In a recent interview, David Suzuki, an icon of the environmentalist movement, made comments that summed up everything wrong with liberal environmentalism.
Suzuki states that “Mark Carney is the most well-informed prime minister on climate change that we’ve had.” He continues: “I talked to Carney when he was head of the Bank of England and it’s very clear he understands the threat we face with climate change and the need to act immediately.”
This is bizarre as he is talking about someone whose first act as Prime Minister was to scrap the carbon tax and whose first bill passed in parliament allowed the government to ignore environmental regulation.
When asked about Carney scrapping the carbon tax, Suzuki said: “Well, he had to do that.”
Similarly, Suzuki states that:
“We all celebrated when Justin Trudeau came in after Stephen Harper. Trudeau went to Paris and signed the agreement to limit the rise of global temperatures, but then he bought a pipeline two and a half years later.”
So Suzuki supports Liberals even though he is very well aware that they betray the cause of the environment. How does he justify this contradictory position?
Is the problem capitalism or humanity?
Because Suzuki cannot see beyond capitalism, he is inevitably forced to accept that capitalism forces certain realities onto politics. Therefore he ends up rejecting politics altogether stating that: “The problem is it’s all about politics, and politics is so disconnected from the real world.”
While he criticizes capitalism, he limits his criticisms to “unbridled capitalism” and “neoliberalism” as if he dreams – like any liberal politician – of a form of capitalism that has had its rough edges sanded down to make it more acceptable.
The only issue is that this type of regulated capitalism is no longer possible in any meaningful way. The system has entered crisis and the bourgeoisie are jettising anything that stands in their way of making profit.
At some level Suzuki understands this which is why he says that Carney had to cut the carbon tax.
But because Suzuki accepts the logic of the capitalist system, he therefore ends up explaining that the problem is… humans! He says “the focus on politics, economics, and law are all destined to fail because they are based around humans.”
So Suzuki sees not the failure of the capitalist system, but the failure of humanity!
Revolutionary optimism vs liberal depression
This all leads Suzuki to extremely pessimistic conclusions stating “it is too late.” In relation to Trump ripping up environmental protections, he offers the depressing: “There’s nothing we can do about that, except maybe incremental changes.”
While Suzuki recognizes that “We need revolution,” this is only a passing thought that he brushes aside with a comment about not being sure whether or not we can have a “peaceful revolution.”
So left up with no other alternatives, Suzuki has given up on trying to fight climate change and instead argues to “hunker down.” He argues for local communities to come together and prepare themselves for climate catastrophe.
But there is no reason for us to adopt the depressed perspective of Suzuki. The fact that Liberal politicians are betraying the cause of the environment is not because of some innate failure of humanity but because of the failure of the capitalist system.
Along with the crisis of capitalism there is another force rising – one much more numerous and combative than a small layer of depressed liberals. The working class is being ground down under the gears of capitalist exploitation and is radicalizing at levels not seen since the 1960s or 1930s. This force is rising and is looking for a way out of this nightmare. This gives us immense hope in the future of humanity and in our ability to solve the climate crisis.
For communists we meet the crisis of capitalism not with “incremental changes” and local mutual aid societies preparing for a dystopian nightmare. We boldly and with great optimism, hold up the banner of communism.
