The Capitalist Envronmental Crisis
The Capitalist Envronmental Crisis A collection of Essays and Quotes
Update
El Niño set to become very strong, raising risks of extreme weather into 2027 Key messages
- El Niño is firmly established and is expected to strengthen further
- WMO Forecasts show near 100% likelihood that it will persist through February 2027
- Exceptionally warm tropical Pacific Ocean conditions support further intensification
- A very strong El Niño can significantly shift rainfall and temperature patterns worldwide and fuel extreme weather
- WMO and National Meteorological and Hydrological Services step up preparedness and early-warning efforts for an exceptional event
Forecasts from WMO’s Global Producing Centres indicate an “exceptionally high likelihood of nearly 100%” that El Niño will persist through to February 2027. This is the first time that a WMO El Niño/La Niña Update has been so unequivocal, reflecting the strong agreement within WMO’s extensive network. Fueled by exceptionally warm ocean conditions across the tropical Pacific, El Niño is expected to strengthen further during the coming months to a very strong intensity before peaking towards the end of this year, with climate impacts continuing well into 2027.
Fossil Fuel Inc. has Commited Depravd Indifference Ecocide for Profit!: Climate Change? The Oil Industry Knew!For Over 50 Years, the Oil Industry Knew the Connection Between Burning Fossil Fuels and Climate Change.:
Defense, Denial, and Disinformation: Uncovering the Oil Industry’s Early Knowledge of Climate Change As early as 1959, oil industry executives understood the connection between burning fossil fuels and climate change. Soon thereafter, industry scientists confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt that the burning of fossil fuels contributed to anthropogenic climate change. In response, oil companies scrambled to promulgate climate change denial and disinformation in order to avoid government regulation. It was not until the late 1990s and early 2000s that oil companies began publicly acknowledging the scientific consensus on climate change and responded by promoting market-based solutions to mitigating emissions. Did they inform the public about the danger! As the World Warmed, they just went on producing their hazardous product! To them profits were more important than life! Their ecocidal decision is a criminal act against humanity and all life on the planet! ‘Law and Order’ capitalism protects them!
There Has Never Been a Decrease in the Burning of Fossil Fuel. In the Near Future Capitalism Will Kill off All Life as it Burns! The Last 12 Years has Been An Accleration of Global Warming!: Four periods of equal sized global fossil fuel emissions. The first period was 222 years the last only 12
Sydney reaches 33C in potentially warmest s
For Marx, Capitalism Was Always Going to Destroy the Environment The Myth of Market Solutions to Climate Change The worldwide environmental destruction brought about by the explosive advance of global capitalism has plunged the planet into crisis. The amount of fossil fuels consumed by the world population after 1990 now equals half that consumed during the entirety of human history up to that point. This massive consumption of fossil fuels is causing climate change. Related disasters are occurring everywhere: major flooding in Pakistan, wildfires in California, droughts in Africa, rising ocean levels caused by melting glaciers and ice sheets. The effects of climate change have become unignorable even in Japan, which has seen increasingly heavy rainy seasons and intense typhoons, among other natural disasters. Meat-centric diets have led to extreme deforestation and the worldwide loss of biodiversity. Many scientists believe that these phenomena are partially to blame for novel viruses emerging and causing pandemics among humans. Environmental destruction has now reached the point that it can never be fully reversed. Many scholars, in emphasizing how capitalism has fundamentally changed the workings of the planetary environment, have begun using terms drawn from geology to characterize the present era: as the Anthropocene—an age defined by human intervention into the natural world—or even, more specifically, the Capitalocene.
