Capital, the Perpetuation of Profit Cycles and Environmental Destruction Continued from Book Two

Hassan Abbasi

In this chapter, we will generally address the trends and processes of capital production and its environmental consequences, as well as the health of humans and animals. According to a new UN report in April 2022, industrial agricultural production is destroying and degrading land in an unbridled way. 40% of land has already lost value, largely due to modern agriculture, and if things continue at this rate, an area the size of South America could be completely transformed into barren, nutrient-poor plains by 2050. The report, titled “Global Landscape,” has been in the works for five years, and examines how the capitalist world manages the Earth’s resources, such as soil, water, and biodiversity. One of the main focuses of the report is the degradation of the quality of the planet’s land. The report shows that capitalist industrial farming practices are leading to a decline in the overall health of the land, a decline in soil fertility, a decrease in carbon sequestration, and a reduced ability to sustain species. According to the report, just 1% of farmers own 70% of all agricultural land, while 80% of farms are less than two hectares each, meaning they are only used to produce the daily needs of the families who work them. At least 70% of forest areas were cleared for agricultural purposes between 2013 and 2019. Large-scale industrial agricultural production systems are the biggest culprits, accounting for 80 percent of deforestation and 70 percent of freshwater use. This will reduce agricultural land by another 15 million square kilometres by 2050, an area the size of South America. Continuing this trend would also mean a 12-14 percent loss of productivity in agricultural land, rangelands and natural areas in the long term, with sub-Saharan African countries suffering the most. “We cannot take land for granted,” says the executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). How heavy machinery in industrial agriculture is causing significant damage to the soil. A study published by Swedish researchers in May 2022 says: The huge tractors currently used in industrial agriculture are damaging a fifth of all cultivated land in the world. Researchers in Sweden say in a recently published report that the weight of a combine, tractor or other large agricultural machinery risks compacting the soil, which can lead to flooding and reduced yields. The researchers calculate that combine harvesters, when fully equipped, have grown from 4,000 kilograms in 1958 to about 36,000 kilograms in 2020. In soil that has been pressed down by heavy machinery, air escapes from the pores and the soil becomes more compacted. This process makes it harder for plants to take root and absorb nutrients and makes the land more prone to flooding. The increasing weight of machinery is a threat to large-scale agricultural production, they say. Their analysis, published in the Proceedings of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, suggests that combine harvesters could damage a fifth of the world’s cropland.

(Thomas Keller, professor of soil management at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala).

Thomas Keller, a professor of soil management at Uppsala University of Agricultural Sciences in Sweden, says the machines need to be designed to weigh less than a certain amount. “By driving these devices over the ground, soil compaction can happen in seconds, but it can take decades to restore the soil to its original state,” he said.

