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O QUE NINGUÉM ENTENDE SOBRE A QUESTÃO AMBIENTAL | EP #285 — Transcript

by Orientação Marxista - Gustavo Machado · 4,580 words · 727 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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  1. 0:00Hello, everyone. Gustavo Machado,
  2. 0:01Orientação Marxista channel. Many
  3. 0:05people ask here on the channel,
  4. 0:06especially regarding the materials
  5. 0:08involving the ERTs candidacy that was
  6. 0:11presented, showing, for example, how
  7. 0:13Brazil could increase its GDP by 70%,
  8. 0:15reducing working hours, employing the
  9. 0:17number of people available to work in
  10. 0:19Brazil, and so on. People ask, but
  11. 0:22Gustavo, doesn't increasing Brazil's
  12. 0:25GDP mean increasing the environmental
  13. 0:27damage caused by man, the most diverse
  14. 0:30forms of environmental damage? Doesn't
  15. 0:32it mean raising the environmental
  16. 0:34problem from the level it is at to an
  17. 0:36even greater stage? Wouldn't the
  18. 0:39solution to the problem be a policy, a
  19. 0:42degrowth line, reducing the amount of
  20. 0:44wealth produced, or in Marxist jargon,
  21. 0:47some go as far as to say the absurdity
  22. 0:50of making the productive forces regress
  23. 0:53—my friends, no, no, and no. Not even
  24. 0:57once, okay? People have an enormous
  25. 1:01difficulty understanding what wealth
  26. 1:03production is in any social form. In
  27. 1:07truth, the environmental problem can
  28. 1:09only be solved by increasing human
  29. 1:11capacity to produce wealth, and wealth
  30. 1:13production itself, by tens or hundreds
  31. 1:15of times. You will understand this in
  32. 1:18this video. I confess to you that I
  33. 1:28remember being shocked, mainly because
  34. 1:30it came from certain groups that were
  35. 1:32supposedly, if not Marxist, at least
  36. 1:34very guided by Marx. An idea that goes
  37. 1:37by various names, most in English,
  38. 1:39right? Some call it degrowth, uh,
  39. 1:42degrowth ecosocialism, uh, about the
  40. 1:45need to have a reversal in
  41. 1:47technological development, my God, so
  42. 1:50that we can solve the environmental
  43. 1:53problem. And usually, these views stem
  44. 1:57from a lot of confusion, and one very
  45. 2:00basic one is more or less the following
  46. 2:03correlation. Increase in wealth
  47. 2:06production means increase in
  48. 2:08environmental damage. That is
  49. 2:11absolutely false, okay? Uh, and based
  50. 2:15then on this falsehood that I will
  51. 2:17discuss in a moment, a neo-Malthusian
  52. 2:19idea even emerged, right? And Malthus,
  53. 2:22I’ve already done a checklist of
  54. 2:24economists here. You can see there what
  55. 2:27I think of this figure called Malthus,
  56. 2:30who didn't even invent that, uh, with
  57. 2:32this neo-Malthusian idea, right, that
  58. 2:35we only solve the environmental problem
  59. 2:38, uh, by even reversing technological
  60. 2:40development and, in the broader sense
  61. 2:43of the term, the productive forces.
  62. 2:47This is absolutely false. Absolutely
  63. 2:50false. One of the big points, okay?
  64. 2:54It's not the main one, but one of the
  65. 2:56major centers of Marx's theory of value
  66. 2:58, which is a theory about capitalism
  67. 3:00that reveals much about the production
  68. 3:03of wealth in capitalism and even in
  69. 3:05other social forms where this value
  70. 3:07form disappears, is that wealth is not
  71. 3:09the amount of things extracted from
  72. 3:11nature. Wealth is the amount of effort,
  73. 3:16the amount of labor, of complexity that
  74. 3:19you deposit onto things that are
  75. 3:21extracted from nature. You will
  76. 3:25understand this clearly, but first I
  77. 3:27had to clear the path, I have to clear
  78. 3:29the field regarding something, another
  79. 3:33bizarre confusion that the
  80. 3:35environmentalist movement usually falls
  81. 3:37into. And it's not because I
  82. 3:39underestimate the environmental issue,
  83. 3:41no. On the contrary, as you will see in
  84. 3:43this video, it is extremely important.
