Many people are aware of the worldwide problem of environmental pollution and destruction. This is making the Earth become increasingly unstable and uninhabitable. Left unchecked, global warming and general ecological destruction will have catastrophic impacts on human, animal, and plant life.
For too many environmentalists however, green issues and politics are “neither left nor right†or “beyond politicsâ€. But this is not true. Ecological destruction is not an accidental feature of the capitalist system. The insatiable need to increase profits cannot be reformed away as its system of production, for profit and not need, causes huge amounts of environmental destruction and needless waste.
On the other side, the left cannot ignore environmental issues or afford not to put enough emphasis on them as (1) a classless society does not automatically equate to an environmentally friendly one, although it does have the basis to create one (unlike a capitalist society) and (2) by the time we reach the point of a revolution, the environment may be beyond repair. If the left does not back these issues enough, it will be incapable of creating a future society that is free and equal; such a society must be in harmony with the rest of nature.
We must not only aim to bring the green movement to the left but also make sure that the left is green.