In January 2020, the World Economic Forum in Davos reported that global societies had reached a record annual consumption of raw materials: 100 billion tons per year. According to the report, 100.6 billion tons of raw materials were consumed in 2017 – the last year for which data was available. Half of this total is used as sand, clay and cement for the construction of buildings, facilities, factories, roads, ports, airports, etc., and the rest is used to produce fertilizers. Coal, oil and gas accounted for 15% of the total consumption, and metal ores accounted for 10%. The remaining 25 percent are plants and trees used for fuel and food. The largest share of capital consumption of these materials is in the housing industry: 40 percent of the total. For food production, transportation, health, communications, and finished goods for non-capital consumers such as clothing and household goods constitute other high-consumption industries. Of the materials used each year, one-third (for example, in cars or buildings) will still be in use the following year. But 15% of this total is released into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases, and 25% (including plastics dumped into oceans and rivers) as waste. A third of this material is landfilled as non-recyclable waste. Only 8.6% of this material is recycled. The amount of material consumed in the global capitalist economy has quadrupled since the 1970s. Population growth, however, has only doubled. Last year (2019) was declared “Earth Violation Day.” Earth Day is the name given to the day on which all renewable resources for one year’s consumption are exhausted. However, consumption is not uniform throughout the world, and developed capitalist countries with high capital and individual consumption have much higher consumption than other countries and poorer classes. For example, the average consumption of a North American citizen is five times that of a Mexican citizen, 10 times that of a Chinese citizen, and 30 times that of an Indian citizen. If the whole world lived like America, we would need 5 planets to meet our consumption needs. This number is 4.1 for Australia, 3.2 for Russia, 3 for Germany, and only 0.7 for India. It goes without saying that such a comparison in the world of capital, which has the highest level of trade, shows that a significant part of goods, whether capital or personal consumption, are produced in other geographical locations, while their capital and personal consumption takes place in another place. Therefore, the whole world of capital should be considered with the hysteria of production and accumulation of capital in relation to the consumption of raw materials, as in other productions. Capital production and accumulation have ushered in the sixth age of mass extinction of animals and destruction of their natural habitats. This is while exactly one year later, experts from the global network “Footprint” announced that on January 29, 2021, “humans” have reached the maximum utilization of the planet’s natural resources. This means that for the rest of the year, capital production and accumulation in the world will consume more than 100 billion tons of natural resources. The Footprint Network marks a day each year when the natural resource use peak of that year is reached; the resources used for urban development, food production, and industrial use. Reaching such a day means that from that day on, capital’s consumption of natural resources will exceed the Earth’s capacity and ability to regenerate them. Last year, due to the coronavirus pandemic and the relative stagnation of capitalist production, it consumed fewer resources. But in 2021, according to expert assessments, the use of natural resources will be much greater than before the Corona era. At the same time, plant and animal species are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. But these species and their habitats are of extraordinary importance to all life on Earth and all manifestations of existence, including humans. In these reports, “humans” are mentioned everywhere as the main factor in environmental destruction, greed for production for profit and capital accumulation. For a worker with the least class consciousness, it is as clear as day that this human being, who is named as the cause, has lived on the planet for tens of thousands of years. Now, how is it that this same human being, during the approximately 150 years of industrial capitalism, has suddenly become destructive of nature and his own living environment? The demagoguery of capital research institutes, newspapers, and in many cases even researchers in misleading and giving false addresses about the destruction of the environment and nature is becoming more rampant every day! The words of capitalist statesmen and their colourful environmental think tanks are not due to a lack of knowledge about the factors and causes of environmental destruction, but rather another issue that is as old as capitalist production relations. That the key to human life, the provider of sustenance and the guarantor of the existence of man and nature, is capital, and these relations were not and are not to be questioned or discussed. The essence of this message and the coercive function of capital is also very clear and explicit. That workers are sellers of labour power, have no right to interfere in the fate of work and production, what should be produced and what should not be produced and how it should be produced, only capital decides, and the basis of capital’s decision, whatever it is, must be accepted as divine providence. If man is mentioned here as the cause, it is also merely a code name for capital! Capital was not created from the beginning and is never meant to be responsible for what it does to humans, their environment, and nature. When the foundation of capital’s existence is the sacrifice of humans in the face of profit, when in the process of work and production it alienates humans from their work, the products of their work, it is not meant to and has never been to have mercy on nature, animals, and their environment. Everything and everyone must be sacrificed in the face of profit and the accumulation of ever greater capital.

We have discussed the production of raw materials, and it is necessary to follow up with a discussion of heavy metals, their historical production, and their harmful effects in Chapter 6 of Volume 2 of this series. An important part of the annual production of capital raw materials are heavy metals, which have various capital uses in various processes and products. What they have in common is their potential to cause various, often dangerous and incurable diseases. These metals, which include 18 elements, are named below. But before we get into the discussion of heavy metals and their environmental, human, and animal health effects as their use increases, we should discuss the discovery, extraction, and astronomical increase of other metals, for which no results have yet been published on their environmental effects. However, the origin and widespread use of these elements indicate disasters far greater than the use of heavy metals.

Such elements are called rare earths. Rare earths and international competition in other areas of capital advance that play an increasingly important role. The rapid increase in electronics, the need for batteries with high storage capacity, the increasing prevalence of electric vehicles, and the need for capital to further increase labour productivity in the production of goods, both capital and consumer, are increasing the need for metals with high electrical conductivity, formability, and other physical properties, such as lithium. The main focus of Bolivia’s large companies was initially tin mining, but tin is no longer the main focus in Bolivia. The main focus is now its vast reserves and resources of lithium (it is said to have about half of the world’s resources; the other Latin American countries with large lithium reserves are Chile and Argentina), which are essential for making electric cars. The Evo Morales government intended to sign lithium mining contracts with Chinese companies instead of large companies such as Glencore, Jindal Steel & Power (India), Pan American Energy, and South American Silver (now known as Trimetals Mining), Tesla, and Tata India. With the Chinese Tianqi Lithium Group, which is engaged in mining the same element in Argentina. In addition, Bolivia’s silver, iron, zinc and indium mines are among the world’s most important resources. Indium is widely used in the semiconductor industry. The Bolivian capitalist state, which has an active presence in mining through the Bolivian National Mining Company (COMIBO) and the Bolivian National Lithium Company (YLB), is in dire need of large-scale capital and advanced techniques with high labour productivity in order to maintain and even increase its position as a shareholder in the surplus value produced by the Bolivian working masses. The metals known as rare earths are in this category. The market for the production of these metals, which includes the first identified mineral of these elements, is a mixture called gadolinite, which is a chemical compound of caesium, yttrium, iron, silicon and other elements. Their production is generally controlled by Chinese companies, whether their mines are in China, Africa or Latin America (especially Bolivia). Chinese companies control nearly 90 percent of the production and sales of rare earths and mass-produce them using workers whose meager wages below the poverty line are not paid for months, directly adding to the massive profits of capital. So far, 17 rare earth elements have been identified that have industrial applications (lanthanum, caesium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium).

