O QUE NINGUÉM ENTENDE SOBRE A QUESTÃO AMBIENTAL | EP #285 — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00Hello, everyone. Gustavo Machado,
- 0:01Orientação Marxista channel. Many
- 0:05people ask here on the channel,
- 0:06especially regarding the materials
- 0:08involving the ERTs candidacy that was
- 0:11presented, showing, for example, how
- 0:13Brazil could increase its GDP by 70%,
- 0:15reducing working hours, employing the
- 0:17number of people available to work in
- 0:19Brazil, and so on. People ask, but
- 0:22Gustavo, doesn't increasing Brazil's
- 0:25GDP mean increasing the environmental
- 0:27damage caused by man, the most diverse
- 0:30forms of environmental damage? Doesn't
- 0:32it mean raising the environmental
- 0:34problem from the level it is at to an
- 0:36even greater stage? Wouldn't the
- 0:39solution to the problem be a policy, a
- 0:42degrowth line, reducing the amount of
- 0:44wealth produced, or in Marxist jargon,
- 0:47some go as far as to say the absurdity
- 0:50of making the productive forces regress
- 0:53—my friends, no, no, and no. Not even
- 0:57once, okay? People have an enormous
- 1:01difficulty understanding what wealth
- 1:03production is in any social form. In
- 1:07truth, the environmental problem can
- 1:09only be solved by increasing human
- 1:11capacity to produce wealth, and wealth
- 1:13production itself, by tens or hundreds
- 1:15of times. You will understand this in
- 1:18this video. I confess to you that I
- 1:28remember being shocked, mainly because
- 1:30it came from certain groups that were
- 1:32supposedly, if not Marxist, at least
- 1:34very guided by Marx. An idea that goes
- 1:37by various names, most in English,
- 1:39right? Some call it degrowth, uh,
- 1:42degrowth ecosocialism, uh, about the
- 1:45need to have a reversal in
- 1:47technological development, my God, so
- 1:50that we can solve the environmental
- 1:53problem. And usually, these views stem
- 1:57from a lot of confusion, and one very
- 2:00basic one is more or less the following
- 2:03correlation. Increase in wealth
- 2:06production means increase in
- 2:08environmental damage. That is
- 2:11absolutely false, okay? Uh, and based
- 2:15then on this falsehood that I will
- 2:17discuss in a moment, a neo-Malthusian
- 2:19idea even emerged, right? And Malthus,
- 2:22I’ve already done a checklist of
- 2:24economists here. You can see there what
- 2:27I think of this figure called Malthus,
- 2:30who didn't even invent that, uh, with
- 2:32this neo-Malthusian idea, right, that
- 2:35we only solve the environmental problem
- 2:38, uh, by even reversing technological
- 2:40development and, in the broader sense
- 2:43of the term, the productive forces.
- 2:47This is absolutely false. Absolutely
- 2:50false. One of the big points, okay?
- 2:54It's not the main one, but one of the
- 2:56major centers of Marx's theory of value
- 2:58, which is a theory about capitalism
- 3:00that reveals much about the production
- 3:03of wealth in capitalism and even in
- 3:05other social forms where this value
- 3:07form disappears, is that wealth is not
- 3:09the amount of things extracted from
- 3:11nature. Wealth is the amount of effort,
- 3:16the amount of labor, of complexity that
- 3:19you deposit onto things that are
- 3:21extracted from nature. You will
- 3:25understand this clearly, but first I
- 3:27had to clear the path, I have to clear
- 3:29the field regarding something, another
- 3:33bizarre confusion that the
- 3:35environmentalist movement usually falls
- 3:37into. And it's not because I
- 3:39underestimate the environmental issue,
- 3:41no. On the contrary, as you will see in
- 3:43this video, it is extremely important.
