Something needs to be done.
In order to pass climate change legislation, the corporate lobbies that have a stranglehold on US politics must be banned.
Capitalism and climate change are inextricably connected. To address climate change is to threaten the profits of the capitalists.
If no changes are made to address climate change capitalist profits will be secure, but vast swathes of land near the equator will become uninhabitable by the end of the century (Lecture 2). It is essential that climate change legislation is enacted as soon as possible to avoid catastrophic and irreversible damage to the global environment.
Unfortunately, energy corporations are allowed to lobby the US government and contribute financially to the campaigns of US politicians. This sort of corporate spending on politics is essentially legal bribery. In practice, this means that the interests of the American people are overridden by the interests of the corporations, and the elected officials who control legislation are all too often nothing more than puppets of the capitalist elite. Any legislation to address climate change will be shot down by politicians and lobbyists serving the interests of oil, gas, and coal corporations, as that legislation threatens their profits.
Energy companies that rely on fossil fuels (and thus oppose climate change legislation), outspend clean energy companies 13 to 1. In two years, these corporations spent well over $350 million to gain influence in US politics. (Source: Yale Climate Connections)
The solution? Banning all corporations from lobbying the government and contributing to political campaigns, effectively removing the undue influence that corporations have in American politics and opening the door for impactful climate change legislation.
Economic democracies de-incentivize environmental degradation and open the door for a more equal and just society.
When the people have the power, the health of the community and the environment are taken into consideration.
Economic democracies put the people in charge: “firms are worker-owned” and they “are less likely to be polluters, because they’re living and working in the same place” (Lecture 2). Addressing environmental degradation begins with redefining humanity’s relationship with nature. A capitalist economy attempts to dominate and subjugate the environment to extract the maximum possible profit, while an economic democracy exists in harmony with nature to provide for and protect the community at the same time. Letting the people take the reins creates an opportunity to realize a less toxic relationship with our home.
Prominent socialist politician Bernie Sanders supports an economic democracy, arguing that the true meaning of democracy encompasses not just political elections, but the economic decisions that affect the workers' lives as well. (Source: Vermont Employee Ownership Center)