(La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm,Yb, Lu, Sc, Y)

Most of these elements, despite their names, are very abundant in the Earth. For example, caesium is the 25th most abundant element, with a concentration equal to that of copper. Due to geological characteristics, these elements are very dispersed in the Earth as fine soil particles and are not sufficiently concentrated in one place. As a result, their discovery, extraction, and exploitation are very costly. Deposits of these elements that can be exploited economically are called rare earth minerals. The first identified mineral of these elements was gadolinite, a chemical compound of caesium (Cs), yttrium (Y), iron, silicon, and other elements. This mineral was obtained from a mine in the village of Ytterby in Sweden. Several rare earth elements are named after this area. These discoveries occurred at a time when the industrialized country was undergoing a period of great capitalist development, a period when, at its peak, Alfred Nobel revolutionized mining with more than a hundred discoveries and inventions, including the invention of dynamite. The proximity of these elements to the lactide group, which includes uranium, thorium, plutonium, etc., which are radioactive elements, and their type of ion extraction is common. In addition, these elements are created in the process of radioactive decay of elements such as uranium, and they themselves are not stable and are converted into other elements by emitting radioactive waves. For this reason, their lifespan is often short, and some have a half-life of 18 years. This process, often accompanied by their extraction, has caused environmental damage that has forced some capitalists in this area of capital investment to temporarily stop production. For example, the Malaysian government recently forced the production of these elements to stop due to public environmental concerns. Near mining and industrial centers that extract and process them, their concentration can increase to several times the natural level. These elements can be transported to the soil by many factors such as erosion, weather, acidity, precipitation, acidic groundwater, etc. These elements have functions similar to metals. They can be excreted or absorbed depending on soil conditions. They can be taken up by plants through biological nutrient sources and then consumed by humans and animals. In addition, strong acids during the extraction process of rare earth elements form compounds with them, which can then be transferred to the environment and water bodies, making the environment acidic. Most of these elements, along with radioactive elements such as thorium (Th) and uranium (U), are found in rare earth rocks, which are dispersed in the environment during mining and cause widespread environmental pollution. For this reason, the Chinese government was forced to temporarily stop mining these elements, especially in Inner Mongolia, in 2010, 2013, and recent years, but production and mining resumed after a short period of time. In most of these cases, the price of these important raw materials in world markets has increased several times. In this regard, it is not possible to clearly and with certainty understand what the main reason for the temporary stoppage of production was!

In 2017, China produced 81% of the world’s rare earth resources. The country extracted the most of these elements from Inner Mongolia, which holds 36.7% of global reserves. Australia is a distant second and the other largest producer, with 15% of global production, but this same capitalist country enjoyed lower production growth in 2020, with almost all of its production losses lost to Chinese capital. From 2014 to 2019, China’s exports of rare earth oxides doubled. 80% of China’s exports of these materials go to the United States. France, Japan, and Estonia also export processed rare earth elements to the United States. But they import their raw materials from China. Some important applications of rare earth elements are used in the production of high-performance magnets, catalysts, alloys, glasses, and electronics. Neodymium (Nd) is important in magnet production. Rare earth elements are used in electric motors for hybrid vehicles, wind turbines, hard disk drives, portable electronics, microphones, and loudspeakers. Caesium and lanthanum are important catalysts for petroleum refining and are used as diesel additives. Caesium (Cs), lanthanum (La), and neodymium (Nd) are important in alloying and the production of fuel cells and nickel-metal hydride (Ni) batteries. Caesium, gadolinium (Gd) and neodymium play an important role in electronics and are used in the production of LCD and plasma displays, fiber optics, lasers and also in medical imaging. Other uses of rare earth elements are in tracking in medical applications, fertilization. Rare earth elements are used in agriculture to increase plant growth, labour productivity in agriculture. Rare earth elements are used in agriculture through fertilizers enriched with rare earth elements, which is a common practice in China. In addition, these elements are feed additives for livestock, which lead to increased reproduction of large animals and the production of eggs and dairy products, and in fact, increased labour productivity in this area of capital investment. The destructive effects, especially long-term and cumulative over time, on the human body, animals and nature are unknown, and no research has been done in this area, or if it has been done, it is far from the point of view because there are huge profits in this regard. In this case, the same trend can be compared to a similar period when, shortly after Marie Curie’s discoveries of radioactivity (radium Rh and polonium Po elements) (about 120 years ago), profit-seeking capitalists were selling water contaminated with these radioactive substances as the water of life! Therefore, the radioactivity of these elements, their proximity to radioactive elements and their fission from these materials, the increase in the acidity of the soil, rain and waters of the world is another great danger that threatens the health of workers who work with these materials and the masses who feed on these materials under the influence of capitalist misinformation. But the producers and consumers of these capital goods continue to work only with the idea of profit and capital appreciation, like most areas of capital. China also has the highest mining and processing rate of these elements. In 2019, nearly 90% of the mining and processing of functional oxides of these elements was carried out in China. Almost all of the remaining 10% was produced by an Australian company in Malaysia. Malaysia plans to stop producing these elements due to public environmental concerns. New products that require rare earth elements include advanced equipment such as smartphones, digital cameras, computer components (PC components), high-capacity batteries for electric vehicles, etc. In addition, these elements are also used in new energy technology, military equipment, glass manufacturing, and metallurgy.

