The exclusion of utopian component of the first epoch socialism leading to capitalistic epoch is responsible for the current state of affairs in climate change hence creating the need for second epoch socialism
Introduction
Climate change is one of the greatest environmental, social, and economic threats facing the globe. The complexity and depth of the international collective response to the problem make it a great challenge to international cooperation. The complexity arises because of the absence of equal impacts, costs, and benefits of action against climate change across borders. More complexity is out of lack of supranational authority in the area of climate change, to provide coercive sanctions (Sandler, T. (2004).
Perception of benefits by nations, therefore, is vital to cooperation and expression of a willingness to participate in international treaties or other arrangements and sharing of a common vision of responsible behavior. Mutual self-interest, recognition of the shared threat, and leadership by dominant groups are the likely driving forces of collective action.
Individual Models and Effects
Capitalistic models of individual nations are the sole contributors to the menace due to their profit motives treatment of the environment as something to be exploited for socio-economic benefits. On the contrary, the socialistic model would allow for the protection of the environment in ways capitalism is incapable of. However, the first-epoch socialism had all the limitations and primarily even negative environmental impacts giving rise to capitalism restoration of conditions and practices that prevailed before the rise of capitalism is vital for a viable ecology both in the ecosystem and in the capacities of human beings while accommodating the vastly increased human population, that has been generated by the capitalist epoch (Melvin A. Benarde 1992).
Scientific, technological, and cultural innovations generated in the interim have to be used selectively in the process, identifying useful steps and avoiding pseudo-solutions. Prevention rather than regulation steps embody an extension of the sphere of socially grounded priorities.
The socialist component remains essential in the understanding of the various communities can fit together in offsetting climate change and satisfies the global environmental requirements. A democratic approach in the planning is essential to allow for popular control at the regional and local levels. Full popular participation with people working through units to which they naturally belong is the essence of democracy in the conversion planning process. Levels beyond and within the interests of capitalisms are achievable when the socialistic framework is used to deal head-on, with sources of the largest-scale and most severe environmental destruction (John Houghton 1997).
Examples of socialist framework approaches could be; restoration to nature of vast paved areas to reduce the number of automobiles while providing accessibility, confining truck deliveries to a limited radius, expanding and upgrading the neglected and fallen apart railroad system, use of bicycles as a means of transport rather than for leisure, drastic reduction of auto traffic reduces urban air pollution and greenhouse gases in addition to eliminating significant numbers of accidental deaths and injuries, eliminates major burden to the health care, police and legal systems.
The armed forces could also be condensed, limiting their roles to those of defense and disaster relief thus reducing residual defense function and militating large scale emergency tasks of ecological conversion such as reforestation, decommissioning of toxic waste dumps, and restoration of soil paved over by obsolete roads, gas stations and parking lots.
Elimination of large-scale commercial advertising could save paper components that require recycling and are a continuous massive depletion of forest resources. They also cost fuel for their processing and delivery. The bloated sector of private bureaucracies that deal with personal finance, insurance, and taxes should suffer equally as the commercial advertisers. The existence of these activities is dependent upon system-requirements of capitalism; non provide in any way for the direct satisfaction of humankind (John Baylis, Steve Smith 2004).
However, termination of certain activities in ecological conversion is not equitable to throwing people out of work. This act is a capitalistic phenomena conversion involves the redefinition of tasks forming part of the plan under which the processes are carried out. The shift away from energy-intensive and capital-intensive technologies creates more room for manpower.
“Although socialism is all too no guarantee that immediate goals will not obstruct ecological wisdom, it does practically eliminate vested economic interests in perpetuating harmful practices. Therefore, a debate over technological directions is only an argument, a confrontation of opposing beliefs but not a confrontation of opposing interests” (“The Struggle for Ecological Agriculture in Cuba”, Capitalism, Nature, Socialism No. 5 [Oct. 1990], P.140]. For most countries subjected to economic colonies to capitalism’s most severe environmental abuses, any reduction of the capitalist presence offers great scope for improvement (Anderson V. 1993).
The European Union is making efforts to combat climate changes through the adoption of a wide range of new policies and measures. In recognition of the global nature of the problem, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), the Kyoto Protocol are some of the agreements that have been brought up in place. Their aims and objections are to cut greenhouse emissions that cause climate change. Steps advocated through these agreements include phasing out coal plants, expanding renewable energy sources and public transit, and creating new efficiency standards for vehicles and buildings. They aim at setting the overarching objective for multilateral action to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that avoids dangerous anthropogenic climate change.
However, the US and Australia have declined to join the Kyoto Protocol while the Canadians are unable to meet the commitments of the protocol (Argarwal J. C. 1991). This clearly points to the defects of the capitalistic models.
Conclusion
The gravity of the problem calls for every common-sense perception. A drastic change is being called for by the imminent threat to survival. Life-going-on-as-usual phenomena have been eroded and displaced by the readiness to take risks. Whether from the point of view of the capitalist or socialist model, there is something with contours to aim at.
The socialists and capitalists are duty-bound to neglect power as part of human life and incorporate democracy towards the second socialist epoch. It should be clear, through the second socialist epoch, that by doing what is necessary to restore the environment, we would also be addressing other widely recognized social ills e.g. health problems, unemployment, alienation, violence, hunger, ethnic displacement, etc. The orderly existence between what we condemn and what we take for granted is the basis of identification of the alternative.
A comparison of the needed measures to practical measures gives a sense of the impossibility of any collective turn of environmentalism on the part of the capitalist class and environmentalists are treated as an external constraint rather than as a guiding principle.
References
Anderson V. (1993). Energy Efficiency Policies. London, UK. Routledge Press.
Argarwal J. C. (1991). Minerals, Energy and the Environment. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
John Baylis, Steve Smith (2004). The Globalization of World Policies. Oxford University Press. The USA. 3rd Ed.
John Houghton (1997). Global Warming the Complete Briefing. 2nd Ed. Cambridge University Press.
Melvin A. Benarde (1992). Global Warming. New York. Wiley Press.
Sandler, T. (2004): ‘Global Collective Action’. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.