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Capitalism & Climate Change: The Science and Politics of Global Warming
Some changes (such as droughts, wildfires, and extreme rainfall) are happening faster than scientists previously assessed. In fact, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the United Nations body established to assess the science related to climate change — modern humans have never before seen the observed changes in our global climate, and some of these changes are irreversible over the next hundreds to thousands of years. — NASA: The Effects of Climate Change
“Tomorrow Will Be Too Late”: NASA: The Effects of Climate Change “The effects of human-caused global warming are happening now, are irreversible for people alive today, and will worsen as long as humans add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Global climate change is not a future problem. Changes to Earth’s climate driven by increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are already having widespread effects on the environment: glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking, river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, plant and animal geographic ranges are shifting, and plants and trees are blooming sooner. Effects that scientists had long predicted would result from global climate change are now occurring, such as sea ice loss, accelerated sea level rise, and longer, more intense heat waves. “The magnitude and rate of climate change and associated risks depend strongly on near-term mitigation and adaptation actions, and projected adverse impacts and related losses and damages escalate with every increment of global warming.— Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Do We Still Have Time?“We still have time” has been superseded by “How much worse can it get.” The world has been turned upside down by a destructive, out-of-control global climate system. “Unprecedented” is found in every corner of the planet. There are no safe harbors, whilst disillusionment and anger build amongst 8.3 billion people. Indeed, climate deniers are at risk of being run out of town on a rail. Along the way, oil, gas, coal producers quietly collect billions of dollars on the back of massive CO2 emissions bursting into the atmosphere. Oil, gas, coal are the primary sources of CO2 emissions (a record high 38GtCO2 in 2025) that cause global heat and climate-related disasters. It’s not at all surprising that anecdotal evidence points to a growing swell of public anger over failure to politically address climate change. Glacier Time Bombs Global warming is becoming a self-advertised nuisance with the recent Nepal disaster bringing renewed attention: Is global warming fueled by fossil fuel CO2 emissions behind the Nepal catastrophe? In High Mountain Asia, there are thousands of glaciers at some stage of transforming into large lakes that may burst, barreling down mountainsides. The recent Nepal incident is but a warning, according to Jason Gulley, professor of geology, University of South Florida, who focuses on glacier hydrology. (The Melting Glacier in Nepal Was a Time Bomb. There are More to Come, The New York Times, August 28, 2026)
Editorial: Ecosocialsm or Ecoside!
The effects of human-caused global warming are happening now, are irreversible for people alive today, and will worsen as long as humans add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Global climate change is not a future problem. Changes to Earth’s climate driven by increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are already having widespread effects on the environment: glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking, river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, plant and animal geographic ranges are shifting, and plants and trees are blooming sooner.Some changes (such as droughts, wildfires, and extreme rainfall) are happening faster than scientists previously assessed. … In fact, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the United Nations body established to assess the science related to climate change — modern humans have never before seen the observed changes in our global climate, and some of these changes are irreversible over the next hundreds to thousands of years. — NASA: The Effects of Climate Change
“The economic system is incompatible with the survival of life on Earth. It is time to design a new one Capitalism’s failures arise from two of its defining elements. The first is perpetual growth. Economic growth is the aggregate effect of the quest to accumulate capital and extract profit. Capitalism collapses without growth, yet perpetual growth on a finite planet leads inexorably to environmental calamity. Those who defend capitalism argue that, as consumption switches from goods to services, economic growth can be decoupled from the use of material resources. Last week a paper in the journal New Political Economy, by Jason Hickel and Giorgos Kallis, examined this premise. They found that while some relative decoupling took place in the 20th century (material resource consumption grew, but not as quickly as economic growth), in the 21st century there has been a recoupling: rising resource consumption has so far matched or exceeded the rate of economic growth. The absolute decoupling needed to avert environmental catastrophe (a reduction in material resource use) has never been achieved, and appears impossible while economic growth continues. Green growth is an illusion A system based on perpetual growth cannot function without peripheries and externalities. There must always be an extraction zone – from which materials are taken without full payment – and a disposal zone, where costs are dumped in the form of waste and pollution. As the scale of economic activity increases until capitalism affects everything, from the atmosphere to the deep ocean floor, the entire planet becomes a sacrifice zone: we all inhabit the periphery of the profit-making machine.” — George Monbiot: Declare Capitalism Dead – Before it Takes Us All Down With It! (2019)
U.S. CaliforniaEarthquakes Irrversible Climate Change
Global Warming Emergency Requires Emergency Global Action! To End Global Warming, the Polluters, that have Caused and Profited From Global Warming, Must be Taxed 100, for the Harm They have Done to Earth! Such a tax could be used to produce to build safe energy (wind, solar, thorium power, etc.) to end burning of fossil fuel! Right now, the alternative technology exists to build alternatives in less than 5 years!
But to complete the solution of the problem. wes must eliminate capitalism and the profit system, the cause of the global environmental crisis. Global warming is a symptom of this crisis, Capitalism the cauce!
As global demand for energy increases and access to fossil fuels decreases, we face a crisis. Nuclear power offers ecologically sound energy, but it is costly to produce and maintain. In the wake of the tragedy at the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima Daiichi, nuclear energy seems less safe in the eyes of the public, and, as a result, some nations are veering away from nuclear energy. Liquid fluoride thorium reactors are a next-generation nuclear energy option that offer all of the benefits of traditional uranium-based nuclear energy with several key advantages.
