The Belem Ecosocialist Declaration: An historic document

http://climateandcapitalism.com/2018/07/22/the-belem-ecosocialist-declaration-an-historic-document/
Date Written:  2018-07-22
Publisher:  Climate and Capitalism
Year Published:  2018
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX22785

In 2008 more than 400 activists from 37 countries endorsed this statement of ecosocialist principles and goals. Today the Belem Ecosocialist Declaration remains an important consensus statement of ecosocialist principles and goals.

Abstract: 
--

Excerpt:

Capitalism's need for growth exists on every level, from the individual enterprise to the system as a whole. The insatiable hunger of corporations is facilitated by imperialist expansion in search of ever greater access to natural resources, cheap labor and new markets. Capitalism has always been ecologically destructive, but in our lifetimes these assaults on the earth have accelerated. Quantitative change is giving way to qualitative transformation, bringing the world to a tipping point, to the edge of disaster. A growing body of scientific research has identified many ways in which small temperature increases could trigger irreversible, runaway effects - such as rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet or the release of methane buried in permafrost and beneath the ocean - that would make catastrophic climate change inevitable.

Left unchecked, global warming will have devastating effects on human, animal and plant life. Crop yields will drop drastically, leading to famine on a broad scale. Hundreds of millions of people will be displaced by droughts in some areas and by rising ocean levels in others. Chaotic, unpredictable weather will become the norm. Air, water and soil will be poisoned. Epidemics of malaria, cholera and even deadlier diseases will hit the poorest and most vulnerable members of every society.