The urgency of the climate crisis in Mexico and the world
In the spring of 2024, most of Mexico was under a ‘heat dome’ that broke temperature records (between 30°C and 45°C) in many cities with devastating impacts on the population and ecosystems. Between mid-April and early June 2024, most of Mexico experienced three unprecedented long-lasting heatwaves that broke temperature records (between 30°C and 45°C) in more than a dozen cities across the country, including Mexico City, which normally has a temperate climate. Mexico City, the fifth largest city in the world with an estimated population of 22 million, was near to reaching water “day zero” as one of its main reservoir supply systems (the Cutzamala) was running dry.
In the article below (slightly modified from the original) from the Communist Party of Mexico’s newspaper, The Machete, the climate crisis is shown to be a product of systemic extraction and exploitation, and the only workable answer is system change. The original article, in Spanish, can be read here.
It is clear that the consequences of the climate crisis are already a reality. We witnessed first-hand the historically record heat in the country. The centre was threatened by the water crisis and the catastrophic 'Day Zero' caused by the drying up of the Cutzamala reservoir system [which supplies about 25 percent of the water to Mexico City]. The previous year, Acapulco was hit by Hurricane Otis, a category 5 (maximum) hurricane, which caused unprecedented destruction and is still having a devastating impact on the population.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recognises that "the main cause of the climate crisis is the emission of carbon (fossil fuels) into the atmosphere", but no one in the mainstream draws attention to the dependence of these fuels on our capitalist system. Suffice it to say that coal as the prime mover of capitalist industry has catapulted production without regard to natural and societal limits and has created the illusion of the possibility of infinite production. As Karl Marx noted in Capital, coal removes all restrictions on industry compared to other resources. Water, for example, is limited by geography, air by the frequency of the winds. Coal removes all limits, can be used in any geographical area and is not at the mercy of external factors.
A 'transition' to renewable energies within the same capitalist mode of production has been proposed, but this leads to an obvious contradiction: the impossibility of a ‘green’ capitalist industrial revolution analogous to that of coal. Capitalism seeks an infinite growth of production, and it is believed that clean energy can bring about this change. This is far from the truth. Countries with large reserves of minerals such as lithium and cobalt, resources that power electric car batteries, are reaching the limits of their extraction. The Democratic Republic of Congo, the main producer of these minerals, is being plundered by the imperialist powers of the United States, China and the European Union. Inhuman conditions are found in the extraction process: child labour, 12-hour working days, minimum wages, poisoning from mining, tunnels that collapse and cause dozens of deaths of Congolese miners.
Multinationals such as Apple, Tesla, Google and Chinese electric car makers BYD abuse and exploit these workers to achieve their transition to ‘renewable’ energies. This is a luxury that only imperialist powers can obtain at the cost of the suffering of the most vulnerable.
Furthermore, a widespread propaganda blitz by fossil fuel companies such as Exxon or British Petroleum seeks to obfuscate this environmental catastrophe. For decades the oil capitalists and their lackeys denied the clear correlation between global temperature rise and fossil fuel emissions. Once it was impossible to deny, they launched a campaign to blame us, the working class. Thus, the carbon footprint scam was born. In our primary schools, children are taught the importance of taking care of water, of the emission of greenhouse gases and their consequences: increasing temperatures, acid rain, loss of ecosystems, melting of the poles.
Of course, this is valuable and important, but the education system fails our children when it comes to pointing out who and what are behind this. Let's remember phrases like ‘take a bath in 5 minutes’, ‘turn off the tap when you brush your teeth’, ‘ride a bike’, phrases with good intentions, but which may only numb people to the need for real change.
Unfortunately, the development of technology and its productive forces points to some very dark scenarios. There has been a global boom in the use of Artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini. In order to use these technologies, Microsoft (ChatGPT) and Google (Gemini) install ‘data centres’ to power these AI models. The problem lies in their excessive consumption of electricity and water to generate a response to the customers who use them. It is estimated that ChatGPT-4 requires at least the equivalent of 1 500ml bottle of water to generate a 100-word email. By 2023, Google had consumed a ridiculous 24,227 mega litres (one mega litre is 1,000,000 litres of water) to power its AI technology. The current Morena government has not been left behind to squeeze profits from this technology: in May 2024 Microsoft CEO Satya Nadela and Marcelo Ebrad announced an agreement to open a new ‘data centre’ in Querétaro in order to use our dams to continue powering ChatGPT and its cloud technology. We should ponder their simplistic justification for this consumption: the ‘acceleration’ in Mexico's economic growth.
It has to be said loud and clear: individual actions cannot solve the climate crisis. The only viable solution is a system that seeks the democratisation of the means of production, and a planned economy that is not at the mercy of energy markets and private interests in pursuit of profit maximisation. In a word, we need ecosocialism. The last two decades have proven to us the inability of the capitalist system to handle this catastrophic situation. Every year we are warned of the dark road we are on if we continue with business as usual.
It goes without saying that, as far as possible, we should try to live a more sustainable life: we should inform ourselves about companies that directly harm the environment, visit our nearest recycling centre, visit natural spaces in our neighbourhoods, reduce our consumption of gas, water and electricity. These actions can give us an air of hope in the face of such a dark situation. Never lose sight of what is important: to recognise that the climate crisis is not caused by individual anthropological actions, but is caused by systemic actions, a capitalist system that seeks to maximise profits and infinite production at the expense of our earth, our only home.