  85. 3:45I won't even dwell on that here. For
  86. 3:47example, the problem of climate change
  87. 3:49caused by, above all, the emission of
  88. 3:51fossil fuels, but not only that. Uh,
  89. 3:55today, whoever doubts this, I'm sorry,
  90. 3:58is crazy, right? Get better informed,
  91. 4:00get better informed. The data today, if
  92. 4:02this could be seen as a hypothesis
  93. 4:05decades ago, now there is no doubt.
  94. 4:07None regarding this topic, but there is
  95. 4:09a primary confusion I wanted to dispel
  96. 4:11here on the channel. The confusion is
  97. 4:14the idea that there is clean energy and
  98. 4:19energy that isn't clean, dirty energy.
  99. 4:22My friends, you won't understand
  100. 4:23anything happening in the world if you
  101. 4:25don't understand the following: clean
  102. 4:26energy does not exist. It doesn't exist
  103. 4:29and it never will. Everything man does,
  104. 4:32not just energy production, is an
  105. 4:34intervention in nature, our very
  106. 4:36existence as a natural being living in
  107. 4:38nature. Everything we consume is taken
  108. 4:41from nature, you know? Everything,
  109. 4:43really, okay? Uh, just so you
  110. 4:48understand the strength of this, I
  111. 4:50remember a colleague a long time ago
  112. 4:52who stayed here at my house for a while
  113. 4:54and there was one night I had a little
  114. 4:56trouble sleeping. Usually that doesn't
  115. 4:59happen, but that night I did. Then he
  116. 5:02came to me with some pills like this, I
  117. 5:04know what he meant, folks! He said, "No
  118. 5:06, man, I take this here to help me
  119. 5:08sleep. You can take it without worry,
  120. 5:10because this here is 100%natural. This
  121. 5:12here is natural." I just looked at him,
  122. 5:15of course I didn't want to be rude, I
  123. 5:16didn't say anything, but I thought,
  124. 5:18seriously, do these pills grow on trees
  125. 5:20, do these little pill blister packs
  126. 5:22grow on trees? Uh, what do you mean the
  127. 5:25pill is 100%natural? Of course, in a
  128. 5:27certain sense, everything we consume is
  129. 5:29extracted from nature, including any
  130. 5:31medicine, right, which are products
  131. 5:33extracted from nature to reach a
  132. 5:35certain conformation. So, in that sense
  133. 5:37, everything is natural. Saying that
  134. 5:39something is natural makes no sense at
  135. 5:41all, right? If it is in the sense that
  136. 5:43it is extracted directly from nature
  137. 5:45without having gone through specific
  138. 5:46chemical or industrial processes, then
  139. 5:48it couldn't be a pill, okay? There is
  140. 5:50no other way out. My bad. The most you
  141. 5:53could say is: "No, the substances in
  142. 5:55there, they don't have major side
  143. 5:57effects, right?" They are substances
  144. 6:01that are present in certain things we
  145. 6:03consume and that are extracted directly
  146. 6:05from nature, and so on. So look, clean
  147. 6:09energy does not exist; everything has
  148. 6:11an impact. The issue of our
  149. 6:14intervention in nature is knowing what
  150. 6:16are the smallest impacts in the short
  151. 6:18and long term of the activities we are
  152. 6:20going to do, okay? And that answer is
  153. 6:23not always easy, nor do I intend to
  154. 6:25address this topic here, okay? Uh, but
  155. 6:28that is the question, okay? I'll give
  156. 6:31you an example of the complexity of the
  157. 6:33issue. So, many people say: "No, look,
  158. 6:36uh, the best way for people to survive,
  159. 6:38besides consuming industrialized
  160. 6:40products, would be to live in
  161. 6:41self-sustainable communities, right,
  162. 6:43and so on." That's fine for those who
  163. 6:47want to live in those communities. Who
  164. 6:49am I to say what people should do or
  165. 6:50where people should live or not? It can
  166. 6:52be a life choice, okay? Now, imagine
  167. 6:55taking the entire world population
  168. 6:57today, 8 billion people, everyone in a
  169. 7:00self-sustainable community, right,
  170. 7:02without industrialized production. Do
  171. 7:05the math on the space needed for that
  172. 7:07and the feasibility, because on most
  173. 7:09land it's not even possible to do
  174. 7:10absolutely anything. Actually, uh,
  175. 7:14capitalism develops human capacity, uh,
  176. 7:17but at the same time that it develops
  177. 7:19human capacity, it completely perverts
  178. 7:22the use of that capacity. But being
  179. 7:26able to produce on a large scale is one
  180. 7:28of the great gains of human society,
  181. 7:30including to improve the impacts of our
  182. 7:32existence, okay? Including to improve
  183. 7:35the impacts of our existence. You can,
  184. 7:37for example, produce, uh, producing
  185. 7:40just one thing in a region is not bad,
  186. 7:43because you can use the soil, uh,
  187. 7:45taking into account what is highly
  188. 7:48productive for that soil, including
  189. 7:50sometimes vegetation, uh, that
  190. 7:53developed in that soil from a
  191. 7:55geological point of view, right, from
  192. 7:58the history of that plant and all that.
