Can the EU tackle climate change?

[RSS News]

The EU is expected to strike a deal to tackle greenhouse gases by cutting emmissions. What should the EU do about climate change?

(Feed provided by BBC News | Have your Say (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/talking_point/default.stm))

[AGITprop]

The EU is expected to strike a deal to tackle greenhouse gases by cutting emmissions. What should the EU do about climate change?

(Feed provided by BBC News | Have your Say (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/talking_point/default.stm))

Climate change is an interesting issue right now. As we know, the environment is slowly changing due to our relationship with nature. Unfortunately, ours is not a very moderate one. We consume fossil fuels, burn tons of garbage, dump our waste into the oceans, etc. It must be clear that we CANNOT slow down and stop these dangerous and potentially catastrophic changes under capitalism. A profit driven system will just not allow it. We can make as many sanctions as possible, put taxes on emissions, but the bottom line is, the capitalist will cut as many corners as possible is production to save a buck and these shortcuts are not always 'eco-friendly'. Also, we are just digging a deeper and deeper hole everyday that we run our cars on gasoline. Oil runs the world. How do you convince the oil-baron that he has to give up all his riches for the sake of the environment, when he wont even be alive along enough to see the deadly changes? You can't. Capitalists live only for their today, whereas we must act based on our tomorrow. Honestly, it sounds like our 'easy wait out', by stating that the environment can only be saved under socialism, but this IS the unfortunate truth.

[Sendo]

That's not all.
Not only does capitalism concentrate power in the hands of a few who can cut corners and break environmental laws, but those emission laws are written by bourgeois politicians.

Additionally, we are enslaved to a culture of bourgeois logic. US Environmentalists piss me off so bad. For the longest time they obsess over preservation of certain types of nature, believing it is their right as urban liberals to visit natural theme parks cleared of all Indians and the like, whil telling small farmers they have no right to chop down a single tree.

Sustainability is finally getting pounded into our dense USA skulls, and what happens? "Buy hybrid cars or fuck off!" Now we get rich white pricks preaching about how guilt-free they are, while I am forced to drive beater cars for financial reasons (at least my GEO got 45 miles/gallon).

Now, finally, we get more democratic mass action, demanding more environmental regulations. And Europe is making strides with that. So Europe's got a better attitude, but that's it. It's only attitudinal.

So now Euros and USers alike have the problem of not realizing the systemic problem of capitalist production. Under capitalism we have planned obsolescense/disposability as well as endless production. Combine that with free trade agreements that allow the US to ship products halfway around the world and back to save $ on wages. (US->China->US). Don't bourgeois Greeners get that?! (no, they don't)

Transportation is the BIGGEST contributor to global warming and the United States is offender #1, so, no, the EU cannot "tackle" climate change.

Getting that out, I have to say I'll quietly applaud any reforms that at least address Co2 pollution.

For more on this topic, read anything by William Cronon (pioneer of Environmental History) or stuff from Ecological Essays on Marxism like "The Second Contradiction of Capitalism."