Chart 18 a: Resources and reserves of rare earths in the world and major producers in this area. Capital advance.

Chart 18 b: Resources and reserves of rare earths in the world and major producers in this area. Capital advance. China continues to mine these elements, Figure 18b, 2021

China is not only the largest producer of these valuable and strategic materials (charts above) and not only has huge reserves of these elements but also has made and continues to make significant investments in this area in African and Latin American countries. The reason for the international conflicts between the world’s major capitalist powers, such as the United States, Europe, and some Asian giants, is the performance of Chinese capitalism and its government in recent decades in Burma (Myanmar) over the country’s mineral resources, including rare earths, which China has complete control over extraction and production. Burmese domestic capital reaps huge profits in this cooperation, while China, with its global dominance in these areas, like any major capitalist, reaps huge profits in return for its massive capital, high labour productivity in this area, and the production of semi-finished and fully finished capital goods.

Heavy metal environmental pollution is increasingly widespread and, due to its adverse effects worldwide, it gives a broader dimension to the dimensions of environmental disasters and human health. These inorganic pollutants pose an unspoken and unknown danger due to the rapid growth of agriculture and metal industries, the increasing accumulation of waste, fertilizers and pesticides in the waters, soil and atmosphere of the earth under the banner of greenhouse gases and global warming. This review shows how pollutants enter the environment along with their fate. Some metals affect biological function and development, while others accumulate in one or more different organs and cause many serious diseases, such as cancer. The pharmacokinetic and toxicological processes in humans for each metal are described in the second volume. In summary, this review presents the physiological and biochemical effects of each bioaccumulation of heavy metals in humans and the levels of gravimetric and disease-causing factors. These metals include titanium, vanadium, chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, arsenic, molybdenum, silver, cadmium, tin, platinum, gold, mercury, and lead. They are defined as heavy metals due to their high atomic weight or due to their high density. Today, the term “heavy metal” is used to describe metallic chemical elements and metalloids that are toxic to the environment and humans. Some metalloids, as well as lighter metals such as selenium, arsenic, and aluminum, are toxic. They are called heavy metals. While some heavy metals are not usually toxic, such as the element gold, but are produced using heavy metals such as mercury. However, heavier and more dangerous metals such as uranium, radium, and the rare earth elements (which include seventeen elements) also have the chemical and toxic properties of heavy metals. Metalloids tend to form strong bonds, which is an important consequence of this. Their property is that they can bond covalently (the strongest chemical bond) with organic molecules of living organisms. Hence, they form ions and lipophilic compounds, and when they bind to non-metallic elements of cellular macromolecules, they can cause toxic effects, genetic changes, and cancer. Due to their lipophilic nature, metalloids are widely distributed in the biosphere (the part of the living world on Earth). Examples of lyophilic compounds (generally water-soluble) include tributyltin oxide and methyl arsenic forms, which are highly toxic. Examples of binding to non-metallic elements include the binding of lead and mercury to sulphide groups in proteins. Heavy metals can enter humans in four ways: by consuming contaminated food, inhaling contaminated air, drinking contaminated water, and through skin contact in agricultural, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, residential, and industrial areas. Most metals are non-biodegradable and exist in nature in various pure and combined forms. When heavy metals are ingested or enter our bodies, they accumulate in our systems. This bioaccumulation causes biological and physiological effects. Some heavy metals are essential for life (in very small amounts) and are called essential elements, which are needed for a variety of biochemical and physiological functions. However, when they accumulate in large quantities, they can be toxic. They are widely used in agriculture, industry, medicine and other sectors, so they accumulate in the environment, including the atmosphere, water and soil, and even the bodies of living organisms. These heavy metals have naturally existed in the earth’s crust since the formation of the earth. Due to the increasing use of heavy metals, it has led to an imminent increase in the amount of metal substances in both the terrestrial and aquatic environments and even the air. Heavy metal pollution is primarily due to the need for capital to increase their use, the extraction of these metals, smelting, casting and other metal-based industries, and the leaching of metals from various sources such as landfills, livestock and poultry manure, runoff and leachate from sewage sludge, automobiles and roads. The use of heavy metals in agriculture has been a secondary source of heavy metal pollution, such as the use of pesticides, insecticides, fertilizers, etc. Natural causes such as volcanic activity, evaporation of metals from soil and water, and resuspension of sediments increase soil erosion. It goes without saying that the latter has always existed before humans existed and is only added to when mines are opened, rocks are exposed to the air, and mined minerals are left to their own devices.