- 3:45I won't even dwell on that here. For
- 3:47example, the problem of climate change
- 3:49caused by, above all, the emission of
- 3:51fossil fuels, but not only that. Uh,
- 3:55today, whoever doubts this, I'm sorry,
- 3:58is crazy, right? Get better informed,
- 4:00get better informed. The data today, if
- 4:02this could be seen as a hypothesis
- 4:05decades ago, now there is no doubt.
- 4:07None regarding this topic, but there is
- 4:09a primary confusion I wanted to dispel
- 4:11here on the channel. The confusion is
- 4:14the idea that there is clean energy and
- 4:19energy that isn't clean, dirty energy.
- 4:22My friends, you won't understand
- 4:23anything happening in the world if you
- 4:25don't understand the following: clean
- 4:26energy does not exist. It doesn't exist
- 4:29and it never will. Everything man does,
- 4:32not just energy production, is an
- 4:34intervention in nature, our very
- 4:36existence as a natural being living in
- 4:38nature. Everything we consume is taken
- 4:41from nature, you know? Everything,
- 4:43really, okay? Uh, just so you
- 4:48understand the strength of this, I
- 4:50remember a colleague a long time ago
- 4:52who stayed here at my house for a while
- 4:54and there was one night I had a little
- 4:56trouble sleeping. Usually that doesn't
- 4:59happen, but that night I did. Then he
- 5:02came to me with some pills like this, I
- 5:04know what he meant, folks! He said, "No
- 5:06, man, I take this here to help me
- 5:08sleep. You can take it without worry,
- 5:10because this here is 100%natural. This
- 5:12here is natural." I just looked at him,
- 5:15of course I didn't want to be rude, I
- 5:16didn't say anything, but I thought,
- 5:18seriously, do these pills grow on trees
- 5:20, do these little pill blister packs
- 5:22grow on trees? Uh, what do you mean the
- 5:25pill is 100%natural? Of course, in a
- 5:27certain sense, everything we consume is
- 5:29extracted from nature, including any
- 5:31medicine, right, which are products
- 5:33extracted from nature to reach a
- 5:35certain conformation. So, in that sense
- 5:37, everything is natural. Saying that
- 5:39something is natural makes no sense at
- 5:41all, right? If it is in the sense that
- 5:43it is extracted directly from nature
- 5:45without having gone through specific
- 5:46chemical or industrial processes, then
- 5:48it couldn't be a pill, okay? There is
- 5:50no other way out. My bad. The most you
- 5:53could say is: "No, the substances in
- 5:55there, they don't have major side
- 5:57effects, right?" They are substances
- 6:01that are present in certain things we
- 6:03consume and that are extracted directly
- 6:05from nature, and so on. So look, clean
- 6:09energy does not exist; everything has
- 6:11an impact. The issue of our
- 6:14intervention in nature is knowing what
- 6:16are the smallest impacts in the short
- 6:18and long term of the activities we are
- 6:20going to do, okay? And that answer is
- 6:23not always easy, nor do I intend to
- 6:25address this topic here, okay? Uh, but
- 6:28that is the question, okay? I'll give
- 6:31you an example of the complexity of the
- 6:33issue. So, many people say: "No, look,
- 6:36uh, the best way for people to survive,
- 6:38besides consuming industrialized
- 6:40products, would be to live in
- 6:41self-sustainable communities, right,
- 6:43and so on." That's fine for those who
- 6:47want to live in those communities. Who
- 6:49am I to say what people should do or
- 6:50where people should live or not? It can
- 6:52be a life choice, okay? Now, imagine
- 6:55taking the entire world population
- 6:57today, 8 billion people, everyone in a
- 7:00self-sustainable community, right,
- 7:02without industrialized production. Do
- 7:05the math on the space needed for that
- 7:07and the feasibility, because on most
- 7:09land it's not even possible to do
- 7:10absolutely anything. Actually, uh,
- 7:14capitalism develops human capacity, uh,
- 7:17but at the same time that it develops
- 7:19human capacity, it completely perverts
- 7:22the use of that capacity. But being
- 7:26able to produce on a large scale is one
- 7:28of the great gains of human society,
- 7:30including to improve the impacts of our
- 7:32existence, okay? Including to improve
- 7:35the impacts of our existence. You can,
- 7:37for example, produce, uh, producing
- 7:40just one thing in a region is not bad,
- 7:43because you can use the soil, uh,
- 7:45taking into account what is highly
- 7:48productive for that soil, including
- 7:50sometimes vegetation, uh, that
- 7:53developed in that soil from a
- 7:55geological point of view, right, from
- 7:58the history of that plant and all that.
