A letter to the editor. Environmental destruction is rooted in the global money-based economic system, where production is driven by profit rather than human need. It claims that businesses must expand and compete to survive, leading to overproduction, resource depletion, and pollution. Even well-intentioned reforms—such as green technologies, regulations, or ethical consumer choices—are presented as insufficient, because they operate within the same system that prioritises growth and profitability over ecological balance. As long as money and markets dominate decision-making, the planet’s resources will continue to be exploited unsustainably.

The writer proposes replacing the money system entirely with a global society based on common ownership and production for use. In this model, goods and services would be produced directly to meet human needs, without buying, selling, or profit. This, they argue, would allow rational planning of resources, reduce waste, and enable sustainable interaction with the environment. The letter concludes that only such a fundamental transformation—rather than reforms within capitalism—can effectively address the ecological crisis and ensure long-term planetary survival.

Taken from the February 2026 edition of The Socialist Standard.

World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants.

To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgb

or, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: spgb.net/podcast

Featuring music: ‘Pushing P (Instrumental)’ by Tiga Maine x Deejay Boe. Source: Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0