We could have a world not tied to oil http://www.lrna.org/league/PT/PT.2005.6/PT.2005.6.6.html
This column is a place for revolutionaries to debate why a cooperative society is a practical solution to the problems people are fighting out. We welcome your thoughts about the articles we are running and we welcome your articles. Future articles will be on jobs and a new society; culture and a new society; and more. You can view all articles at http://www.lrna.org/speakers/vision.html. E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] or write: People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 By Sandra Reid Millions of people are realizing that war today is in large part about oil. The world economy is fueled by oil. Oil affects every aspect of our lives‹from fertilizers upon which world agriculture rests, to transportation, warfare, plastics, chemicals, and other building blocks of industrial society. However, it is becoming clear that fossil fuels are affecting the air that we breathe, dirtying our water, spewing toxins everywhere, and contributing to global warming, which is setting conditions for a collapse of the environment. Equally frightening is the reality that a major war today will likely be nuclear, threatening the future of humanity. Although oil is plentiful ("shortages" are artificially created to keep the price high*), there are many forms of safe, life-sustaining, renewable energy sources that could be used. The earth itself is energy. Why can't we get away from oil? The capitalists can't and won't stop investing in oil. They have billions invested in an oil-based global infrastructure from with they derive huge profits. Exxon, for example, garnered a 44 percent increase or almost $8 billion in first quarter profits. There are projections that the price of a barrel of oil could shoot up to $100. Imagine the profits. If you were a capitalist, could you stop investing in oil? The capitalists cannot turn away from oil. Nor will they develop renewable energy on the scale that is urgently needed to save the earth. Oil companies are actually preparing for an increase in oil production globally. Billions more in taxpayers' money will be spent for regional security (i.e. military control) to protect those investments. The nature of capitalism demands it. Capitalism is based on private property of the few at the expense of humanity. The only way to stop the cycle of destruction is to break away from capitalism and create a totally new society based on public ownership of not only energy, but of every industry that produces the means of life. If the people gain control of the tools for producing the things we need, and run them in the interests of humanity, plentiful sources of life-sustaining energy could be unleashed. Totally new cities that nurture human relations could be built around free, clean energy. In such a society, everyone would have heat in the winter, air-conditioning in the summer, clean water, safe parks for their kids, etc. The smog-filled mega-cities organized around the gas-guzzling automobile, the pollution-spewing industrial plants, pipelines and refineries, toxic waste dumps‹ and poverty‹would be relics of the past. New transportation systems could transport people from small communities centered around people's needs to anywhere in the country or world. Anything is possible if the material conditions allow for it. Today, the advances in science and technology make a new cooperative world possible and necessary. Michio Kaku, author of the book, "Visions," discusses the astonishing advances of science and the possibilities of mastering all forms of energy on the planet (eventually harnessing stellar power.) His book confirms that energy is everywhere‹there are no shortages‹and that new technology can harness it in the interests of humanity. He says future societies could "modify the weather, mine the oceans, or extract energy from the center of their planet." He warns, however, that "harnessing and managing resources on this gigantic scale requires a sophisticated degree of cooperation." He says, "this means [such societies must] have attained a truly planetary civilization, one that has put to rest most of the factional religious, sectarian, and nationalistic struggles." A cooperative society can be achieved, a society where people have what they need simply because they are human beings. That someone should have the right to own public resources and profit from their sale would be considered immoral. The question is how do we get there? An organization of revolutionaries is needed that can take the message to the people that we must take over the society, save humanity, and sweep capitalism off of the face of the earth in favor of something new. The notion of so-called oil shortages and depletions is used by the U.S. capitalists to justify high oil prices and war. According to an article entitled, "The Bottomless Beer Mug," in the Economist, the recoverable resource base of oil has "consistently grown over the past few decades, even though the world has been guzzling oil." Peter Odell, of Rotterdam's Erasmus University, says, "One can argue for a world which has been running into oil rather than out of it." Morris Adelman of MIT argues that the "amount of oil available over the next 25-50 years is for all intents and purposes infinite." Two-thirds of the oil known to exist in reservoirs is still abandoned as uneconomic, and vast quantities lie under water. Previous forecasts did not have the benefit of the new technology. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