Thorium Reactors: Solving the Global Energy Crisis
As global demand for energy increases and access to fossil fuels decreases, we face a crisis. Nuclear power offers ecologically sound energy, but it is costly to produce and maintain. In the wake of the tragedy at the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima Daiichi, nuclear energy seems less safe in the eyes of the public, and, as a result, some nations are veering away from nuclear energy. Liquid fluoride thorium reactors are a next-generation nuclear energy option that offer all of the benefits of traditional uranium-based nuclear energy with several key advantages.
Nuclear Energy in the 21st Century
One of the greatest challenges we currently face is meeting the energy demand of our global community. We have relied on fossil fuels for energy in the past, but these fuels produce greenhouse gases that are destructive to the environment, and our supply of fossil fuels is rapidly depleting. Some ecologically conscientious energy sources have been developed: we now harvest the energies of the sun, wind, and ocean. But these solutions are not efficient enough to effectively meet our energy consumption, and cannot scale energy production with changing grid demands.
The grid demands less energy late at night when most people are asleep but uses more energy in the evening when people are home from work. Windmills, however, cannot produce energy without wind, and solar panels cannot produce energy during the night. They are, consequently, only circumstantial energy sources.
Currently, nuclear power is an energy solution that is carbon neutral and can produce energy to meet grid demand. However, it is expensive and difficult to deploy with absolute safety, as the world recently saw at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors, however, offer safer nuclear technology, and promise cheap, efficient, carbon-neutral energy [1]. Thorium is a fairly sustainable source: the supply of thorium is estimated to be able to power the planet for another thousand years. The events at Fukushima illustrate the key safety advantages of a liquid fluoride thorium reactor, primarily being that it is not explosive nor can it melt down. This article looks at the technology behind LFTRs, the advantages of LFTRs over traditional nuclear reactors, and lastly what occurred at Fukushima Daiichi and why a LFTR could have prevented such a tragedy.
Capitalism’s War Against Nature and Life Itself: and Life Itself
After World War I Rosa Luxemburg Raised the Slogan Socialism or Barbarism! Today the Slogan Should be Ecosociaslism or Ecocide!
Some changes (such as droughts, wildfires, and extreme rainfall) are happening faster than scientists previously assessed. In fact, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the United Nations body established to assess the science related to climate change — modern humans have never before seen the observed changes in our global climate, and some of these changes are irreversible over the next hundreds to thousands of years…. Some changes (such as droughts, wildfires, and extreme rainfall) are happening faster than scientists previously assessed. In fact, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the United Nations body established to assess the science related to climate change — modern humans have never before seen the observed changes in our global climate, and some of these changes are irreversible over the next hundreds to thousands of years. — NASA: The Effects of Climate Change
From its’ beginings, capitalism was based on the burning of fossil fuels and the raping of earth’s natural resources
The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins, signalised the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production. These idyllic proceedings are the chief momenta of primitive accumulation. On their heels treads the commercial war of the European nations, with the globe for a theatre. It begins with the revolt of the Netherlands from Spain, assumes giant dimensions in England’s Anti-Jacobin War, and is still going on in the opium wars against China, &c. … — Marx, Capital, Chapter Thirty-One: Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist
It is a curious situation that the earth , from which life first arose should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life (Humanity— R.S) But the earth, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself. ― Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us (Paraphrase)
The Robbery of Nature: Capitalism and the Metabolic Rift: The chapter on “Machinery and Large-Scale Industry” in the first volume of Karl Marx’s Capital closes with this statement: “All progress in capitalist agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the worker, but of robbing the soil…. Capitalist production, therefore, only develops the techniques and the degree of combination of the social process of production by simultaneously undermining the original sources of all wealth—the soil and the worker.” “Robbing the worker” referred to the theory of exploitation, which entailed the expropriation of the worker’s surplus labor by the capitalist. But what did Marx mean by “robbing the soil”? Here robbery was connected to his theory of the metabolic rift arising from the expropriation of the earth. As he stated earlier in the same paragraph, “capitalist production…disturbs the metabolic interaction between man and the earth, i.e. it prevents the return to the soil of its constituent elements consumed by man in the form of food and clothing; hence it hinders the operation of the eternal natural condition for the lasting fertility of the soil.”1 I’ve spent my career navigating high-risk industries, where survival isn’t just a goal, it’s the foundation upon which everything else is built. In environments where a single misstep can mean disaster, I’ve learned that resilience, adaptability, and human ingenuity are what keep organizations, and