The massive wildfires have just barely been brought under control, yet another heatwave is hitting the country and now a historic drought is threatening agricultural production.

The fruit and vegetable harvest could be cut in half, corn yields are going to drop and sheep and cattle won’t have enough fodder. These shortages have only just been forecast and prices are already going up in grocery stores.

All across Europe, nuclear power plants are being shut down because the rivers are too warm to cool them. Even the Danube and the Rhine, two major rivers essential for the transportation of goods across Europe, risk drying up!

The consequences of these disasters, one after the other, aren’t only economic. At work or in stifling hot homes, the heat is turning our everyday lives into hell. It is causing suffering and even death. In France, the June heatwave killed 6,000 people. In India, heatwaves are killing at least 30,000 people every week.

These disasters have nothing to do with fate. They are the result of global warming, which scientists have been predicting for 20 or 30 years. And heavy industry, transportation, construction, intensive farming and wide-scale deforestation are the main causes.

The capitalists are destroying the planet

It isn’t “human activity” in general that is causing global warming. It’s an economic and social system based on competition and private ownership, in which the small minority that owns capital is prepared to let all of humanity suffer so that they can accumulate even more profits.

One example: only a dozen major companies control the production and distribution of fossil fuels around the world, including the French company TotalEnergies. These multinational corporations compete over oil and gas reserves and markets. They cause or take advantage of wars and economic crises to accumulate billions, without ever worrying about the consequences of their actions.

After funding bodies that denied global warming was an issue, those companies are now investing in electric, wind and solar power while still drilling for oil and uncovering new deposits because, as the CEO of TotalEnergies cynically put it at a conference organized by the bosses’ union (MEDEF), “There’s the scientists’ point of view and then there’s real life.” In other words, profits that can be made now take priority over the welfare of the planet.

The state only defends the rich

As we face the chaos caused by the capitalists’ total irresponsibility, we cannot rely on the state to defend us, no matter which political party wins the election next year.

Of course, when a crisis hits, government officials speak up. They have made countless promises to firefighters and ordered air-conditioning units for hospitals. But once summer is over, the orders for Canadair firefighting aircraft will once again be put on hold under the pretext that the public deficit is too high and public services will be slashed.

We can never rely on the state for anything. Even when it comes to fighting wildfires, gathering supplies for firefighters, making fire-resistant barriers or offering shelter to those evacuated, the general population had to take action to make up for what the state failed to do.

As the drought worsens, farming trade unions, the FNSEA (National Federation of Agricultural Holders' Unions) and the Coordination rurale (Rural Coordination) are demanding that a “massive and immediate plan” be put in place. There’s little doubt that the “billions of euros” they are asking for will go to the biggest, most powerful farming companies like the grain farmers in the Beauce region (South of Paris) and the Florette salad company.

Even the measures supposedly intended to mitigate the effects of drought, such as allowing large water reservoirs to be built despite strong opposition, will widen the gap between big and small farmers without solving the water shortage.

All state institutions, all the laws have been conceived to defend the interests of landowners, the wealthy and big business.

Limiting global warming and protecting ourselves from its consequences requires putting the future and the interests of the general population ahead of the profits of the tiny few. And this cannot be done without completely reorganizing the production and distribution of wealth.

We must replace the competitiveness and the anarchy of the current system with a wide-scale assessment of needs and resources and with planned production on a global scale.

Workers know how to show initiative, skill and dedication in every crisis. They must now gain awareness and find the courage to expropriate the small minority of major capitalist families who have control over the organization of the economy.

Nathalie Arthaud