If you’ve looked outside in the last 24 hours or so, you’ve no doubt been peering through a thick veil of haze, which has all but blotted out Milwaukee’s handsome skyline. If you had the misfortune of going outside (the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources advises to keep outdoor activity to a minimum), you’ve certainly detected the smell of a burning campfire. You may have developed a cough or experienced shortness of breath (in which case, it’s time to return inside).
As you probably know by now, the apocalyptic scene you’re witnessing (and breathing in) is from wildfires raging through parts of Canada, which have placed Milwaukee’s air quality among the worst in both the nation and the world. Yesterday afternoon, Brookfield had the poorest air quality in the country. Globally, conditions like this contribute to increasing risk of cardiovascular diseases and respiratory illnesses, and kill about 7 to 10 million people per year, taking 2.2 years off global average life expectancy. If you’re feeling sick today – or if you or someone you know needed medical attention today – you’re not alone.
Glance outside again and ask yourself: what are we doing to this planet? Human activity has produced higher temperatures and drought conditions that caused these fires. Why has human activity reached such a level of destruction that it is pushing the earth beyond its ability to let us breathe? Why is the planet becoming inhospitable? Why is Milwaukee covered in smoke?
The answers to these questions are not merely ecological, they are economic. The fires that have been consuming huge swaths of boreal forest in recent months have been kicked into high gear by profit-hungry fossil fuel companies. Today, 71 percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to a group of 100 fossil fuel producers. These companies collectively possess reserves that are four to five times larger than what can be responsibly extracted and burned. As a study published last month in the journal Environmental Research Letters suggests, emissions from the world’s 88 largest fossil fuel firms and cement makers are responsible for over a third of the forest burned in the western U.S. and Canada since 1986.
Over the last year, as our air has become even more unbreathable, fossil fuel corporations have more than doubled their profits. Adding insult to injury, the oil industry also successfully lobbied for a loophole in federal air quality regulations that allows states to disregard pollution resulting from “exceptional events” including wildfires.
To put it simply: the crisis you are witnessing has one, and only one cause: capitalism.
If you cannot see the sun, thank capitalism. If your favorite activity has been canceled today, thank capitalism. If you are having trouble breathing today, thank capitalism.
Isn’t it time we did something?
It’s time we had an economy that put people and planet first, that allocated resources wisely, logically, and that followed a plan that is democratically decided by the people of this world, not by corporate shareholders. Milwaukee would not be covered in harmful smoke if we had a democratic economy where we could decide collectively to end carbon pollution and mitigate the effects of global warming. It’s time for an economy in which workers and communities that create wealth own that wealth and economic and political decisions are made democratically. In other words: it’s time for socialism.
If you want to do something, now is the time to act. The evidence before you, including the smoke throughout the city, should be a wake up call for you to take action to help protect the environment and build the democratic world I am describing – a world that faces the challenge of global warming and catastrophic fires. I’m not talking about recycling more or driving less. I’m talking about making systemic change and joining the movement for socialism here in Milwaukee.
The Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America has a campaign to bring democracy to the decisions we make about energy generation and distribution – a campaign to replace We Energies with a municipal or cooperative utility called Power to the People. This campaign is directly challenging the power of the polluters and profit motive, and regular people just like you across this city are joining the campaign.
Individualistic actions like picking up trash in a park are good – and no doubt feel good – but they aren’t going to make a difference, systemically. The only thing that will make a difference is collective action – so if you’re looking for an individual action to take, let your individual action be the action of joining the movement and organizing your community to stand up.
The smoke in your eyes and your lungs today is really just a symptom of the crisis. Even if the haze lifts tomorrow, or next week, the root cause will remain. The only way to do anything about that is to organize. We can have a brighter tomorrow, with clean air and clear skies – the perfect kind of day for a picnic or a trip to the beach. But only if we fight for it, together.
Alex Brower is the co-chair of the Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America.
