60% of wildlife wiped out - urgent action needed to save planet

Wildlife, photo Gaurav Pandit/CC (Click to enlarge)

Scott Jones

Since 1970, 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles have been wiped out due to deforestation, farming techniques and other human activity.

A report by leading scientists and the World Wildlife Fund warns that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation.

The news follows warnings that even limiting global warming to the current target of 2°C is not enough. Scientists are now insisting on the lower limit of 1.5°C - and saying we have just 12 years left to change course.

Unprecedented change is required if we want to have a planet to live on, cities and towns to live in, food to eat, water to drink and to secure the survival of wildlife and ecosystems which are vital to human life.

This change can only be achieved by socialist transformation on an international scale, through the mass action of those who most need it: the working class and young people.

Only on the basis of a socialist world - where the planet's resources are taken out of the hands of those driving climate change, the capitalists, and into collective ownership, as part of a democratic plan for green production - can we truly meet the needs of all society, and avert catastrophe.

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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

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The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

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