Portland, Oregon Since I moved to Oregon, all I’ve been hearing is: “This weather isn’t normal. It’s too hot in the summers, too cold in the winters.” You hear the same story all across the globe. Every year, everywhere, new weather records are broken. Anecdotes aside, the data is indisputable

You may find yourself wondering why politicians aren’t doing anything about climate change. Why are they keeping us distracted with culture wars, instead of focusing on the impending catastrophe? Is it simply greed and [ignorance]? While that may be a big part of it, the real answer is that they aren’t just unwilling to do anything; they are incapable of it.

Under capitalism a tendency exists for the rate of profit to fall. In order to counteract this, capitalism necessitates infinite growth; it must always expand into new markets, extract every possible resource at an ever-quickening pace and drive down wages. If a capitalist economy is not growing, it is dying. World leaders know that if they were to get serious about climate change, it would impact their capitalist economies.