  193. 8:01Just to give you an idea: you have no
  194. 8:04idea what a revolution happened after
  195. 8:07the conquest of the Americas, right? Or
  196. 8:10the discovery, depending on your
  197. 8:11perspective. The Europeans discovered
  198. 8:14and conquered; they discovered it from
  199. 8:15their point of view, evidently. Uh, for
  200. 8:18example: when the potato became
  201. 8:20widespread, which is a highly
  202. 8:21productive carbohydrate, carbohydrate
  203. 8:23consumption increased, and the average
  204. 8:25height of populations in various
  205. 8:27regions of the world—Europe, mainly,
  206. 8:29which led this process of domination—
  207. 8:31was just absurd, you know? You have no
  208. 8:35idea how Greece developed when they
  209. 8:38were able to start producing almost
  210. 8:40exclusively, uh, olives and grapes,
  211. 8:45right, for oil and wine, which was
  212. 8:48highly productive in Greek lands. Uh,
  213. 8:52and with that, and the silver mines
  214. 8:54they had there, they could buy wheat
  215. 8:55from Egypt without needing to produce
  216. 8:57wheat in their own territory, which was
  217. 8:59highly unproductive for wheat, but they
  218. 9:01had to produce it because no one lives
  219. 9:02on just oil and wine, right? Difficult.
  220. 9:05Uh, there are lands that are absurdly
  221. 9:08suitable for pasture, but where you
  222. 9:11can't plant anything, okay? People who
  223. 9:14have this easy, uh, vegetarian
  224. 9:16discourse, right? This discussion, and
  225. 9:18nothing against those who are
  226. 9:19vegetarian. The problem is turning that
  227. 9:21into an ideology for adjusting global
  228. 9:23production. What are you going to plant
  229. 9:26in the pampas that cover an enormous
  230. 9:28territory in Rio Grande do Sul, Uruguay
  231. 9:30, and Argentina, which is practically
  232. 9:32infertile for anything else, but where
  233. 9:34pasture grows beautifully, right? So,
  234. 9:37do you understand? Ah, no, but the
  235. 9:39ecological chain, whatever, so I won't
  236. 9:41even go into detail about that. There
  237. 9:44is no such thing as clean energy or
  238. 9:46production; they all have an impact.
  239. 9:48The question is choosing which one to
  240. 9:50do, and it's not always obvious, even
  241. 9:52from an energy standpoint. Ah,
  242. 9:53hydroelectric energy is clean energy.
  243. 9:57Seriously, of course there are
  244. 9:59hydroelectric plants that I’m sure
  245. 10:00were a huge success to have been built.
  246. 10:03Itaipu, for example, it had an impact
  247. 10:05like all of them, but it’s very
  248. 10:07productive, it produces a ton of energy
  249. 10:09. Uh, the flooded area isn't that huge.
  250. 10:13Now take Balbina above Manaus there in
  251. 10:15the Amazon for you to see Balbina.
  252. 10:18Balbina flooded such a large amount of
  253. 10:21the Amazon rainforest. I don't know how
  254. 10:23it is today, because I don't follow the
  255. 10:26statistics on that case anymore, but
  256. 10:29for decades one of the largest CO2
  257. 10:31emissions in Brazil was Balbina. All
  258. 10:34from the decomposition of the forest's
  259. 10:36organic matter, and it's not renewable,
  260. 10:38okay? Because what was once a forest
  261. 10:41that renewed itself became what? a
  262. 10:43continuous flooding of a gigantic
  263. 10:45forest territory, where the vegetation
  264. 10:48wasn't even removed, right? They could
  265. 10:50at least have used the wood, which
  266. 10:51could have lasted for decades in other
  267. 10:53applications, since they were going to
  268. 10:54build the plant. That vegetation is
  269. 10:56still decomposing there today, and as
  270. 10:58it decomposes, it releases an absurd
  271. 11:00amount of CO2, okay? From a region that
  272. 11:02for, I don't know, a million years was
  273. 11:04a forest. Do you realize it's not just
  274. 11:07oil? This is hydroelectric. A very
  275. 11:09unproductive hydroelectric plant, it
  276. 11:11can't even meet Manaus's needs. Okay?