Chart 19: Global production trends of three elements over twenty years

Chart 20 Diseases and injuries caused by arsenic absorption in the body

Arsenic and all its compounds are highly toxic. The most toxic arsenic compound is arsine gas (AsH₃), which is a combination of arsenic and hydrogen gas. Breathing this gas at a concentration of 10 parts per thousand million (ppb 10) can kill a person in less than 5 seconds. This gas is 100,000 times more toxic and deadly than hydrogen cyanide (cyanide).

The main reason for the high toxicity of arsenic is its chemical similarity to phosphorus (one of the most common elements in the chemical composition of the body of the oppressors), for this reason, in biological molecules such as (adenosine triphosphate) or the phospholipid membrane of cells and internal components of the cell, as well as most of the vital enzymes, it replaces phosphorus and establishes covalent bonds (the strongest chemical bond) stronger than phosphorus. For this reason, arsenic leads to death by widely disrupting the digestive system and causing shock, otherwise it causes long-term complications including skin cancer and serious damage to the intestines and liver. The above image shows the complications of arsenic poisoning in the form of a star.

Cadmium in agricultural products, especially cereals and potatoes, is the most important source of absorption of this element for the human body. The absorption rate of cadmium for people with iron deficiency is 3 to 4 times that of people with normal iron levels. Cadmium accumulates in the kidneys and since the life of this element in the body is up to 30 years, it continues to damage the kidneys and liver for a long time. This element damages the kidneys and causes osteoporosis. Other side effects of cadmium include damage to the reproductive system and the body’s defence system. Inhalation of cadmium in factories where it is produced and as an auxiliary substance causes lung cancer among workers. Cadmium is rarely found in its pure form because it easily combines with other chemical molecules to form much more toxic compounds. For this reason, it can be found in water, air, soil, sediments, and food. Mining, metal smelting, and oil extraction are sources that increase cadmium concentrations in the environment and work. Workers in various capital investment sectors work with cadmium, including the production of alloys, chemicals used in chemical synthesis, metal smelting, casting, production of cadmium wire, production of cadmium powder for soldering, special cadmium powder for contact between metal sheets and as an auxiliary material in battery production, production of silver alloys, an auxiliary material in electronic goods, and a good conductor of heat and electricity, and when used as an additive in electrical and thermal alloys, it increases the speed of production processes.

Mercury is a heavy element that, in addition to its carcinogenic and toxic properties, is liquid at normal temperatures (22-24 degrees Celsius) and quickly emits mercury vapor, which is why it is easily transported by air circulation. The main reason for the increase in mercury concentration in the Earth’s atmosphere is the burning of fossil fuels, coal as an energy source, and other fossil fuels such as oil. Another source of increased mercury in the atmosphere and nature is the process of gold production in gold mines in countries when workers use mercury to separate and clean gold from other salts. This technique releases a large amount of mercury into the atmosphere, but more importantly, there are workers who have been extracting money in the mines with this technique for hundreds of years!! The last stage of production is when the gold amalgam (a mixture of gold and mercury) is heated and the mercury evaporates!! Pure gold is obtained, the workers at this stage bear the most risks and losses. The mercury technique covers a quarter of the world’s gold production because it is the cheapest type of gold extraction. Although it requires more labour, but due to the extremely cheap labour cost, capitalists in the mentioned countries use this technique. Different mercury compounds have different toxicity, with compounds such as phenylmercury and alkyl alkoxy mercury causing the least harm, and alkylmercury compounds causing the most harm. Mercury can be absorbed through inhalation, digestion, and skin. Mercury vapor tends to target the central nervous system, but its main target is the kidneys and liver. Global studies show that direct contact or inhalation of mercury vapor can cause various disorders, some of which include: Autoimmune system disorders, kidney dysfunction, infertility, negative effects on the fetus, behavioral-neurological problems, cardiac dysfunction, Alzheimer’s, destructive effects on the central and peripheral nervous systems, eye effects, oral problems, acute respiratory failure, skin inflammation, dementia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, anemia, redness of the eyes, bronchitis, pneumonia, pulmonary edema, metal fume fever and neurological disorders, effects on the thyroid gland, reproduction and genotoxicity. Inhaling one milligram of mercury vapor per cubic meter damages the lungs, kidneys, and nervous system, causing severe irritability, emotional instability, tremors, weight loss, swollen gums, headaches, stunted growth, lung inflammation, and skin inflammation. After mercury vapor, methylmercury is the most dangerous form of mercury. The use of methylmercury as a fungicide to protect grains has led to a significant reduction in birds that have eaten these grains, and hundreds of deaths have been reported in Iraq and the United States from eating bread whose wheat grains have come into contact with methylmercury. The most toxic form of mercury, methylmercury, enters the human body and causes Minamata disease. This disease was first observed in the 1950s in Minamata Bay, Japan. The occurrence of this disease in humans is associated with various neurological complications, including impairment of the five senses, the occurrence of Alzheimer’s in old age, and in severe cases, the death of the patient. Methylmercury is more potent than the poison salts because, in addition to its high solubility in fatty tissue, it has the ability to bioaccumulate. It can also cross the blood-brain barrier and the placenta. Most of the mercury in humans and animals is in the form of methylmercury, which is often ingested through fish consumption. Fatty fish have become the main source of mercury in the water by feeding on plankton and other fish, as mercury has been dumped into seas and waterways by producers over many years. Methylmercury is distributed through the digestive tract, especially in the central nervous system and kidneys, and manifests as delayed neurological disorders. Some of these disorders include:

Incoordination of muscle movements, drowsiness and tingling of the limbs, tremors, decreased vision, hearing, smell and taste, memory loss, progressive dementia, tissue necrosis, destruction of glial cells (non-neuronal cells of the central nervous system, brain and spinal cord and peripheral nervous system), movement disorders and death. Thus, the nervous system is the most sensitive organ to contact with mercury vapor. A wide range of respiratory, mental, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, reproductive, hepatic, renal, blood, skin, musculoskeletal, immune, sensory and perceptual and genotoxic disorders can be the effects of mercury. The following image shows the waste of this harmful metal in the human body.

Chart 21: Damage and diseases caused by mercury absorption in body organs

Chart 22: World production of lead and nickel throughout the history of industrial capitalism

Nickel production reached 2.7-million-ton s worldwide in 2021. Since 2010, global nickel production has increased by more than one million tons per year. Nickel is absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract as a low molecular weight lipophilic compound. Various ions and compounds (different ligands) present in the intestine effect nickel absorption. Animal studies have shown that nickel present in small amounts is absorbed by active transport with facilitated diffusion. In contrast, if nickel is present in large amounts, the carriers become saturated and nickel is absorbed by passive diffusion. In vitro studies have shown similar results, with nickel being absorbed by the jejunum and passively through the ileum (in gastrointestinal anatomy, the last of the three segments of the small intestine). In most vertebrates, the jejunum is the terminal part of the small intestine. Nickel, along with ligands such as amino acids and small polypeptides, binds to albumin and is transported into the blood. Nickel competes with copper in blood albumin (the main water-soluble blood protein). The metal is absorbed into the liver through calcium channels present in liver cells, as has been observed in laboratory studies in mice. It has also been observed that nickel activation causes a decrease in a regulatory enzyme that leads to increased angiogenesis, which then facilitates tumour growth. Nickel metal has a wide range of carcinogenic mechanisms that include transcription factors, free radical production, and the controlled expression of certain genes. Nickel is involved in the regulation of the expression of certain long non-coding RNAs (RNAs and messenger RNAs, mRNA). This heavy metal can induce promoter methylation (in genetics, the part of DNA where a gene’s transcription begins) and cause downregulation. Downregulation causes an increase in two proteins, hypoxia-inducible factor, which has been shown to play a role in carcinogenesis. Since nickel produces free radicals, it also plays a role in the carcinogenesis process.