- 8:01Just to give you an idea: you have no
- 8:04idea what a revolution happened after
- 8:07the conquest of the Americas, right? Or
- 8:10the discovery, depending on your
- 8:11perspective. The Europeans discovered
- 8:14and conquered; they discovered it from
- 8:15their point of view, evidently. Uh, for
- 8:18example: when the potato became
- 8:20widespread, which is a highly
- 8:21productive carbohydrate, carbohydrate
- 8:23consumption increased, and the average
- 8:25height of populations in various
- 8:27regions of the world—Europe, mainly,
- 8:29which led this process of domination—
- 8:31was just absurd, you know? You have no
- 8:35idea how Greece developed when they
- 8:38were able to start producing almost
- 8:40exclusively, uh, olives and grapes,
- 8:45right, for oil and wine, which was
- 8:48highly productive in Greek lands. Uh,
- 8:52and with that, and the silver mines
- 8:54they had there, they could buy wheat
- 8:55from Egypt without needing to produce
- 8:57wheat in their own territory, which was
- 8:59highly unproductive for wheat, but they
- 9:01had to produce it because no one lives
- 9:02on just oil and wine, right? Difficult.
- 9:05Uh, there are lands that are absurdly
- 9:08suitable for pasture, but where you
- 9:11can't plant anything, okay? People who
- 9:14have this easy, uh, vegetarian
- 9:16discourse, right? This discussion, and
- 9:18nothing against those who are
- 9:19vegetarian. The problem is turning that
- 9:21into an ideology for adjusting global
- 9:23production. What are you going to plant
- 9:26in the pampas that cover an enormous
- 9:28territory in Rio Grande do Sul, Uruguay
- 9:30, and Argentina, which is practically
- 9:32infertile for anything else, but where
- 9:34pasture grows beautifully, right? So,
- 9:37do you understand? Ah, no, but the
- 9:39ecological chain, whatever, so I won't
- 9:41even go into detail about that. There
- 9:44is no such thing as clean energy or
- 9:46production; they all have an impact.
- 9:48The question is choosing which one to
- 9:50do, and it's not always obvious, even
- 9:52from an energy standpoint. Ah,
- 9:53hydroelectric energy is clean energy.
- 9:57Seriously, of course there are
- 9:59hydroelectric plants that I’m sure
- 10:00were a huge success to have been built.
- 10:03Itaipu, for example, it had an impact
- 10:05like all of them, but it’s very
- 10:07productive, it produces a ton of energy
- 10:09. Uh, the flooded area isn't that huge.
- 10:13Now take Balbina above Manaus there in
- 10:15the Amazon for you to see Balbina.
- 10:18Balbina flooded such a large amount of
- 10:21the Amazon rainforest. I don't know how
- 10:23it is today, because I don't follow the
- 10:26statistics on that case anymore, but
- 10:29for decades one of the largest CO2
- 10:31emissions in Brazil was Balbina. All
- 10:34from the decomposition of the forest's
- 10:36organic matter, and it's not renewable,
- 10:38okay? Because what was once a forest
- 10:41that renewed itself became what? a
- 10:43continuous flooding of a gigantic
- 10:45forest territory, where the vegetation
- 10:48wasn't even removed, right? They could
- 10:50at least have used the wood, which
- 10:51could have lasted for decades in other
- 10:53applications, since they were going to
- 10:54build the plant. That vegetation is
- 10:56still decomposing there today, and as
- 10:58it decomposes, it releases an absurd
- 11:00amount of CO2, okay? From a region that
- 11:02for, I don't know, a million years was
- 11:04a forest. Do you realize it's not just
- 11:07oil? This is hydroelectric. A very
- 11:09unproductive hydroelectric plant, it
- 11:11can't even meet Manaus's needs. Okay?
