Capitalism cannot regulate and much less solve the current world crisis, in particular the ecological situation because to do so, it would require limiting riches and that option is unacceptable for a system whose objective is only money.

The statement came from Dr. Ismael Clark, President of the Cuban Academy of Sciences during a master conference at the opening ceremony of the 2nd Jose Marti International Colloquium held on Tuesday at the University of Havana with the assistance of Culture Minister Abel Prieto.

Clark said that with the expansion of the industrial revolution and the growing demand of energy, the issue of the environment became one more component of economic richness for the development of capitalism. This has inflicted an environmental deterioration characterized by indiscriminate deforestation, pollution and the lose of biodiversity which according to experts is the worse of the consequences due to its magnitude and irreversible situation.

He recalled that Jose Marti had warned during his time, on the dangers of the unjustifiable human aggression against nature, when he said: “Regions
without trees are poor, cities without trees are unhealthy, and land without trees provokes little rain.”

The also president of the Scientific Committee of the Colloquium said scientific ethics face today the challenge of looking for approaches in accordance with basic needs but at the same time magnifies the well being and human condition.

Others that spoke at the opening session of the event were Armando Hart, President of the event’s Organizing Committee; Herman Van Hoff, Director of the Regional Culture Office for Latin America and the Caribbean and UNESCO representative in Cuba; Gustavo Cobreiro, Rector of the University of Havana and Gustavo Robreño, Executive Coordinator of the Colloquium.

Also present at the event were guests, relatives of the Cuban Five and members of the diplomatic corps accredited in Havana.

Illustration by Rusty Boxcars, courtesy Flickr, cc by 2.0