Global lead production increased astronomically between 2006 and 2021 (in 2020, production decreased slightly from 12 million tons in 2019 to 11.7 million tons). But in 2021, it returned to its previous momentum and increased to 12.28 million tons. With properties such as abundance, density, high formability, and low melting point, lead has numerous applications in various fields of capital investment. Building structures, pigments used in ceramic glazes and water pipes, in old decorative items, ceilings, pipes and windows. This metal (in its elemental form) is the most widely used after iron, aluminium, copper and zinc. It is used industrially in radiation protection, in the manufacture of solder, lead-acid batteries, in electronic components, cable sheathing, ammunition, in glass. Lead is formed from the radioactive decay of uranium and is itself converted to mercury by radioactive decay. It exists in the earth’s layers in various combinations, but its spread in the environment is solely due to its extraction in mines as a raw material for the production of alloys, paints, anti-rust coatings, water pipes, batteries and ammunition. Lead, like mercury, accumulates in the body and, like it, causes complications in the nervous system and brain, especially in children and foetuses. Lead is a toxic metal that, even at low concentrations, damages the nervous system (especially in children) and causes blood and brain diseases. In adults, it causes kidney disease and high blood pressure. Lead absorption for children 4 to 14 years of age is estimated to be between 0.3 and 0.56 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day. Children with iron and calcium deficiencies absorb more lead than children with normal iron and calcium. For adults (15 to 75 years of age), it is between 0.23 and 0.41 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day. Lead exposure in children leads to an estimated 600,000 new cases of cerebral palsy worldwide each year. A level of at least 5 micrograms of lead per decilitre of blood in children will cause reduced learning and memory, low intelligence, behavioural disorders, tremors, intestinal colic, muscle pain, increased blood pressure, anemia, reduced sperm count, and infertility, and these effects will increase with increasing lead exposure and increased blood lead concentrations. Despite various conventions for the production and capital use of lead, its annual production has been constantly increasing and has gained great momentum in the last decade. This once again shows that the ostentatious laws of capitalism to control the production and consumption of harmful substances are nothing more than empty words, parliamentary propaganda, embellishment and a cover-up of environmental crimes. Lead, like other heavy and toxic metals such as mercury and arsenic, has no relationship or mechanism in the human body or other organisms, yet it is constantly produced and enters the body in various ways, poisoning all parts of the body from the molecular level to the cells and tissues. The image below illustrates such a judgment.

Chart 23: Poisoning of body organs during lead absorption

Chart 24: World production of aluminium, copper and zinc since the Second Imperialist War

Aluminium (Al) toxicity has been documented in various cases since the first decade of the last century. Some cases are related to the fact that Al is a neurotoxicant that has been found at high levels in the brain tissues of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), epilepsy, and autism patients. Other cases are related to infants, especially premature infants and those with renal failure, who are at risk for developing central nervous system (CNS) and bone toxicity. This risk arises from infant exposure to aluminium through formula, intravenous feeding solutions, and aluminium-containing vaccinations. In addition, most antiperspirants (deodorants) contain aluminium compounds, which increase human exposure to toxic aluminium. The research collected in July 2021 under the title “Environmental aluminium Pollution: The Silent Killer” contains significant studies that, without exaggeration, lead us to no other conclusion than “Capitalism, the Silent Killer”! aluminium, the most abundant metallic element in the Earth’s crust, is a light metal with high thermal and electrical conductivity. By mass, 8.8% of the Earth’s crust is aluminium and it can be found in large quantities in rocks. aluminium is released into the environment by natural weathering of rocks, mining, and high capital expenditures, is taken up by plants, and accumulates in water, either through these processes or through water treatment systems that consume large amounts of aluminium. Due to its properties, this metal is able to combine with various substances and create ligands (various complexes) that increase its biological availability in the animal body. With the mass production of capitalism, this metal has also been mixed in the air, water and various types of foods containing aluminium. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the daily intake is at least one milligram per kilogram of body weight for each human.

However, the human body is currently overexposed to aluminium for obvious reasons. Studies reported (National Library of Medicine) have shown that consumption and exposure to high levels of aluminium can lead to serious health problems. Recently (2006, 2008, 2014, 2018 and 2020) published in the same journal, various studies have shown that aluminium is associated with many human diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In addition, the high levels of aluminium in formula milk have further increased the safety of infant formula feeding. Some vaccines also contain high concentrations of aluminium. The use of antiperspirants (deodorants) exposes humans to toxic aluminium through the skin. Some plants have high concentrations of aluminium, such as tea, some herbs and spices, potatoes and spinach (2019). In general, the concentration of aluminium in fruits and vegetables depends on various factors, including soil acidity, water used for irrigation and the type of plant. As a result of these factors, researchers (2017) have shown that fruits and vegetables of different origins have different aluminium contents. For example, an average of 32.8 mg/kg of aluminium was reported to be found in Spanish bananas. Furthermore, some plants tend to accumulate more aluminium in their roots while others accumulate more aluminium in their leaves (e.g., tea) (2017). Carrots, spinach, cabbage, watercress and pumpkin have been reported to contain high levels of aluminium (27.47 mg/kg), where these vegetables originate from Spain (2010). Soni et al. (2001) also reported that baked potatoes from the United States contain high levels of aluminium (26 mg/kg). Table 11 shows the average aluminium content in some food groups. This shows that vegetables, fruits, roots and tubers, and seafood all have high aluminium content. The presence of aluminium in the air and water is not limited to natural processes. Capitalist production is a major contributor to the presence of aluminium in the air and water. Air emissions from the aluminium production process, coal combustion, mining, waste incineration, and motor vehicle exhaust all contribute to higher aluminium concentrations in the air (2002; 2008; 2017; 2019). Many studies have shown that particulate matter in urban areas contains a significant amount of aluminium from industrial production (2018; 2020; 2019; 2020). In drinking water, aluminium concentrations vary based on the water source and the use of aluminium in the water treatment process (2019). Aluminium salts are most commonly used as coagulants in the coagulation process for water treatment (2013; 2014). Although some food sources naturally contain aluminium, much of what we eat contains aluminium as food additives. Processed dairy products, mainly processed cheese, breakfast cereals, flour, cakes, biscuits, baking powder, coffee, milk powder, table salts, bread, rice and soft drinks are all examples of foods with high aluminium additives (2014; 2019). In fact, aluminium additives are used in pickling and food preservation processes (2014).