  277. 11:13So much so that in Manaus, they burn a
  278. 11:15lot of gas to be able to meet the
  279. 11:17energy demand there. So, there are
  280. 11:19several plants in Brazil that perhaps
  281. 11:21were a mistake to have been built. Like
  282. 11:25, I don't know, Sobradinho in Bahia,
  283. 11:26which is a gigantic flooded area, very
  284. 11:28low energy production, uh, most of the
  285. 11:30water, more than half of the water
  286. 11:32evaporates and ends up raining in the
  287. 11:34Amazon, not even in the Northeast, you
  288. 11:36get it? And it caused gigantic
  289. 11:38environmental damage to the nearby
  290. 11:40communities. Uh, the number of insects
  291. 11:42made it unsuitable for any type of
  292. 11:44agricultural production that already
  293. 11:46existed on a smaller scale, and so on.
  294. 11:49So, there is no such thing as clean
  295. 11:50energy. So, that's the first aspect. Uh
  296. 11:54, the second aspect I wanted to call
  297. 11:56your attention to, otherwise this
  298. 11:57discussion, it also becomes a complete
  299. 12:02and absolute misunderstanding, okay,
  300. 12:05folks? Uh, as I've already introduced,
  301. 12:10the production of wealth is the amount
  302. 12:13of complexity of human labor deposited
  303. 12:15in those things. This is not difficult
  304. 12:17to understand. If you find, I don't
  305. 12:19know, an iPhone, right, which is a tiny
  306. 12:22thing like this, oh, it's because of
  307. 12:24Apple's monopoly, fine. A part of the
  308. 12:26iPhone's price may be due to Apple's
  309. 12:28monopoly, but it's not almost all of it
  310. 12:29, okay? Maybe the price would be 10%
  311. 12:32lower, 20%lower, if it weren't for the
  312. 12:34monopoly that Apple has on this
  313. 12:36specific type of cell phone, okay? Uh,
  314. 12:39that thing is very expensive because
  315. 12:42the amount of wealth deposited there is
  316. 12:45gigantic in semiconductors, using the
  317. 12:47most advanced lithography machines with
  318. 12:50very few nanometers. The amount of
  319. 12:53matter inside the cell phone, the
  320. 12:54plastic part that comes from the oil
  321. 12:56sector, from the chemical industry,
  322. 12:58from the semiconductor, is a tiny bit
  323. 13:01of matter, about this big, look. If you
  324. 13:03look at the cost to extract it from
  325. 13:05nature, what, I don't know, 2 million
  326. 13:07iPhones represent, 20 million iPhones,
  327. 13:10it's small. It is expensive because the
  328. 13:12amount of labor deposited there is
  329. 13:14gigantic. I work with high-level
  330. 13:18skilled labor, designing chips,
  331. 13:20semiconductors, the specific printing
  332. 13:22machines, the technology to print the
  333. 13:25chips, the memory, you know? The
  334. 13:28machine made in the Netherlands, the
  335. 13:30designs made at Apple, in the United
  336. 13:32States, semiconductor designs, gates,
  337. 13:34millions of logic gates, it's thousands
  338. 13:37of workers who spend years designing
  339. 13:39this semiconductor, okay? To launch a
  340. 13:42model meant to be as efficient as
  341. 13:44possible. That is why, man, an iPhone
  342. 13:47is expensive, you understand? The
  343. 13:51amount of wealth that an iPhone
  344. 13:53represents is much greater, much
  345. 13:56greater than things that are much more
  346. 13:59material, right? A bundle of firewood,
  347. 14:03okay? If we didn't have other forms of
  348. 14:06energy to provide food and everything
  349. 14:08else, imagine collecting firewood. Can
  350. 14:11you imagine collecting firewood to feed
  351. 14:128 billion people? You would devastate
  352. 14:14all the world's forests in a very short
  353. 14:17period. So you cut a bundle of firewood
  354. 14:19here. Why is a bundle of firewood so
  355. 14:21cheap? In my childhood, in the city
  356. 14:22where I lived, they still sold a lot of
  357. 14:23firewood. Most people still didn't have
  358. 14:26gas stoves at home. Uh, it's much more
  359. 14:30material, are you understanding? Than
  360. 14:33an iPhone. But the iPhone is 100 times
  361. 14:35more expensive, because the iPhone is
  362. 14:37much more wealth. So, my friends,
  363. 14:40observe, no. The idea that we must
  364. 14:43revert technology to solve the
  365. 14:45environmental problem is madness, it's
  366. 14:47a delusion, it's an aberration.
