{"id":8584,"date":"2019-09-23T13:25:50","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T05:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/?p=8584"},"modified":"2020-11-24T10:30:01","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T02:30:01","slug":"part-2-why-the-climate-strike-is-a-social-justice-issue-and-why-it-should-strike-at-the-core-of-growing-fascism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/part-2-why-the-climate-strike-is-a-social-justice-issue-and-why-it-should-strike-at-the-core-of-growing-fascism\/","title":{"rendered":"Part 2: Why the climate strike is a social justice issue (and why it should strike at the core of growing fascism)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last of a two-part series<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the social\nscience<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climate change we are experiencing is not natural. It is\noverwhelmingly anthropogenic \u2013 according to the National Aeronautics and Space\nAdministration (NASA), it is extremely likely (with more than 95% probability)\nto be the result of human activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change today is not the result of current-day emissions of\ngreenhouse gases (GHG) but of cumulative emissions that have been built up\nhistorically since the rise of modern capitalism. At the heart of the\nclimate crisis is the capitalist crisis, which is inherent, recurrent, and\nworsening. The Earth\u2019s natural processes can no longer cope with capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, to be precise, it is the profit-driven activities of\ntransnational corporations (TNCs) that are causing the largest emissions of\nGHG. These are mainly from: the production and use of fossil fuels consisting\nmostly of coal and petroleum products; agribusiness monoculture and the use of\nsynthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides; and deforestation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By country, the US is the number one polluter, directly accounting\nfor one-fourth of the GHG emissions. High carbon concentrations in the\natmosphere are also recorded in countries where TNCs of the US, Japan and Europe operate. These include\nunderdeveloped countries whose economies have been transformed by TNCs to feed the energy demand and consumption\nneeds of the industrialized countries. Transition economies and revisionist\nstates such as China and Russia have also ridden the tide of global capitalism\nand have contributed to the carbon build-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNCs are at the core of the climate issue. They account for\nhalf of all oil, gas and coal extraction and refining, with only about 10 TNCs\ncontrolling the bulk of oil and gas production. TNCs control 80% of land\nworldwide, which is cultivated for cash crops. Only about seven TNCs control\nglobal corporate agriculture; only 20 TNCs account for 90% of the sales of\nhazardous agrochemicals. TNCs also monopolize extractive industries such as\nmining, energy extraction and dams building, which have irreversible effects on\nthe environment and have rendered people more vulnerable to climate hazards.\nNot surprisingly, TNCs are the number one lobbyists against reductions in\ncarbon emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the injustice<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The injustice is undeniable. The advanced capitalist\ncountries and their TNCs are historically responsible for the qualitative leap\nin the climate crisis. Yet, it\nis the poor underdeveloped countries such as the Philippines that bear about\n80% of the cost of damages caused by climate change. Through colonization and neocolonial\nintervention, the advanced\ncapitalist countries have plundered the ecosystems of the underdeveloped\ncountries and impoverished the majority of their populations. Now, such underdevelopment limits\npoor countries to adapt to climate change and its hazards. Yet, rich countries\ncontinue to deny climate reparations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nimposition of neoliberal policies on countries such as the Philippines in the\nlast four decades has aggravated the socioeconomic and ecological\ncrises. Yet, foreign governments and neoliberal institutions continue to\npropose even harsher neoliberal policies purportedly to allow the poor\ncountries to manage and reduce disaster risks. They encourage the poor\ncountries to be \u2018resilient\u2019 \u2013 a much-abused term especially for countries such\nas the Philippines, which is chronically in crisis. It becomes really confusing\nwhat shape the neoliberalists want the poor countries to spring back into. Yet,\nour governments embrace neoliberalism as the solution just the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take the case of Typhoon Yolanda. Four decades of\nprivatizing public utilities, including transport, and social services hampered\nthe government\u2019s response. It should not have been difficult for the Philippine\ngovernment to transport the victims from Eastern Visayas to safer places. But\nthe government had to rely on private airlines, private shipping lines, foreign\nmilitaries and foreign donors to evacuate the people. The government even had\nto rely on the private sector for the simple provision of drinking water to the\ndevastated communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Philippine government came up with a so-called\nrehabilitation plan (quite quickly, as it has always been lying there as the\ncountry\u2019s \u2018development plan\u2019), it