- 11:13So much so that in Manaus, they burn a
- 11:15lot of gas to be able to meet the
- 11:17energy demand there. So, there are
- 11:19several plants in Brazil that perhaps
- 11:21were a mistake to have been built. Like
- 11:25, I don't know, Sobradinho in Bahia,
- 11:26which is a gigantic flooded area, very
- 11:28low energy production, uh, most of the
- 11:30water, more than half of the water
- 11:32evaporates and ends up raining in the
- 11:34Amazon, not even in the Northeast, you
- 11:36get it? And it caused gigantic
- 11:38environmental damage to the nearby
- 11:40communities. Uh, the number of insects
- 11:42made it unsuitable for any type of
- 11:44agricultural production that already
- 11:46existed on a smaller scale, and so on.
- 11:49So, there is no such thing as clean
- 11:50energy. So, that's the first aspect. Uh
- 11:54, the second aspect I wanted to call
- 11:56your attention to, otherwise this
- 11:57discussion, it also becomes a complete
- 12:02and absolute misunderstanding, okay,
- 12:05folks? Uh, as I've already introduced,
- 12:10the production of wealth is the amount
- 12:13of complexity of human labor deposited
- 12:15in those things. This is not difficult
- 12:17to understand. If you find, I don't
- 12:19know, an iPhone, right, which is a tiny
- 12:22thing like this, oh, it's because of
- 12:24Apple's monopoly, fine. A part of the
- 12:26iPhone's price may be due to Apple's
- 12:28monopoly, but it's not almost all of it
- 12:29, okay? Maybe the price would be 10%
- 12:32lower, 20%lower, if it weren't for the
- 12:34monopoly that Apple has on this
- 12:36specific type of cell phone, okay? Uh,
- 12:39that thing is very expensive because
- 12:42the amount of wealth deposited there is
- 12:45gigantic in semiconductors, using the
- 12:47most advanced lithography machines with
- 12:50very few nanometers. The amount of
- 12:53matter inside the cell phone, the
- 12:54plastic part that comes from the oil
- 12:56sector, from the chemical industry,
- 12:58from the semiconductor, is a tiny bit
- 13:01of matter, about this big, look. If you
- 13:03look at the cost to extract it from
- 13:05nature, what, I don't know, 2 million
- 13:07iPhones represent, 20 million iPhones,
- 13:10it's small. It is expensive because the
- 13:12amount of labor deposited there is
- 13:14gigantic. I work with high-level
- 13:18skilled labor, designing chips,
- 13:20semiconductors, the specific printing
- 13:22machines, the technology to print the
- 13:25chips, the memory, you know? The
- 13:28machine made in the Netherlands, the
- 13:30designs made at Apple, in the United
- 13:32States, semiconductor designs, gates,
- 13:34millions of logic gates, it's thousands
- 13:37of workers who spend years designing
- 13:39this semiconductor, okay? To launch a
- 13:42model meant to be as efficient as
- 13:44possible. That is why, man, an iPhone
- 13:47is expensive, you understand? The
- 13:51amount of wealth that an iPhone
- 13:53represents is much greater, much
- 13:56greater than things that are much more
- 13:59material, right? A bundle of firewood,
- 14:03okay? If we didn't have other forms of
- 14:06energy to provide food and everything
- 14:08else, imagine collecting firewood. Can
- 14:11you imagine collecting firewood to feed
- 14:128 billion people? You would devastate
- 14:14all the world's forests in a very short
- 14:17period. So you cut a bundle of firewood
- 14:19here. Why is a bundle of firewood so
- 14:21cheap? In my childhood, in the city
- 14:22where I lived, they still sold a lot of
- 14:23firewood. Most people still didn't have
- 14:26gas stoves at home. Uh, it's much more
- 14:30material, are you understanding? Than
- 14:33an iPhone. But the iPhone is 100 times
- 14:35more expensive, because the iPhone is
- 14:37much more wealth. So, my friends,
- 14:40observe, no. The idea that we must
- 14:43revert technology to solve the
- 14:45environmental problem is madness, it's
- 14:47a delusion, it's an aberration.