  367. 14:50Although it is true that technology,
  368. 14:52under capitalism, is used so
  369. 14:53irrationally, so shamelessly, aiming
  370. 14:56for quick profits, that, yes, it
  371. 14:58devastates nature a lot; but the
  372. 14:59problem isn't in technological
  373. 15:01development; the problem is in the way
  374. 15:04this technological development is used.
  375. 15:07A society where production isn't
  376. 15:09oriented toward consumption, toward our
  377. 15:11needs, including environmental
  378. 15:13constraints. What is production
  379. 15:15oriented toward? Toward quick profit.
  380. 15:17Production is oriented by production.
  381. 15:19Money is oriented toward more money.
  382. 15:21Value is oriented toward more value. Do
  383. 15:23you see? I will give some examples to
  384. 15:25materialize this, these things here for
  385. 15:27you. Uh, there is a lot of fake
  386. 15:30discourse being made today, okay? The
  387. 15:34growth of renewable energies, including
  388. 15:36electric cars, for example, is not for
  389. 15:39environmental reasons at all,
  390. 15:41unfortunately, okay? Renewable energy
  391. 15:44is being used a lot more in Europe
  392. 15:46because they don't have other energy
  393. 15:49sources, and it’s becoming cheaper
  394. 15:51because we’ve managed to develop
  395. 15:53things like photovoltaic panels, which
  396. 15:56have made solar energy much more
  397. 15:58efficient, right? And, well, the
  398. 16:01development of battery production,
  399. 16:02which has made electric cars and all
  400. 16:04that stuff viable. So, for the
  401. 16:07Europeans and other parts of the world,
  402. 16:09like China, and even here in Brazil,
  403. 16:11solar energy is now even cheaper than
  404. 16:13oil, you see? But it brings several
  405. 16:15other problems, right? Because it only
  406. 16:16works when the sun is shining. But
  407. 16:19regardless of that, just opening and
  408. 16:21closing that parenthesis, can you
  409. 16:23imagine replacing most of our transport
  410. 16:26with electric transport—solar, wind
  411. 16:29—all of which have an environmental
  412. 16:31impact; clean energy doesn't really
  413. 16:34exist—but with the goal of reducing
  414. 16:36CO2 emissions, and slowing down the
  415. 16:39climate problem, and even trying to
  416. 16:41reverse it using technology in the
  417. 16:43future. Do you think we are going to do
  418. 16:47this through technological regression,
  419. 16:50by reducing wealth production? Do you
  420. 16:53think that if we were to create, for
  421. 16:55example, a vast metro and rail system
  422. 16:57in Brazil for urban and intercity
  423. 16:59environments to move goods with
  424. 17:01high-speed trains, that this would
  425. 17:02produce more or less wealth? It would
  426. 17:05produce much more wealth, but with less
  427. 17:07"stuff," you see? Because a metro and
  428. 17:10rail system, a high-speed train
  429. 17:12connecting 500 or 1,000 km, allowing
  430. 17:14for transport, requires much less
  431. 17:17extraction from nature than what would
  432. 17:19otherwise be necessary. Compared to how
  433. 17:24many tens or hundreds of thousands of
  434. 17:27trucks you would have to build over
  435. 17:29decades or centuries, burning fuel one
  436. 17:32by one to transport every little thing
  437. 17:34you consume, do you see? Than putting
  438. 17:39it into something that will much more
  439. 17:41efficiently transport much larger
  440. 17:43quantities of goods, even more cheaply
  441. 17:46over time, even though it’s much more
  442. 17:48expensive to build. In other words, a
  443. 17:51high-speed train is expensive and will
  444. 17:53cause local damage, okay? Of course it
  445. 17:55does; where the tracks pass, all of
  446. 17:56that has to be thought out—everything
  447. 17:58causes some damage, you see? So you
  448. 18:01will invest much more wealth to do that
  449. 18:03than would be necessary to build
  450. 18:05another 50 million cars. But with 50
  451. 18:08million cars, you will extract much
  452. 18:10more iron ore, many more petroleum
  453. 18:12derivatives for plastic, etc. And above
  454. 18:15all, much more fuel. Do you understand
  455. 18:17the point? Do you understand? The point
  456. 18:20is not to reduce wealth production, but
  457. 18:24if we want to get rid of fossil fuels,
  458. 18:27slow them down and move away from them,
  459. 18:30there will have to be colossal,
  460. 18:33gigantic investments in new energy
  461. 18:36sources and in energy storage, right?
