To save the planet, we have to kill capitalism

We’ve missed the chance to introduce steady change to save our society and our planet. Had we listened and acted in the late 80s, early 90s then maybe this would have been possible. But due to wanton inaction from political leaders, the society we live in 10 years from now will have to be entirely alien from the one we live in now.

We often criticise the climate deniers and right-wing commentators for misquoting the science, for being steeped in the money of the oil industry and for preaching outright lies. But one thing they are spot on with is the scale of change we in the environmental movement are calling for. This is why they are so passionately fighting against us.  Because if we win, the world they know and thrive in must die. Winning the modern environmental argument isn’t just a victory for a sustainable planet, but also the first death knell for conservativism as an ideology.

If we can show the world that radical ecology works, then it reveals that the conservative thinkers, politicians and commentators have been lying to us all for decades. There will be no space for them in the new society we have created, and they will be politically inconsequential. Not even the most rabid right-wing climate change sceptic is going to argue for more coal burning in a 100% renewable energy society. So that’s what they are so scared of, being insignificant. They lose the climate argument, which as a consequence will mean they lose the economic argument. And if the conservatives of the world can’t even win on a fiscal front, then their ideology comes tumbling down.

One thing the environmental movement misses often, is that the people denying the science aren’t doing it because they think they know better. They’re doing it as a fight or flight response. But they are not the people who are our main opponents to radical system change, they’re a fringe movement. What we need to defeat is Green centrism. This belief that we can still gently introduce reforms, and everything will be alright. The conservatives 2050 Carbon Neutral target being a classic example. This is their way to say “But look! We’re doing things to fix it”. While really allowing time for their corporate buddies to make as much money as possible off of Greenwashing.

It is this ideology that we need to defeat, there is no more time for subtle, drip feed reform. We in Europe’s Green Parties have been using the term “Green Wave” to highlight our electoral success’, well now we need a Green Tsunami to flood our political landscape. We will either drown in it or rise above it, but we have to let it happen. Radical agriculture reform, Zero Carbon by 2030, free public transport, banning fossil fuel cars, ending the oil company lobbying plaguing our political system, scrapping trident. We have to do it all. So let’s move past the soft touch approach that we can no longer afford to propagate, embrace radical system change and don’t be ashamed of it. The symptoms of our dying world are capitalist originated, and this is not a problem more capitalism will solve. It is an ideology in its death throes which means it is more dangerous than ever, a radical eco-socialist agenda can, and must finish it off.