- 14:50Although it is true that technology,
- 14:52under capitalism, is used so
- 14:53irrationally, so shamelessly, aiming
- 14:56for quick profits, that, yes, it
- 14:58devastates nature a lot; but the
- 14:59problem isn't in technological
- 15:01development; the problem is in the way
- 15:04this technological development is used.
- 15:07A society where production isn't
- 15:09oriented toward consumption, toward our
- 15:11needs, including environmental
- 15:13constraints. What is production
- 15:15oriented toward? Toward quick profit.
- 15:17Production is oriented by production.
- 15:19Money is oriented toward more money.
- 15:21Value is oriented toward more value. Do
- 15:23you see? I will give some examples to
- 15:25materialize this, these things here for
- 15:27you. Uh, there is a lot of fake
- 15:30discourse being made today, okay? The
- 15:34growth of renewable energies, including
- 15:36electric cars, for example, is not for
- 15:39environmental reasons at all,
- 15:41unfortunately, okay? Renewable energy
- 15:44is being used a lot more in Europe
- 15:46because they don't have other energy
- 15:49sources, and it’s becoming cheaper
- 15:51because we’ve managed to develop
- 15:53things like photovoltaic panels, which
- 15:56have made solar energy much more
- 15:58efficient, right? And, well, the
- 16:01development of battery production,
- 16:02which has made electric cars and all
- 16:04that stuff viable. So, for the
- 16:07Europeans and other parts of the world,
- 16:09like China, and even here in Brazil,
- 16:11solar energy is now even cheaper than
- 16:13oil, you see? But it brings several
- 16:15other problems, right? Because it only
- 16:16works when the sun is shining. But
- 16:19regardless of that, just opening and
- 16:21closing that parenthesis, can you
- 16:23imagine replacing most of our transport
- 16:26with electric transport—solar, wind
- 16:29—all of which have an environmental
- 16:31impact; clean energy doesn't really
- 16:34exist—but with the goal of reducing
- 16:36CO2 emissions, and slowing down the
- 16:39climate problem, and even trying to
- 16:41reverse it using technology in the
- 16:43future. Do you think we are going to do
- 16:47this through technological regression,
- 16:50by reducing wealth production? Do you
- 16:53think that if we were to create, for
- 16:55example, a vast metro and rail system
- 16:57in Brazil for urban and intercity
- 16:59environments to move goods with
- 17:01high-speed trains, that this would
- 17:02produce more or less wealth? It would
- 17:05produce much more wealth, but with less
- 17:07"stuff," you see? Because a metro and
- 17:10rail system, a high-speed train
- 17:12connecting 500 or 1,000 km, allowing
- 17:14for transport, requires much less
- 17:17extraction from nature than what would
- 17:19otherwise be necessary. Compared to how
- 17:24many tens or hundreds of thousands of
- 17:27trucks you would have to build over
- 17:29decades or centuries, burning fuel one
- 17:32by one to transport every little thing
- 17:34you consume, do you see? Than putting
- 17:39it into something that will much more
- 17:41efficiently transport much larger
- 17:43quantities of goods, even more cheaply
- 17:46over time, even though it’s much more
- 17:48expensive to build. In other words, a
- 17:51high-speed train is expensive and will
- 17:53cause local damage, okay? Of course it
- 17:55does; where the tracks pass, all of
- 17:56that has to be thought out—everything
- 17:58causes some damage, you see? So you
- 18:01will invest much more wealth to do that
- 18:03than would be necessary to build
- 18:05another 50 million cars. But with 50
- 18:08million cars, you will extract much
- 18:10more iron ore, many more petroleum
- 18:12derivatives for plastic, etc. And above
- 18:15all, much more fuel. Do you understand
- 18:17the point? Do you understand? The point
- 18:20is not to reduce wealth production, but
- 18:24if we want to get rid of fossil fuels,
- 18:27slow them down and move away from them,
- 18:30there will have to be colossal,
- 18:33gigantic investments in new energy
- 18:36sources and in energy storage, right?
