Dozens of young people lived in the Hambach forest to protect it. Photo: WDR
"We can
either change the values of our civilization, or let the Earth go on without us." – Claude Lévi-Strauss
It has been proven yet
again: fighting is the way forward, and in the Hambach forest in Germany,
mobilization has paid off.
The total destruction of a thousand-year-old forest has
been stopped, at least temporarily.
This has been possible thanks to the
tenacity of a group of young people who have resisted the attack of one of the
great German transnational corporations: the Rheinisch-Westfälisches
Elektrizitätswerk AG (RWE) which, again and again, has used violence to devour
the forest.
These young people should be
praised for resisting even though they knew that only 10% of the forest is
still standing… perhaps other groups would have lowered their guard. This, however,
did not happen.
The consequences of their
success are more significant than what they appear at first glance. Even if the
perverseness of the forces of destruction prevails, a new debate is already going
on in Germany about Energiewende (energy transformation).
This interesting initiative
from below, co-opted by the State when its results began to affect the
monopolistic German business structures, has in fact become trapped in
government regulations tailored to fit the interests of the big energy
suppliers, with RWE at the forefront.
In its latest report, the International Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations (IPCC) is categorical: urgent "quick changes" are needed, leading to an "unprecedented" and "far-reaching" transformation in electricity, agriculture, cities, transport and industry.
But there is much more to it
than that. It is not just a question of replacing lignite coal, which accounts
for 25% of the electricity production in Germany and causes 50% of the
greenhouse gas; radical and disruptive measures must be taken urgently.
In its latest report, the International Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations (IPCC) is
categorical: urgent "quick changes" are needed, leading to an
"unprecedented" and "far-reaching" transformation in
electricity, agriculture, cities, transport and industry.
If we are to meet the goal of
1.5 degrees Celsius maximum incremental warming, emissions of carbon dioxide
(CO2) – by 2030 the main greenhouse gas – must decrease by 45% as compared to
their 2010 level.
In 2050, these emissions – coming mainly from fossil fuels,
such as lignite – should stop altogether: which is, as El País understates, “something really
complicated”.
No more patching up like the
much-touted and sterile achievements of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which were
not improved by the climate change summit held at the end of last year in Bonn,
Germany, as we denounced in
due course.
There is no room for doubting, we must overcome this current, essentially
anthropocentric and androcentric capitalist civilization.
The maelstrom of economic
growth must stop; de-growth should be compulsory, especially in the global
North. In a finite world, there is no room for permanent economic growth.
To
keep on following the current path would lead us to a world increasingly
unsustainable in environmental terms and increasingly explosive in social terms.
Protecting nature (Mother
Earth) including humanity implies, under no circumstances, sustaining the existing
social inequalities which allow affluent social groups in the North and South
to maintain their privileged, unsustainable way of life.
Nor can we hope that technological
solutions or the commodification of nature, the so-called green economy, will
provide us with growth options safely. The answer is always political.
Even de-growth
and post-extractivism, which do offer ways out of the capitalist labyrinth, require political decisions
driven by political preferences.
It has been established that economic growth, generated
by capital greed, which accumulates through production and speculation, is
built upon growing inequality.
It has been noted that social inequality, characteristic
of capitalism as a civilization of inequality, is a global phenomenon and exists
even in "successful" economies, where frustration and unhappiness are
incessantly increasing. In short: economic growth, the engine of capital
accumulation, causes increasing environmental damage.
The Commons is the only means
by which we can bring down capital. The great transformation which humanity demands
will be undertaken by societies founded on equality, which is what makes a
global ecological and social balance possible.
This is not something that will
be resolved overnight, of course. We need to create multiple transitions from a
thousand different alternative practices, many of them non-capitalist, which
already exist around the world, oriented by utopian horizons advocating life in
harmony between human beings and between themselves and nature.
It is a matter of carrying out a patient and
determined (re)construction, which starts by the dismantling of several
fetishes, such as economic growth and extractivism, and fostering radical
changes based on existing experiences.
If in Germany the expansion of this large lignite mine in the Hambach forest has definitely stopped, prioritizing life over capital, and as a concrete signal of the willingness to be doing something effective to face climate change, a very powerful message would be projected onto the world.
We need to set up and link national
and international networks in order to strengthen the resistance and the alternative
paths underway. There are many common minimums and different paths and
temporalities for each process in the world.
And if we pay due attention, we
will hear "the light breath of the future" as Ulrich Grober suggests in a book with the same title,
after a fascinating walk through the reality of Germany in search of
sustainable values and that kind of positive energy that social breakthroughs
in the making foreshadow.
If in Germany the expansion of
this large lignite mine in the Hambach forest has definitely stopped,
prioritizing life over capital, and as a concrete signal of the willingness to be
doing something effective to face climate change, a very powerful message would
be projected onto the world: it would encourage all actions aimed at making
post-extractivism possible.
We need unprecedented ruptures, like those proposed
by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (not precisely an ecologist
platform), which is asking to keep two thirds of all known fossil fuel, oil,
gas, coal, reserves in the subsoil, if we are to avoid the temperature of the
Earth growing by more than two degrees Celsius.
And even if we were to assume
the challenge, the chances of success would only be 50%.
Therefore, the proposal to
leave the lignite in the subsoil of the Hambacher Forst ties in with another proposal
which stands as a world reference: the Yasuní-ITT Initiative for keeping the oil underground
in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Despite some setbacks, this initiative continues to
be a great example of global action. Now, the success in Germany – and the
continuing action by the young Yasunidos
– and the change in the repressive conditions in Ecuador make it is possible to
dream again of leaving the oil in the Amazon subsoil, despite the fact that the
exploitation of oil in that region, considered a true "Noah's Ark" but
to its intrinsic wealth, is already underway.
This is the challenge: creating
proposals from below, especially from the communities, and always from the Pacha Mama, affirming the reproduction
not of capital or power, but of life. The task is enormous.
Young people of the world, unite!
This article was previously
published by lalineadefuego and can be read here