WITH the continuing onslaught of ecological disasters which are becoming more frequent and more violent, the message is very clear: humanity is now experiencing climate crisis and if not averted, will cause the end of civilization.
The melting of the 386-meter high iceberg in the Arctic and Antarctic which is estimated at 1,000 hectares daily, the acidification of the oceans not to mention the rising of the ocean level, the daily extinction of species – all of these are manifestations that mankind is facing its 5th extinction or the end of life of earth.
This horrible truism should now mobilize humanity to take countervailing measures, to shift to renewable energy, to debunk the use of coal and fossil fuel, to lower drastically greenhouse emissions. The time has come to create a robust movement to effect the much needed paradigm shift.
But the science of denial continues without let-up. In fact, denigration of collective action and veneration of the profit motive have infiltrated virtually every government on the planet, every major media organization (as these are controlled by Trans-National Corporations), every university, our very souls.
As that American Geophysical Union survey indicated, somewhere inside each of us dwells a belief in their central lie – that we are nothing but selfish, greedy, self-gratification machines. And if we are that, then what hope do we have of taking on the grand, often difficult, collective work that will be required to save ourselves in time?
As mentioned by Naomi Klein in her very popular book on climate change, Capitalism Versus The Climate, “forget everything you think about global warming. The really inconvenient truth is that it’s not about carbon – it’s about capitalism.” It is in fact trade that trumps the climate and never will the climate crisis moderate the greed of these global corporations that are sacrificing the people and mother earth to the altar of greed and profit.
Indeed, they will never stop their tremendous rakings. Don’t you know that in one year alone, the 19 fossil fuel corporations are profiting some five (5) trillion dollars a year and some two (2) trillion dollars a year by using coal. This means, having an income of ten (10) billion dollars every minute. No way can they moderate their greed.
Of course, these non-stop rakings are already used to finance candidates during elections to protect their interest. By the way, have you heard any candidate mentioning the climate crisis or violent extremism? They have become but self-gratification machines, so much enamored in self-promotion, superficial appearances and trivialities. Gumising na po tayo (Let’s wake up)!!!
We must now create a robust movement to stand up for God’s vanishing creation as protecting God’s creation is now the highest form of worship.
As Pope Francis has said in Laudatu Si’ “climate change is a crime against God, against humanity.”
The only hope is for the cooperatives to now seize the moment to be true to the cooperatives’ DNA which is members-owned, value-based and sustainable. The cooperative movement in the Philippines with some 11 million members can be a part of that robust movement. Unless we now stand up to God’s call, the end will certainly come.
Yes, capitalism is the cause of the climate crisis. But what is the root of capitalism? Let me guess.
In the ancient times, the earth was seen as a mother, a fertile giver of life. Nature – the soil, forest, sea – was endowed with divinity, and mortals were subordinate to it. The Judeo-Christian tradition introduced a radically different concept. The earth was the creation of a monotheistic God, who after shaping it, ordered its inhabitants, in the words of Genesis, “Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and every living thing that moved upon the earth.” The idea of dominion could be interpreted as an invitation to use nature as a convenience – that’s the birth of capitalism.