carried the same neoliberal policies. It is a\nprivate-sector-led, infrastructure-centered rehabilitation plan, even placing\nthe important aspects of disaster response under private provisioning. The plan\nhas been easily transformed as the grand infrastructure program, Build, Build, Build<\/em>, by the Duterte\nadministration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are running out of time. Yet, global climate negotiations\nare far from reaching real solutions. The Kyoto Protocol in 1997 only\nintroduced market-based mechanisms to reduce global GHG emissions to a level\nthat scientists and activists deemed as \u201ctoo meager, too late\u201d. The Kyoto\nProtocol even made commitments that could be traded like commodities in the\nglobal market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Paris Agreement in 2015 indeed committed to keep global\nwarming well below 2\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to\nlimit the temperature rise even further to 1.5\u00b0C. But it made the responsibilities of advanced capitalist\ncountries and the underdeveloped countries one and the same, contrary to the\nprinciple of common but differentiated responsibilities. The agreement\nbasically throws away any historical responsibility of the capitalist system.\nMoreover, countries were allowed to choose their \u2018intended nationally\ndetermined contributions\u2019 (INDC), which are not legally binding. When the INDC\nsubmissions were analyzed, assuming that these were fully implemented, the\nminimum temperature increase would still be 2.4\u00b0C. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why we\nshould fight back<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the 2015 Paris Agreement being watered-down and\nperpetuating the injustice, which is what the US wants, the US still withdrew from\nit. The US has conveniently avoided reducing its carbon emissions altogether\nand contributing to the climate fund presumably meant for the victims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not the first time that the US walked out of a global\nclimate agreement. It refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol 22 years ago, and now\nit appears to be not agreeing to any global policy that would slow down its\neconomy. Not now, not ever. The Trump administration is seeking a renegotiation\nof the climate deal that would incorporate its America First policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nAcross the globe, to manage the capitalist crisis, governments have seemingly\nembarked not only on the intensification of human rights violations by\nneoliberalism but on a political response that is a categorical rejection of\nso-called democracy. Images in the recent months of forest fires in the Amazon\nin Brazil and in Sumatra and Borneo in Indonesia have brought to the world\u2019s\nattention the fascistic policies of governments to prioritize agribusiness,\nmining, and corporate plantations that encourage deforestation and displacement\nof indigenous communities. These policies are blatant \u2013 as Brazil\u2019s president\nJair Bolsonaro has made clear that protecting the environment is not a priority\nof his government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the world, climate activists have been vilified,\nharassed, red-tagged and killed like never before for taking a stand and\ndefending the Earth. The international watchdog, Global Witness, reports for\n2018 that the Philippines by far is the most dangerous place for land and\nenvironmental activists including climate disaster responders. The watchdog\nadds that countless others were silenced through violence, intimidation and\n\u201cthe use and misuse of anti-protest laws\u201d across the world. Here in the\nPhilippines, trumped-up non-bailable charges are being slapped on land and\nenvironmental activists, while the Duterte administration continues the\nneoliberal policies that erode the country\u2019s chances for sustainable\ndevelopment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climate strike is a fight-back strike, it can\u2019t be any\nother. It is also a \u201cdemand ecological payback\u201d strike. It should reject\nmarket-based, profit-driven, false solutions, as well as governments\u2019\nauthoritarian posturing that puts at stake the planet and the people. It should\nwork for the reversal from neoliberal policies and the installation of\nstrong-willed governments that shall prioritize the transformation of economies\naway from fossil fuels dependence. It is a social justice issue as it is based\non people\u2019s assertion of their right to determine our common future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Read the first part of this series)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo from Bulatlat<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY ROSARIO GUZMAN<\/p>\n

The climate strike is a fight-back strike, it can\u2019t be any other. It is a social justice issue as it is based on people\u2019s assertion of their right to determine our common future. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":8585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-withbanner.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[2048,3],"tags":[1834,1902,176,2072,347,2073,96,1463,116,223,2047],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8584"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8584"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9276,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8584\/revisions\/9276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}