  462. 18:40Uh, or do you think, oh, solar energy,
  463. 18:42great, but solar energy only works in
  464. 18:44some places in the world. There are
  465. 18:47places where, uh, you could do solar
  466. 18:49energy in Norway, you could, but it’s
  467. 18:51very unproductive. There’s no sun, it
  468. 18:54goes 6 months of the year, 4 months of
  469. 18:56the year, which is just night, and the
  470. 18:57other months the sun is super weak
  471. 18:59because the light arrives at such a
  472. 19:01tilt since it’s at the extreme of the
  473. 19:03Earth. What are you going to do?
  474. 19:05Devastate the Amazon rainforest to put
  475. 19:07up solar panels? So, there are places
  476. 19:10where solar energy is great, uh, more
  477. 19:12arid lands, deserts, and so on, but it
  478. 19:14has an impact too, okay? You’ll have
  479. 19:16to: the panels will eventually have to
  480. 19:18be discarded. When their lifespan ends,
  481. 19:20we have to learn how to recycle them.
  482. 19:22We need to develop strong new energy
  483. 19:25sources, fusion, make fission more, uh,
  484. 19:28productive, and all that means
  485. 19:30developing technology much more and
  486. 19:32producing much more wealth, okay? Oh,
  487. 19:39Gustavo, but look, data centers use an
  488. 19:41enormous amount of water, everything
  489. 19:43uses resources, guys. The point is for
  490. 19:46us to know where to put them and how to
  491. 19:48set them up, right? The problem with
  492. 19:50data centers in Brazil also involves
  493. 19:51several other things. Capitalism wants
  494. 19:53to spend just to spend, wants to
  495. 19:55consume just to consume. So things are
  496. 19:58made without taking into account
  497. 20:00durability, the quality of the product,
  498. 20:02made so that it is replaced as quickly
  499. 20:04as possible. That means discarding the
  500. 20:06previous one. There are many countries
  501. 20:08in the world where people have learned
  502. 20:10to discard appliances every year and
  503. 20:11buy new ones, even with everything
  504. 20:13working perfectly well. And the new
  505. 20:14ones aren't necessarily much better
  506. 20:16than the previous ones. There is no
  507. 20:19more appropriate discussion to place
  508. 20:21the need for socialism—although that
  509. 20:23alone isn't enough, obviously, because
  510. 20:25there has to be a way and a method to
  511. 20:28do it—than the environmental issue. A
  512. 20:30society that is not focused on quantity
  513. 20:36alone, but on the quality and
  514. 20:37durability of products, where
  515. 20:39replacement is done only when there are
  516. 20:40technological developments that truly
  517. 20:42justify the replacement, okay? Uh, only
  518. 20:47in a socialist society can we choose to
  519. 20:49spend more on something that is less
  520. 20:52harmful. In capitalism now, the
  521. 20:54electric car emerged and the energies,
  522. 20:56because it spends because it became
  523. 20:57more efficient, otherwise it wouldn't
  524. 20:58have emerged. A society where we
  525. 21:02articulate production and consumption
  526. 21:04is the only one where we can choose a
  527. 21:07resource that is more expensive than
  528. 21:09another for society and, consequently,
  529. 21:12for individuals, but which causes less
  530. 21:14damage. And choosing to spend more is
  531. 21:18producing more wealth, it is not
  532. 21:19producing less, no. Do you understand
  533. 21:23that? Well, it’s not just the waste
  534. 21:26that capitalism produces, because here,
  535. 21:28since there is no planning between
  536. 21:29production and consumption, it is the
  537. 21:31market that regulates through trial and
  538. 21:33error. The stupidest method that has
  539. 21:35ever existed, as I have said several
  540. 21:37times. So, for example, in capitalism,
  541. 21:40it is more interesting that everyone
  542. 21:42has their individual car, or at least
  543. 21:4330%of the population, those who can
  544. 21:45afford it because capitalism doesn't
  545. 21:47create conditions for everyone to have
  546. 21:49one, than for you to have a decent
  547. 21:50subway and rail system and cars
  548. 21:52available for personal use when you
  549. 21:53need them. So, let those who want to
  550. 21:56buy a car spend their income because
  551. 21:58they are passionate about cars, okay?
