A boat excavated in the middle of the sea, and a person inside, in the attempt to recover the water that is entering the boat with a cube in the hand, inevitable in the face of the dive that is observed, in a desperate attempt to keep it on the surface. This image reproduces within me when, in the face of a given problem, a solution is proposed that does not go to the core. In particular, when individual solutions to structural problems are proposed.
“Can no one look at the hole?” It is an image that I have often reproduced in the context of the ecological crisis. Because, in the face of the dismass caused by the capitalist model of production and consumption, there is also a tendency to focus on individuals, to bring them a series of demands: responsible consumption, recycling… Of course, we are also advised to shower in the company. At the same time, the questioning of the capitalist model and the representation of living horizons is not such a usual trend. And I don't get it wrong, with this I'm not saying that fixing certain customs and fighting for the root of the collapse that has come is incompatible, that you have to choose one path or another. But how to say it: sharing the car won't save us from falling into a vacuum if we don't take strategies and alternatives to overcome capitalism. If we limit ourselves to individual changes, we would be doomed to dream.
“Environmentalism without class struggles is gardening.” We must remember the words of Chico Mendes, a Brazilian militant. Because although the ecological crisis is the responsibility of all, it is not the responsibility of all, at least in part, to have reached this situation. According to the World Nature Fund (WFF), in western countries the ecological footprint per inhabitant is significantly higher than in the countries of the South, and in each country, according to social class, they do not pollute in the same way. According to the study conducted by Oxfam-Intermon, the richest 1% of the population is responsible for 15% of carbon emissions, and 50% of the population pollutes twice the poorest. If this privileged minority also made eco-friendly, competitive efforts… But private jet companies are deprived of something, they are not designed to be shared. Think.
And so we are. While we are buying bulk food to stop the road to the total catastrophe, Lufthansa can make thousands of flights without passengers in order not to lose its flight hours, for example. That, above all, capital trafficking and the accumulation of minority profits should not be interrupted. If something changes, then it will be because the ecological issue goes hand in hand with the anti-capitalist struggle. For the rest, we will continue to methodically separate organic from rejection, paper from plastic, but the logic of capitalism is so capricious that at any time it can undermine all efforts. For example, imperialist interests attacking gas pipes of 1,200 kilometers in length and emitting thousands of tons of methane into the atmosphere, as it did EE.UU. I do not know if you, but I find it quite expensive when I re-recycle when the Baltic Sea looks like a methane Jacuzzi.