- 18:40Uh, or do you think, oh, solar energy,
- 18:42great, but solar energy only works in
- 18:44some places in the world. There are
- 18:47places where, uh, you could do solar
- 18:49energy in Norway, you could, but it’s
- 18:51very unproductive. There’s no sun, it
- 18:54goes 6 months of the year, 4 months of
- 18:56the year, which is just night, and the
- 18:57other months the sun is super weak
- 18:59because the light arrives at such a
- 19:01tilt since it’s at the extreme of the
- 19:03Earth. What are you going to do?
- 19:05Devastate the Amazon rainforest to put
- 19:07up solar panels? So, there are places
- 19:10where solar energy is great, uh, more
- 19:12arid lands, deserts, and so on, but it
- 19:14has an impact too, okay? You’ll have
- 19:16to: the panels will eventually have to
- 19:18be discarded. When their lifespan ends,
- 19:20we have to learn how to recycle them.
- 19:22We need to develop strong new energy
- 19:25sources, fusion, make fission more, uh,
- 19:28productive, and all that means
- 19:30developing technology much more and
- 19:32producing much more wealth, okay? Oh,
- 19:39Gustavo, but look, data centers use an
- 19:41enormous amount of water, everything
- 19:43uses resources, guys. The point is for
- 19:46us to know where to put them and how to
- 19:48set them up, right? The problem with
- 19:50data centers in Brazil also involves
- 19:51several other things. Capitalism wants
- 19:53to spend just to spend, wants to
- 19:55consume just to consume. So things are
- 19:58made without taking into account
- 20:00durability, the quality of the product,
- 20:02made so that it is replaced as quickly
- 20:04as possible. That means discarding the
- 20:06previous one. There are many countries
- 20:08in the world where people have learned
- 20:10to discard appliances every year and
- 20:11buy new ones, even with everything
- 20:13working perfectly well. And the new
- 20:14ones aren't necessarily much better
- 20:16than the previous ones. There is no
- 20:19more appropriate discussion to place
- 20:21the need for socialism—although that
- 20:23alone isn't enough, obviously, because
- 20:25there has to be a way and a method to
- 20:28do it—than the environmental issue. A
- 20:30society that is not focused on quantity
- 20:36alone, but on the quality and
- 20:37durability of products, where
- 20:39replacement is done only when there are
- 20:40technological developments that truly
- 20:42justify the replacement, okay? Uh, only
- 20:47in a socialist society can we choose to
- 20:49spend more on something that is less
- 20:52harmful. In capitalism now, the
- 20:54electric car emerged and the energies,
- 20:56because it spends because it became
- 20:57more efficient, otherwise it wouldn't
- 20:58have emerged. A society where we
- 21:02articulate production and consumption
- 21:04is the only one where we can choose a
- 21:07resource that is more expensive than
- 21:09another for society and, consequently,
- 21:12for individuals, but which causes less
- 21:14damage. And choosing to spend more is
- 21:18producing more wealth, it is not
- 21:19producing less, no. Do you understand
- 21:23that? Well, it’s not just the waste
- 21:26that capitalism produces, because here,
- 21:28since there is no planning between
- 21:29production and consumption, it is the
- 21:31market that regulates through trial and
- 21:33error. The stupidest method that has
- 21:35ever existed, as I have said several
- 21:37times. So, for example, in capitalism,
- 21:40it is more interesting that everyone
- 21:42has their individual car, or at least
- 21:4330%of the population, those who can
- 21:45afford it because capitalism doesn't
- 21:47create conditions for everyone to have
- 21:49one, than for you to have a decent
- 21:50subway and rail system and cars
- 21:52available for personal use when you
- 21:53need them. So, let those who want to
- 21:56buy a car spend their income because
- 21:58they are passionate about cars, okay?
