This summer’s heatwave, which brought temperatures of over 40 degrees to Central Europe, is not only unpleasant, but a health hazard and a environmental disaster. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the heatwaves of the last 4 years have led to about 200 000 excess deaths in Europe, while many more have suffered mentally and physically*.
Please remind your colleagues and your boss that working time is limited to 50 minutes per hour if your workplace is over 28 degrees and limited to 45 minutes per hour if the workplace is above 33 degrees hot. If you feel like getting overheated seek a cooler place and make sure to drink enough water. Heat-stroke is no joke and there is no need to end up in hospital for the company’s profits!
At the same time the heatwaves led to forrests drying out more quickly. Last year’s wildfire season was the worst on record in Europe and as climate change intensifies we can expect these to become worse over time. The cuts in funding to firefighting services and the staffing only with short-term contracts, for example in Greece, are in direct contradiction to the increased need for an effective firefighting force.
Climate change and its main driver greenhouse gas emissions, can only be explained by the dynamics of the capitalist mode of production. When the ready availability of fossil fuels met the newly developed industrial technology coupled with the everexpanding nature of capitalist production, an explosive cocktail was formed that has sent greenhouse gas emissions on a skyrocketing trajectory. The current dependence on oil, painfully obvious when refueling, following the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, means that any economic expansion also leads to an increase in fossil fuel consumption.
The drive by the EU to increase renewable energy production is not to improve the living conditions and hem in climate change, but rather in order to secure ”strategic autonomy”, e.g. to better facilitate its strategic imperialist interests. The expansion of renewable energy goes hand in hand with expanded consumption, for example by new datacenters, which are built purely to satisfy the needs of the ”AI-bubble”.
A steady expansion of productive capacity, which is in line with planetary boundaries and mostly consuming green energy, is only possible under socialism. Furthermore there is no place under socialism for the production of low-quality goods, weapons, the ”planned obsolescence” and the general stagnation in technological advancement through the monopolization of knowledge (patents, medications, vaccines). Only under socialism can humanity live in harmony with nature and production serve the needs of the majority.