Hugo Chavez: Capitalism to Blame for Climate Crisis

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/12/16/President_Hugo_Chavez_Lambasts_Capitalism_at_COP15

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez links capitalism to global warming during an address at the COP15 Climate Conference in Copenhagen. "A ghost is stalking the streets of Copenhagen...it's capitalism, capitalism is that ghost," says Chavez. "The destructive model of capitalism is the eradication of life."

FORA.tv's complete coverage of the COP15 Climate Change Conference: http://fora.tv/partner/COP15

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez addresses COP15, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Criticizing the destructive practices of the capitalist system, Chavez fears that the "infinite model" of capitalism will exhaust the finite resources of the environment.

Hugo Chavez is the President of Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. As the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, Chávez promotes a political doctrine of participatory democracy, socialism and Latin American and Caribbean cooperation. He is also a critic of neoliberalism, globalization, and United States foreign policy.

A career military officer, Chávez founded the left-wing Fifth Republic Movement after orchestrating a failed 1992 coup d'état against former President Carlos Andrés Pérez. Chávez was elected President in 1998 with a campaign centering on promises of aiding Venezuela's poor majority, and was reelected in 2000 and in 2006. Domestically, Chávez has maintained nationwide Bolivarian Missions, whose goals are to combat disease, illiteracy, malnutrition, poverty, and other social ills.

Abroad, Chávez has acted against the Washington Consensus by supporting alternative models of economic development, and has advocated cooperation among the world's poor nations, especially those in Latin America.

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• capitalism
• capitalists
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[jeannedarc2007]

@dorksayswhat. actually, he sells it to Cuba for next to nothing! Ha! And what are you on about? He ain't stelling oil to America, what are you saying? Venezuela used to be the third biggest oil deliverer of the States and now they are boycotted by Chavez. That's why they created a propaganda machine in the media to make him the bad jerk. America can't handle it when they dont get their way. I like him for it. He sends his middle finger to them and I do too.

[Gino1453]

Hasta la vittora sempre!!

[ccd101]

@R3dSt4r90

"how should i call it? nationalist dictatorship"

Eastern European countries like CS didn't have nationalist dictatorships, but internationalist ones.

"so if it's not about the money, why do you blame socialism for it?"

Because if you collectivize the environment (land etc.), nobody cares for it, and the socialist mismanagement prevents enviro technologies from getting developed.

What has Chavez done for the environment, with all his oil money? He wasted oil to USA.

[ccd101]

@R3dSt4r90

"the parties who want to protect the environment are all sitting on the left side"

But that doesn't mean that they are anti-capitalists or communists. The SPD and many greens want "soziale Marktwirtschaft", i.e. capitalism with a social touch. The PDS can't govern anyway, for lack of votes.

The poor have to suffer the most from pollution, since they can't afford to live at the "clean" sites, to buy organic food etc. So environmentalists inherently care for poor people.

[R3dSt4r90]

@ccd101 i don't know where u live, but in germany the parties who want to pass laws in order to protect the environment are all sitting on the left side, while it's not a secret anymore that the conservative and right wing parties are controlled by lobbies.. if profit is more important than people, it is also more important than the environment for them

my problem with environmentalists is that they seem to care more about the environment than about poor people..

[R3dSt4r90]

@ccd101 i admit that it was a failed attempt of socialism, because lenin and trotzky really wanted to establish communist rules and values, but stalin didn't stick to the socialist system AT ALL.. how should i call it? nationalist dictatorship

so if it's not about the money, why do you blame socialism for it? as if justice and equality or the communist system or the capitalist system have anything to do with the treatment of the environment

who cares most about the environment? left parties.

[ccd101]

@R3dSt4r90

If I am "neglecting what really matters", you should say what really matters. So far, you didn't.

If it wasn't communism, how do you call it?

BTW I'm not a conservative, I'm an environmentalist. That's why I'm not a commie.

It was NOT necessary to "afford [i.e. import] modern environmentally-friendly production" or even to "compete to capitalist countries". They could have developed environmental tech themselves! If it wasn't for communism (or how ever you call it).

[R3dSt4r90]

@ccd101 pointing out something completely unimportant while neglecting what really matters.. is this the only way conservatives can argue? "it wasn't really communism"? since when a nation can be communist?

if the countries in east europe polluted the environment, because they couldn't afford modern environmentally friendly production, because their social worker-friendly economy can't compete to capitalist countries, you could blame socialism to be inefficient.. BUT that was NOT the case

[ccd101]

@R3dSt4r90

Oh yeah, the old excuse that it wasn't really communism... But that doesn't fly. No matter how you call it -- if you collectivize resources, nobody will care for them. And there isn't enough money and technology around to make technologies enviro-friendly (e.g. filters in coal powerplants and cars).

As for Chavez, he has long donated a lot of fuel to "poor" Americans (who wasted it), even while his own people suffered poverty. How enviro-"friendly" and "social" is that?

[R3dSt4r90]

@ccd101 where's the link between the speech of hugo chavez and the envirionment of eastern european countries? i think it's arrogant to believe that you can define the former european east as communist, without knowing anything about the communist ideology

[ccd101]

@R3dSt4r90

You sound like an arrogant commie without content. If you think you know better, be specific about what you think are the facts.

[R3dSt4r90]

@ccd101 you don't know what you are talking about, so please don't spread your unqualified naive subjective opinion