the people within them, alive. Yet, I see a troubling pattern emerging in our society: we’ve built a system that values businesses more than the people who energize and animate them. This didn’t happen by accident. For decades, we’ve been living under the shadow of Milton Friedman’s doctrine that the only social responsibility of a corporation is to increase its profits. His 1970 essay in The New York Times solidified a mindset that transformed business from a social institution into a ruthless profit engine. It placed investor satisfaction above all else, declaring that corporations owe nothing to their employees, communities, or the broader society, only to their shareholders. This single-minded pursuit of short-term gains created the corporate landscape we see today: one where workers are disposable, wages are stagnant, and executives are rewarded for stripping companies down to their most profitable bones. — The Cost of Putting Profits Over People: A Warning for Our Collective Survival
The theat to life itself is now in the forseeable future. Capitalists were aware of this for a long time.:
Climate Change? The Oil Industry Knew!Climate Change? The Oil Industry Knew!For Over 50 Years, the Oil Industry Knew the Connection Between Burning Fossil Fuels and Climate Change.: Defense, Denial, and Disinformation: Uncovering the Oil Industry’s Early Knowledge of Climate ChangeAs early as 1959, oil industry executives understood the connection between burning fossil fuels and climate change. Soon thereafter, industry scientists confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt that the burning of fossil fuels contributed to anthropogenic climate change. In response, oil companies scrambled to promulgate climate change denial and disinformation in order to avoid government regulation. It was not until the late 1990s and early 2000s that oil companies began publicly acknowledging the scientific consensus on climate change and responded by promoting market-based solutions to mitigating emissions. Did they inform the public about the danger! As the World Warmed, they just went on producing their hazardous product! To them profits were more important than life! Their ecocidal decision is a criminal act against humanity and all life on the planet! ‘Law and Order’ capitalism protects them!
A Sane Society World Hold the Oil Companies Accountable for Their Crimes!
It is now very clear that the capitalists knew about global warming and did nothing! And continues to do nothing, as the ecocide is now in the forseeable future. It has done nothing to protect iife, as a rare but powerful combination of an immense Pacific Ocean heatwave and a “super El Niño” are set to have profound effects on US weather and marine life this autumn.
Why? Profits are More Important Than Protecting Life!
Capitalism & Climate Change: The Science and Politics of Global Warming
The climate crisis is the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. Climate change threatens not only global civilization, but the very survival of our species and many others. The first part of this book gives a lucid explanation of the science of global warming and climate change. Drawing on a wide range of scientific findings, with specific references, Professor Klein presents stark scenarios for the future. Part 1 ends by explaining that technological solutions already exist, and the only barriers to implementation are political. The second part of the book clarifies and illuminates the role of capitalism in creating and perpetuating the climate crisis and related dangers. Clear evidence and compelling arguments are presented to demonstrate the impossibility of adequately addressing the climate crisis within the framework of capitalism. The exposition is interspersed throughout with the artwork of political cartoonist, Stephanie McMillan. Her cartoons clarify and condense the main ideas, and they add counterbalance and humor to the surrounding text. The book ends with a call to action together with guidelines to begin organizing for the overthrow of capitalism. WMO Warning – The exceptional El Niño demands exceptional preparation and response. Never in its 50-year history has the World Meteorological Organization launched a comparable major mobilization with National Meteorological and Hydrological Services on the frontlines of delivering forecasts and services to save lives and livelihoods. Numerous sources warn of perilous times ahead for the world’s oceans as temperatures hit levels never seen in modern times, as well as risks of extreme weather events well into 2027. A new update from the World Meteorological Organization claims El Niño is firmly established and is expected to strengthen further, with a 100% probability that it’ll persist into 2027. Regions of the world will experience extraordinary levels of floods, droughts and/or extreme heat.According to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, “El Niño is being supersized before our eyes. The science leaves no room for doubt: the planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up. Sea surface temperatures are rising, temperatures keep climbing, and the world is in the danger zone of extreme weather. The race now is between rising risks and our commitment to take climate action and protect people. We must win that race.” — Oceans Turn Deadly Dangerous
Fueled by exceptionally warm ocean conditions across the tropical Pacific, El Niño is expected to strengthen further during the coming months to a very strong intensity before peaking towards the end of this year, with climate impacts continuing well into 2027. “El Niño is being supersized before our eyes. The science leaves no room for doubt: the planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up. Sea surface temperatures are rising, temperatures keep climbing, and the world is in the danger zone of extreme weather. The race now is between rising risks and our commitment to take climate action and protect people. We must win that race,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. —‘El Niño is being supersized before our eyes’
