Our nation is being poisoned with the ultimate threat of extinction by pollution and destruction of our environment, the main factor in which is the plunder of our natural resources.
There is a widespread tendency to blame this dangerous situation on science and technology. However, the real source of the problem can be found elsewhere. It lies in the very nature of the profit oriented capitalist system under which we are forced to live.
The U.S. military has the largest carbon footprint of any single organization on the planet, and higher than that of over 140 countries. In addition to the U.S. military’s extreme greenhouse gas emissions, it has an ongoing track record of supplying foreign regimes with cluster bombs and depleted uranium. This depleted uranium can make areas where they are dropped hazardous for decades. The budget of the U.S.
military could be reduced by 70% and the U.S. would still be spending more on its military than any other country.
The main impulse of our social system is the quest for profit. The result is unplanned, anarchic production, which allows the pollution and indiscriminate plunder of our natural resources. The ones responsible are the monopolies, the corporations, who have made enormous profits while they pollute and destroy our environment. It is estimated that hundreds of billions of dollars will be needed just to remedy the pollution and destruction wrought by the monopolies and their predecessors.
The major victims are the working people, who suffer from the effects of pollution every minute of their lives.
The irony of the situation is that the only remedies now being proposed by the corporations will bring additional profits to the corporations. Working people, however, always seem to foot the bill for the new technology.
Ultimately, the only solution, of course, is the creation of a planned economy in which the quest for profits has been denigrated and the results of science and technology are prioritized for the benefit of the people.
Party of Communists USA League of Young Communists USA
Environmental Commission
League of Young Communists USA Environmental Commission Political Bureau of the Central Committee
