Capitalists fiddle around while the world burns

Scan page 1

VOL. 35, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2017 WWW.SOCIALISTACTION.ORG U.S. $1 / CANADA $2 At the time of this writing, Hurricane Nate has just plowed through the eastern United States, the 14th named storm of what is on track to be the most costly Atlantic hurricane season on record. Wildfires have scorched millions of acres across the western U.S. and Canada, darkening the skies with smoke from the Pacific Coast to as far east as upstate New York. This year’s monsoon season has seen unprecedented flooding in Asia, killing more than 1200 people and displacing over 40 million from their homes.

Are these disasters natural, or do they point to the threats posed by late capitalism to society and to the very Earth itself?

If one refuses to accept such disasters as random “acts of God” and admits that such disasters are growing more frequent and severe and impacting more people, then it is important to understand the dynamics at work and how socialists should respond. These disasters are united by at least two trends: the heating of the atmosphere by greenhouse gases from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels, and the failure of the capitalist state to adequately plan for foreseeable disasters or address human needs in their aftermath.

The existence of human-caused climate change is now beyond dispute even by some of the most ardent backers of oil, gas, and coal extraction. The Trump ad­ ministration’s muzzling of the EPA and other federal agencies cannot change the facts—the world is on track for the worst-case climate scenario envisioned by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, one that would warm the planet 4-8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

Even the two-degree rise targeted by the toothless Paris Climate Accord would spell displacement for millions in low-lying coastal areas. At six degrees, cli­ mate models tell us, large areas of the planet would become uninhabitable due to roasting temperatures alone, never mind storms, fires, diseases, famine, or sea-level rise.

The physics behind global warming’s impact on extreme weather is straightforward. A warmer at­ mosphere can hold more water vapor, which causes more evaporation. Warmer oceans contribute to that evaporation. Greater evaporation rates dry out the land faster, contributing to droughts if the dominant (Above) Raging wildfires in northern California have caused many casualties. Five years of drought in the western U.S., fed by climate change, has primed the area for fires.

weather patterns move moisture elsewhere.

The water vapor in the atmosphere holds energy; when it condenses into liquid water, it releases that energy, causing storms. The more water vapor con­ denses, the more energy there is, and the stronger the storms. The result is a cycle of drought and del­ uge. Some areas experience more frequent and ex­ treme droughts than historically, while others get more frequent and extreme deluge.

Drought in the West; flooding in the East In the U.S. West, drought is being called the “new normal” by scientists. After five years of intense drought, the snowpack of the Sierra Nevada last win­ ter was one of the biggest on record—causing flood­ ing as it melted. But farther north, drought lingered and intensified, causing one of the most active fire seasons on record. Overall, the Western fire season (continued on page 8, in “On Day One of the Revolution, the Soviets decreed the right of Russia’s conquered peoples to”)

Scan page 2

Brett Carlsen / Getty Images

----- pull-quotes -----

INSIDE SOCIALIST

NFL protests — 2 North Korea — 5 Is Trump a ‘moron?’ — 3 Russian Revolution — 6 Rohingya in Myanmar — 4 Fighting fascism — 9 THE RUSSIAN See centerfold.

Canada news — 10 Labor Briefing — 11 Puerto Rico — 12