- 22:00It can happen, you spend your income on
- 22:02whatever you want. But if you have a
- 22:04car that you can, you know, use your
- 22:07resource to utilize a top-tier car when
- 22:09you need it within a decent subway and
- 22:12rail system, probably 2%of the
- 22:14population that has a car today would
- 22:17want to own one, because you have
- 22:19access to a car when you need it, much
- 22:21better than what you could afford
- 22:24individually, and you do all your daily
- 22:26commuting to work, trips A, B, C, and D
- 22:29on a decent, fast, comfortable subway
- 22:32and rail system, which is much more
- 22:34wealth to create, but has much less
- 22:37environmental impact. So, production of
- 22:39wealth is not production of things. In
- 22:41the socialist system, besides everyone
- 22:44having their own washing machine at
- 22:46home, you can create public laundry
- 22:49systems by region, by neighborhood,
- 22:51freeing people from a good dose of
- 22:54domestic work, easily accessible, with
- 22:56quality, and in this case, you lower
- 22:59costs, right? In this case, you do
- 23:02reduce things, but you don't reduce the
- 23:03productive force, the human capacity to
- 23:05do. It is not necessary to have a
- 23:08washing machine in every house, because
- 23:10in a place with 1,000 houses, you can
- 23:13have 50 washing machines that meet
- 23:15everyone's demand in a public laundry,
- 23:17right? In a socialist society, you can
- 23:21shift production surpluses, that which
- 23:24is not used for reproduction and our
- 23:26immediate consumption, so that we can
- 23:29advance in the areas that are most
- 23:31necessary and advance to avoid greater
- 23:34environmental impacts, as in the case
- 23:36of fossil fuels, right? Uh, so there is
- 23:40no argument that highlights the need
- 23:43for socialism more than the
- 23:46environmental issue. Not because it’s
- 23:48no longer necessary to develop
- 23:50productive forces, no, because
- 23:51socialism develops productive forces
- 23:53more than any other form of society.
- 23:55And our capacity to produce wealth,
- 23:58because now people can be rewarded for
- 24:01the achievements they've made, for the
- 24:04developments they've created.
- 24:06Capitalism is the opposite, my friend.
- 24:08The company is the one that profits.
- 24:09The company that patents, that holds
- 24:11the patent, not the worker who
- 24:13developed it. That person, if they
- 24:14don't keep making new things, they get
- 24:15fired. It is an anti-meritocratic
- 24:18society, contrary to the propaganda
- 24:21that is spread, okay? Uh, under
- 24:24capitalism, things are indeed made for
- 24:27quick and immediate consumption and not
- 24:29for their long-term durability, which
- 24:32doesn't mean producing less wealth, but
- 24:34more wealth with fewer things, adding
- 24:37more human labor, more complexity. Do
- 24:41you see capitalism? You cannot opt for
- 24:43what has a higher cost. Now, we can opt
- 24:47for what has a higher cost, do you see?
- 24:50So, if a data center is built
- 24:51rationally, which one do you think has
- 24:53a higher environmental cost? If the
- 24:55data center is powered by renewable
- 24:57energy in systems, in places where
- 25:00there is plenty of water available to
- 25:02be used for this purpose, locating them
- 25:05strategically in places where water can
- 25:07be used because it is within the
- 25:09natural cycle that replenishes itself,
- 25:12uh, without the energy coming from
- 25:14fossil fuels. We can even use nuclear
- 25:17fission plants in a less restrictive
- 25:19way, because there is no longer the
- 25:21risk of global capitalist disputes and
- 25:24the plant being bombed. Or do you think
- 25:28it’s cheaper, that it’s better for
- 25:30us to go back to producing millions and
- 25:33millions and millions and millions and
- 25:35millions of tons of paper, okay?
