Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Tomorrow's action will be the biggest protest against environmental destruction in history. Millions of school students around the world will go on strike. They will not be alone. Workers and trade unions will take action too. In Dublin, those who can will gather at 12 noon at the Custom House. This movement is essential. It will have to grow even further after tomorrow. It will have to bring even more onto the streets and involve mass civil disobedience, like Extinction Rebellion's plan for Rebellion Week 2 in October. Most importantly, it will have to involve global strike action by workers to hit the capitalist class in its profits. This is essential because we are in a fight for survival. The consequences of the environmental destruction that is happening are not in the dim and distant future; they are happening right now. We are in the midst of the sixth great extinction event. The species extinction rate has increased a thousand times against background rates typical throughout our planet's history. In a world that is 4°C warmer, which is what we are heading for, 50% of the global population will frequently experience unusual heatwaves by 2040. By 2070, 500 million people will experience humid heatwaves that will kill even healthy individuals in the shade within six hours. The problem is not that this catastrophic change awaits us in the coming decades, but that if we do not take action and turn things around within the coming decade it is inevitable. It is locked in because of the amount of carbon, methane, etc., that will be in the atmosphere.

Yesterday, Greta Thunberg yesterday told the US Congress "I don't want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to the scientists". What are the scientists saying? The IPCC has stated that we must immediately institute rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society. Climate scientist Kevin Anderson states:

... when you really look at the numbers behind the report, look at the numbers the science comes out with, then we’re talking about a complete revolution in our energy system. And that is going to beg very fundamental questions about how we run our economies.

Those are the questions that this Government and capitalist governments around the world refuse to ask, never mind answer. It is why the Minister comes in and pats the Government on the back for the action it is taking, even though it is completely inadequate. We are heading towards this disaster with our eyes wide open. The reason is that the capitalist profit system is a barrier to the change that we need. The 100 companies responsible for 71% of emissions are a barrier. They are the ones who support the establishment parties across the globe. Oil is the lifeblood of the fossil capitalism we have today. Market capitalisation of the private oil and gas producers is over $3,000 trillion. They are enormously powerful and they will resist anything which interferes with their profits. That is why we need this movement. That is why we need radical action and workers' action and that is why that movement has to be armed with an anticapitalist and eco-socialist programme which puts forward a vision to transform our society and our economy in the way that we need and tackles the question of environmental and social justice.

At the heart of that is decommodifying basic needs. I refer to free, expanded and quality public transport, public provision of low-carbon housing and public ownership and control of the key sections of our economy so that we can plan for a rapid and just transition to a zero-carbon economy by 2030. We also need decarbonisation of the economy through electrification, massive public investment in renewable energy and a transition to sustainable agriculture. Sometimes it is said that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. Put bluntly, to avoid the end of the world as we know it, the movement needs to imagine the end of capitalism and that movement needs to make it happen. The demonstrations tomorrow will show how it can be done.

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