disasters if the course is not changed. Only an eco-social perspective can a It is worth clarifying something: the health disaster was terrible, but the social disaster involved is even worse. At its peak, Covid-19 killed 7,000 people a day, and now the epidemic is over; hunger continues to kill 20,000 people in the world every day, and that “disease” is not going away. In the first year of the pandemic, this brutal virus killed 1,700,000 people; During that same period, workplace accidents (due to employer negligence, due to overuse) killed 2,300,000. Let’s talk seriously about disasters, the obvious ones (natural phenomena, for example), and the hidden ones: the same hurricane kills 3 people in the United States and 10,000 in Haiti or Bangladesh.
- Neoliberalism, as a new form that global capitalism has taken, is a criminal attack against humanity. With his preaching of hyper-privatization of just about everything, he left the public health systems in total disrepair. The appearance of this new virus became a dangerous epidemic because private health services are unable to cope with such a large health crisis. Cuba – although the commercial media does not mention it -, with a socialist approach to public health, went through the pandemic in much better conditions than the capitalist powers, as did the countries that maintained a well-organized state health structure: China, Vietnam, Norway, South Korea.
- The current world capitalism is still completely unfair, egocentric and hedonistic, completely divorced from the values of solidarity. This can be seen by the way the vaccine was handled. On the one hand, the big pharmaceutical companies made a wonderful business out of it, leaving most of the poor countries of the South unable to pay large sums of money. Moreover, the collective spirit created by this model caused the capitalist powers to accumulate two, three or four times more doses than necessary, while the Third World weakened, and all this shows that we are, in this framework, closer to mass destruction than to a true community of brotherly people. The so-called international cooperation or the support of powerful charitable foundations only reinforces the claim of some and the power of others. Do not forget that when the first development “aid” project arose (the Alliance for Progress, from the United States, immediately after the Cuban revolution in 1959), in the manuals of the CIA it appeared as “counter-terrorism strategy“. Christian charity is going in the same direction.
- The limitations caused by the pandemic were on the way for a “new normal”, based more and more on the so-called telecommunications. Now, this digital world that has already opened up and seems to be irreversible, is currently not in the favor of the majority. Is working from home a big advantage? How are unions formed then? Or does that no longer fit the “new normal”? It seems that we are increasingly disconnected, even if we spend the day “connected” to an artificial intelligence machine. Digital technologies, undoubtedly magnificent, can be used to make leaps in history; or also, as it seems to appear now, so that the great powers control more and better. “89% of children under the age of 13 have a smartphone, and 87% use at least one social application regularly. This digital immersion brings them benefits such as easy access to information and connection, but it also raises challenges, such as the temptation of instant gratification and the difficulty of maintaining attention in a world full of digital stimuli.” (ADSlivemedia: 2024). If technology is not at the service of the people, if it is only at the service of maintaining exploitation and the hegemony of a tiny elite, it is of no use.
- Periodic summits of political leaders and international organizations aimed at addressing the issue of the ongoing ecological disaster are not really capable of stop the process in progress. This is because the mega-companies that dominate the global economic landscape have no real interest in stopping or fundamentally changing their production processes, as this would involve reducing in their profits. Adaptation to new non-polluting technologies is slow, characterized by the economic interests of capital and not by the effective responsibility for the health of humanity and our common home, the planet Earth.
- The answers to the environmental disaster produced by consumerism caused by capitalism do not only require technical answers. In fact, one of the big problems today is the energy to move this large and infinite production machine of modern societies, where non-renewable fossil fuels (oil, gas and coal ) is a key. In the Econews magazine it can be read that “The sun is shining in China, but maybe not in the way you’d expect. Scientists working on the Huanliu-3 (HL-3) tokamak, a nuclear fusion machine in Hefei, China, have made a breakthrough that could change the future of clean energy. The HL-3 tokamak is like an artificial sun. It uses plasma heated to 120 million degrees to create nuclear fusion, producing the same amount of energy as a star. Researchers around the world have been trying to achieve this type of nuclear fusion for decades.“. Undoubtedly, technical solutions like this are necessary, but it is not only the energy matrix that needs to be changed, but also the way in which consumption is encouraged. Are the 1.4 billion vehicles (half of them internal combustion, burning fossil fuels) that circulate in the world necessary, or could they be replaced (less energy consumption, more space to move, more user comfort) with efficient public transport? Is it necessary to change your mobile phone every year, and replace it with a new, more attractive model? It is obvious that what needs to be changed from the roots is the false idea of growth that capitalism has imposed.
Anthropocene, Capitalocene or whatever we call it, the current model of human interaction with nature is unsustainable. You have to change. This will only be possible in a radical change of paradigms that the capitalist system itself not only does not demand but, fundamentally, can’t an offer. So, we have to look for new options.
Marcelo Colussi
Insurgentes.org