- 25:38Devastating giant parts of the
- 25:40ecosystem to produce eucalyptus, to
- 25:43extract cellulose, and turn it all back
- 25:45into paper. Do you think that’s
- 25:48cheaper? Does this mean that paper will
- 25:50disappear? No, but it can be restricted
- 25:53, do you understand? Uh, so that’s it
- 25:57. I really wanted to make this video, I
- 26:00took advantage of this moment here,
- 26:02it’s not such a long video, to share
- 26:04these reflections with you. First,
- 26:06clean energy and clean production do
- 26:08not exist. Every activity of ours
- 26:10requires intervention in nature. To
- 26:13solve the environmental problem, we
- 26:15don't need a technological reversal. We
- 26:19need to accelerate our technological
- 26:22capacity. But yes, under capitalism,
- 26:24technological capacity is directed
- 26:26without taking into account natural
- 26:29conditions and our needs. It is used
- 26:31aiming for quick profit and almost
- 26:32never coincides with both things. It
- 26:34turns against us individually, using
- 26:37technology to reduce jobs, to reduce
- 26:39wages. And natural conditions are
- 26:41exhausted in a completely irrational
- 26:44way. Socialism is the only society
- 26:46where production and consumption can be
- 26:48consciously planned, not left for the
- 26:50market to solve by trial and error. We
- 26:53are going to produce not less wealth,
- 26:56but much more, but wealth rationally
- 26:59decided, defining things by their
- 27:01quality, durability, not by their
- 27:04quantity, by quick profit, producing
- 27:07things without the enormous waste that
- 27:10the market always produces by
- 27:12allocating wealth through trial and
- 27:15error. Now we allocate in a planned
- 27:18manner, defining the metrics rationally
- 27:21. And here we can define, to channel
- 27:23the surplus labor of society, not into
- 27:26public debt bonds, not into all this
- 27:28mess that exists today, into stocks,
- 27:30securities, the financial market. No,
- 27:32but to the sectors that most need to
- 27:35develop so that we can, and so we can
- 27:40have the resources we need to survive
- 27:42and survive well, which is always an
- 27:44intervention in nature, but with the
- 27:45lowest possible impacts, in a totally
- 27:47calculated way. For example, allocating
- 27:51everything to long-term infrastructure
- 27:54works, to research and development in
- 27:56energies with high potential and lower
- 27:59impact, and so on, okay? So there is a
- 28:03better discussion to frame the question
- 28:05of socialism. This has nothing to do
- 28:08with degrowth, with reducing productive
- 28:10forces, with this so-called degrowth
- 28:12ecosocialism, this cheap
- 28:14neo-Malthusianism, okay? The so-called
- 28:18reduction of material property, of
- 28:20material production, who knows what
- 28:22that means, because all production is
- 28:24material, but rather, we can produce
- 28:26more, much more wealth with the
- 28:28smallest amount of things extracted
- 28:30from nature. Because wealth is not
- 28:33measured by the quantity of things, it
- 28:35is measured by what we deposit into
- 28:37those things. That's it. Send this
- 28:41video whenever you see an
- 28:43environmentalist with cheap rhetoric,
- 28:45okay? A degrowth advocate who today
- 28:47infests left-wing groups, okay? It
- 28:50infests left-wing groups and ends up
- 28:52paving the way for the right. This is a
- 28:54path where the left could crush
- 28:56right-wing groups of all kinds,
- 28:58especially socialists and Marxists, and
- 29:00it ends up being a victim of these
- 29:02discussions coming from that garbage
- 29:05like WWF, Greenpeace, that garbage that
- 29:07is good for absolutely nothing. All
- 29:09right? Best regards.
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