  552. 22:00It can happen, you spend your income on
  553. 22:02whatever you want. But if you have a
  554. 22:04car that you can, you know, use your
  555. 22:07resource to utilize a top-tier car when
  556. 22:09you need it within a decent subway and
  557. 22:12rail system, probably 2%of the
  558. 22:14population that has a car today would
  559. 22:17want to own one, because you have
  560. 22:19access to a car when you need it, much
  561. 22:21better than what you could afford
  562. 22:24individually, and you do all your daily
  563. 22:26commuting to work, trips A, B, C, and D
  564. 22:29on a decent, fast, comfortable subway
  565. 22:32and rail system, which is much more
  566. 22:34wealth to create, but has much less
  567. 22:37environmental impact. So, production of
  568. 22:39wealth is not production of things. In
  569. 22:41the socialist system, besides everyone
  570. 22:44having their own washing machine at
  571. 22:46home, you can create public laundry
  572. 22:49systems by region, by neighborhood,
  573. 22:51freeing people from a good dose of
  574. 22:54domestic work, easily accessible, with
  575. 22:56quality, and in this case, you lower
  576. 22:59costs, right? In this case, you do
  577. 23:02reduce things, but you don't reduce the
  578. 23:03productive force, the human capacity to
  579. 23:05do. It is not necessary to have a
  580. 23:08washing machine in every house, because
  581. 23:10in a place with 1,000 houses, you can
  582. 23:13have 50 washing machines that meet
  583. 23:15everyone's demand in a public laundry,
  584. 23:17right? In a socialist society, you can
  585. 23:21shift production surpluses, that which
  586. 23:24is not used for reproduction and our
  587. 23:26immediate consumption, so that we can
  588. 23:29advance in the areas that are most
  589. 23:31necessary and advance to avoid greater
  590. 23:34environmental impacts, as in the case
  591. 23:36of fossil fuels, right? Uh, so there is
  592. 23:40no argument that highlights the need
  593. 23:43for socialism more than the
  594. 23:46environmental issue. Not because it’s
  595. 23:48no longer necessary to develop
  596. 23:50productive forces, no, because
  597. 23:51socialism develops productive forces
  598. 23:53more than any other form of society.
  599. 23:55And our capacity to produce wealth,
  600. 23:58because now people can be rewarded for
  601. 24:01the achievements they've made, for the
  602. 24:04developments they've created.
  603. 24:06Capitalism is the opposite, my friend.
  604. 24:08The company is the one that profits.
  605. 24:09The company that patents, that holds
  606. 24:11the patent, not the worker who
  607. 24:13developed it. That person, if they
  608. 24:14don't keep making new things, they get
  609. 24:15fired. It is an anti-meritocratic
  610. 24:18society, contrary to the propaganda
  611. 24:21that is spread, okay? Uh, under
  612. 24:24capitalism, things are indeed made for
  613. 24:27quick and immediate consumption and not
  614. 24:29for their long-term durability, which
  615. 24:32doesn't mean producing less wealth, but
  616. 24:34more wealth with fewer things, adding
  617. 24:37more human labor, more complexity. Do
  618. 24:41you see capitalism? You cannot opt for
  619. 24:43what has a higher cost. Now, we can opt
  620. 24:47for what has a higher cost, do you see?
  621. 24:50So, if a data center is built
  622. 24:51rationally, which one do you think has
  623. 24:53a higher environmental cost? If the
  624. 24:55data center is powered by renewable
  625. 24:57energy in systems, in places where
  626. 25:00there is plenty of water available to
  627. 25:02be used for this purpose, locating them
  628. 25:05strategically in places where water can
  629. 25:07be used because it is within the
  630. 25:09natural cycle that replenishes itself,
  631. 25:12uh, without the energy coming from
  632. 25:14fossil fuels. We can even use nuclear
  633. 25:17fission plants in a less restrictive
  634. 25:19way, because there is no longer the
  635. 25:21risk of global capitalist disputes and
  636. 25:24the plant being bombed. Or do you think
  637. 25:28it’s cheaper, that it’s better for
  638. 25:30us to go back to producing millions and
  639. 25:33millions and millions and millions and
  640. 25:35millions of tons of paper, okay?