1% of People on Earth Emit More Carbon Than the Poorest 5 Billion Combined
BoM forecasts strongest El Niño on record as research points to ‘alarming’ climate change influence Bureau of Meteorology suggests El Niño has already broken records, with Pacific Ocean temperature change exceeding 2C in six months
The Environmental Crisis Is a Capitalist CrisisOne of humanity’s greatest challenges today is the environmental crisis, which threatens our very existence. Our latest dossier explores its class character, showing that the climate catastrophe is a product of capitalism’s relentless drive for accumulation. The environmental crisis is one of the greatest challenges we face today. At its root lie the capitalist mode of production and the logic of capital accumulation pursued by the ruling classes of the Global North and South. The devastation wrought by capitalism is plain for all to see, as climate change intensifies and accelerates year after year, threatening the very existence of humanity. As Fidel Castro warned in his speech at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, ‘An important biological species is in danger of disappearing due to the rapid and progressive liquidation of its natural living conditions: humanity’.1. Many international organisations and bodies have sought solutions to the environmental crisis, but always within the framework of capitalism. In November 2025, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) will be held in Belém, Pará, in the Amazon region of Brazil. The Amazon is home to countless generations of Indigenous peoples who, through their interaction with nature, have allowed the planet’s most biodiverse ecosystem to flourish. Today, the Amazon is the site of one of capitalism’s central contradictions: agribusiness destroys it by burning and clearing land to expand the agricultural frontier while the very same land is financialised by transnational corporations trading its territories as carbon reserves on stock exchanges. While the ruling classes insist on presenting the environmental crisis as a problem for all of humanity – without any class distinctions – we must not forget that the class contradictions inherent to capitalism are also reflected in the environmental question. In fact, those most affected by climate disasters are the urban and rural poor, who live under precarious conditions in hazard-prone areas.
Capitalism and the Environment Abstract Capitalism drove the environmental decimation of the planet. The environment was seen as a free good, while the consequences of dirty industrial and agricultural processes were seen as external to the firm. Public policies largely allowed this to happen, as politicians have a preference for short-term economic growth, job creation and higher living standards over the natural environment. However capitalism has never been monolithic. Since the nineteenth century purpose-driven entrepreneurs put in place the fundamentals of organic agriculture, renewable energy and other sustainable technologies. They offered a radical alternative to conventional capitalism. Over recent decades mainstream big business has taken up the cause of sustainability with a diffusion of corporate sustainability reports, green brands and certification programs. While the new attention to the environment is welcome, corporate sustainability can also be regarded as the commodification of environmentalism. It has confused consumers and turned sustainability into a code for greenwashing. The pioneering green entrepreneurs embodied values, often religious or philosophical, in their products and technologies, and the empty rhetoric employed by many large corporations has proved a poor substitute.
Capitalism is the Main Obstical
Science and technology are not an obstacle to maintaining a safe environment. The barrier to a safe environment is capitalism and its paramount principle of production and science for profit. Most environmental studies demonstrate that environmental destruction has become globally intertwined within our society and that the globalization of capitalism has quickened the destruction of the planet. Under the conditions of global capitalist competition, it is not economically feasible to invest the capital necessary to reverse this destruction.
In the present world, the rights of the capitalists to make a profit are in direct conflict with our basic rights. In this sense, the capitalist system has become a threat to humanity.
Jefferson’s words, from the Declaration of Independence, that human rights are unalienable, mean that these rights can never be superseded. At all points of conflict the rights of humanity to survive must supersede the right of the few to make a profit. The right to a safe environment is an unalienable human right!
Since environmental illness and destruction are a global concern, it requires all of humanity to act collectively, in our overall interests for our survival as a species, to correct the problem and to remove the obstacle of capitalism. It requires a society where humanity has social, economic, and political control over the entire environment. Such a society, a socialist society, is needed to ensure that all decisions affecting the environment are under the democratic control of humankind so that the production of goods will be done for the needs and survival of humanity instead of the production and the destruction of humanity and other species for profit.
With common ownership of the means of production, and common control and protection of all property and wealth, science and society will be in harmony with the ecosystem and humanity’s future.
With these goals we can begin to build a more effective environmental movement. As we continue to organize against capitalism and its destructive course, we can and will transform the world!