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Capitalism is in Hot Water
by Michael G. Livingston / November 2005 issue of Socialist
Action newspaper
As this
is being written, Hurricane Wilma has just ravaged Florida after doing a
number on Mexico and Cuba. At the same time, scientists are warning of
massive die-offs of Antarctic fish and the melting of the polar ice cap in
the Arctic.
What
do these seeming unconnected events have in common? The short answer is hot
water. The long answer is rising sea temperatures caused by global
warming. Warming ocean waters have
fueled the hurricanes, increasing both their frequency and their intensity.
The
ocean waters, in turn, have been warmed from heat trapped in the atmosphere
by human-produced greenhouse gases.
It
takes lots of energy to heat the oceans. Stored energy, in the form of
higher water temperatures, is the ultimate cause of hurricanes. While it
took the oceans longer to heat up than the atmosphere, they will also take
longer to cool off.
Once
a giant boulder starts rolling down a hill it does not stop until it gets
to the bottom. The same is true of ocean warming and hurricanes. The most
recent hurricane season is not a fluke—it is the future. In the Antarctic the waters are warming
at a rate far faster than predicted by models of global warming. The water
has already warmed over 1C, and 20 percent of the sea ice cover around the
continent has disappeared since 1979.
Two
consequences follow from the warming of the waters in the Antarctic. First,
many marine species that depend on stable, cold temperatures will die off,
followed immediately afterwards by the penguins and seals that feed on
them.
Second,
since less ice will form on the water during the winter, the water will not
be insulated and will warm at an even faster rate. This positive feedback
loop will increase the rate at which the oceans warm—melting even more ice
and creating even more hurricanes (see David Adam, “Ocean Warming Threatens
Antarctic Wildlife,” Guardian, Oct. 19, 2005).
Meanwhile,
up at the North Pole, the ice cap shrunk this past summer to its smallest
area ever recorded. At the present
rate, within 20 to 30 years, the North Pole will be free from ice during
the summers.
The
shrinking of the polar ice cap has started a capitalist feeding frenzy.
Shipping through Arctic routes would save thousands of miles over current
routes. There are three potential routes: the Northwest Passage from the
eastern U.S. to Asia, the Arctic Bridge from Norway and Russia to Canada,
and the Northern Sea Route, from Europe to East Asia across the north of
Russia.
The
melting of the cap also opens up new fisheries to commercial exploitation.
But the real prize is under the sea—oil and natural gas (see Clifford
Krauss, Steven Lee Myers, Andrew C. Revkin, and Simon Romero, “As Polar Ice
Turns to Water, Dreams of Treasure Abound,” The New York Times, Oct. 10,
2005).
As
most oil-producing countries fast approach Hubbert’s Peak, the point when
50 percent of their total oil supply is used up, the last remaining
extensive reserves are found in the Arctic. This oil and natural gas is
difficult to drill for and to transport (and hence expensive), but with shrinking
supplies and growing demand, it is a treasure no capitalist could resist.
The
problem, of course, is that with continued reliance on the internal
combustion engine, the main use of oil in the world, we produce more
greenhouse gases, and the hotter the planet gets.
Continued
reliance on the auto and its internal combustion engine is only part of the
problem. The melting of the polar ice cap creates another positive feedback
loop. Without the cap to insulate the water and reflect sunlight, the water
will get warmer faster, accelerating global warming.
A
second positive feedback loop may also come into play—methane frozen in the
permafrost could be released as the permafrost melts. Currently, permafrost
is melting like never before across northern Russia, Canada, and Alaska
(Andrew C. Revkin, “No Escape: Thaw Gains Momentum,” The New York Times,
Oct. 25, 2005).
Capitalism
has gotten us all in hot water. The expression “in hot water” comes from a
so-called test for witches. Women accused of witchcraft were placed in hot,
boiling water. Those who did not die, generally confessed—and were then put
to death by other means.
Now
capitalism is boiling the human race alive in hot water. We have nothing to
confess, but we have much to do, starting with changing the crazy economic
system of capitalism that has placed us in this hot water in the first
place.
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