  641. 25:38Devastating giant parts of the
  642. 25:40ecosystem to produce eucalyptus, to
  643. 25:43extract cellulose, and turn it all back
  644. 25:45into paper. Do you think that’s
  645. 25:48cheaper? Does this mean that paper will
  646. 25:50disappear? No, but it can be restricted
  647. 25:53, do you understand? Uh, so that’s it
  648. 25:57. I really wanted to make this video, I
  649. 26:00took advantage of this moment here,
  650. 26:02it’s not such a long video, to share
  651. 26:04these reflections with you. First,
  652. 26:06clean energy and clean production do
  653. 26:08not exist. Every activity of ours
  654. 26:10requires intervention in nature. To
  655. 26:13solve the environmental problem, we
  656. 26:15don't need a technological reversal. We
  657. 26:19need to accelerate our technological
  658. 26:22capacity. But yes, under capitalism,
  659. 26:24technological capacity is directed
  660. 26:26without taking into account natural
  661. 26:29conditions and our needs. It is used
  662. 26:31aiming for quick profit and almost
  663. 26:32never coincides with both things. It
  664. 26:34turns against us individually, using
  665. 26:37technology to reduce jobs, to reduce
  666. 26:39wages. And natural conditions are
  667. 26:41exhausted in a completely irrational
  668. 26:44way. Socialism is the only society
  669. 26:46where production and consumption can be
  670. 26:48consciously planned, not left for the
  671. 26:50market to solve by trial and error. We
  672. 26:53are going to produce not less wealth,
  673. 26:56but much more, but wealth rationally
  674. 26:59decided, defining things by their
  675. 27:01quality, durability, not by their
  676. 27:04quantity, by quick profit, producing
  677. 27:07things without the enormous waste that
  678. 27:10the market always produces by
  679. 27:12allocating wealth through trial and
  680. 27:15error. Now we allocate in a planned
  681. 27:18manner, defining the metrics rationally
  682. 27:21. And here we can define, to channel
  683. 27:23the surplus labor of society, not into
  684. 27:26public debt bonds, not into all this
  685. 27:28mess that exists today, into stocks,
  686. 27:30securities, the financial market. No,
  687. 27:32but to the sectors that most need to
  688. 27:35develop so that we can, and so we can
  689. 27:40have the resources we need to survive
  690. 27:42and survive well, which is always an
  691. 27:44intervention in nature, but with the
  692. 27:45lowest possible impacts, in a totally
  693. 27:47calculated way. For example, allocating
  694. 27:51everything to long-term infrastructure
  695. 27:54works, to research and development in
  696. 27:56energies with high potential and lower
  697. 27:59impact, and so on, okay? So there is a
  698. 28:03better discussion to frame the question
  699. 28:05of socialism. This has nothing to do
  700. 28:08with degrowth, with reducing productive
  701. 28:10forces, with this so-called degrowth
  702. 28:12ecosocialism, this cheap
  703. 28:14neo-Malthusianism, okay? The so-called
  704. 28:18reduction of material property, of
  705. 28:20material production, who knows what
  706. 28:22that means, because all production is
  707. 28:24material, but rather, we can produce
  708. 28:26more, much more wealth with the
  709. 28:28smallest amount of things extracted
  710. 28:30from nature. Because wealth is not
  711. 28:33measured by the quantity of things, it
  712. 28:35is measured by what we deposit into
  713. 28:37those things. That's it. Send this
  714. 28:41video whenever you see an
  715. 28:43environmentalist with cheap rhetoric,
  716. 28:45okay? A degrowth advocate who today
  717. 28:47infests left-wing groups, okay? It
  718. 28:50infests left-wing groups and ends up
  719. 28:52paving the way for the right. This is a
  720. 28:54path where the left could crush
  721. 28:56right-wing groups of all kinds,
  722. 28:58especially socialists and Marxists, and
  723. 29:00it ends up being a victim of these
  724. 29:02discussions coming from that garbage
  725. 29:05like WWF, Greenpeace, that garbage that
  726. 29:07is good for absolutely nothing. All
  727. 29:09right? Best regards.

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