Examples of aluminium additives for various food products as well as the function of these additives are provided in (Center for Food Safety 2009).

A human being is exposed to a significant amount of aluminium without any will or any interference in the production process, not only because of the presence of aluminium in food, but also as a result of cooking with aluminium utensils, wrapping food with aluminium foil, and food stored in aluminium cans (2013). Cooking with aluminium cookware causes aluminium to leach from the cookware into the food as it heats up. A study (2011) found that the amount of aluminium leached from various foods is unacceptable by the World Health Organization and that this invasion of human health is considered negligible. Food contact with aluminium foil during food packaging results in aluminium transfer to food (2017).

In fact, a recent study was conducted to show the difference between baking in aluminium foil cups and silicone cups (2018). The study found that cakes baked in aluminium foil cups contained high levels of aluminium, which is unacceptable according to the WHO (2018). It is also worth noting that cooking acidic foods such as tomatoes in aluminium containers is considered quite unsafe because aluminium is released from cooking containers more readily into acidic foods (2013). Therefore, humans are exposed to varying concentrations of aluminium from foods depending on the food source, type of food, cooking method, and storage method. In addition, infant formula has been reported to contain significant amounts of aluminium, especially soy-based formulas, which have high levels of aluminium (2013). Recently, various research studies have focused on determining the concentration of aluminium in several brands of infant formula to investigate whether the amount is negligible or intolerable for the health of the infant. Regarding the level of aluminium in seafood, it is said that aquatic organisms can accumulate aluminium in their bodies because the water is contaminated with high levels of aluminium (2013). In fact, research (2011) studied aluminium accumulation in freshwater crabs and found that the crabs stored and accumulated aluminium due to aluminium contamination in the water. Currently, there is great concern that human exposure to toxic aluminium from multiple sources increases the potential for adverse health effects. aluminium has recently been associated with neurotoxicity.

Zinc is the fourth most widely used capital metal in the world after iron, aluminium, and copper. Zinc is used in various alloys, including brass and galvanized steel, electroplating of metals to prevent them from rusting, powerful zinc batteries, galvanizing iron, container production, military industries, automotive, shipbuilding, battery manufacturing, and the production of alloys such as brass, Warsaw, etc. At the same time, zinc is a food that is required in very small amounts by plants and animals, but its large amounts are toxic. Zinc is present in several enzymes and is required for body metabolism, among other things. Zinc is the second most common trace element in the body; iron is the most common trace element. Increased zinc absorption leads to zinc toxicity and causes a decrease in blood iron levels. This leads to acute weakening of the immune system, anemia and neutropenia (an immune deficiency caused by a deficiency of neutrophils in the body; the presence of neutrophils is essential in preventing and limiting bacterial infections). High zinc absorption also increases cholesterol, which is why zinc toxicity leads to increased blood lipids, which is also seen in people who regularly take zinc supplements. As we saw with aluminium, zinc levels in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s were more than twice as high as in healthy people.

Copper is a metallic element with ductility and high thermal and electrical conductivity, and has the highest electrical conductivity after silver, but due to its reasonable price, this metal is used more than silver in electrical wires, etc. Copper metabolism plays an important role in physiological homeostasis. However, copper toxicity causes several pathological processes that are harmful to human health. During the copper extraction process by pyrometallurgy, a significant amount of sulphur dioxide SO₂ is produced. Copper production plants usually produce large amounts of sulphur dioxide, which, when released into the environment, causes significant pollution. While copper is required as an important catalytic cofactor in chemistry for many proteins, in excess, free copper ions can cause damage to cellular components. A delicate balance between the uptake and excretion of copper ions determines cellular copper levels. Excess copper not only causes oxidative stress but also damages DNA and reduces cell proliferation. Ingestion of more than 1 g of copper sulphate leads to symptoms of toxicity. Copper toxicity can be caused by metabolic defects or by excessive intake or by increased absorption or decreased excretion due to underlying pathological processes. Copper poisoning can be caused by consuming acidic foods cooked in uncoated copper containers or by exposure to excess copper in drinking water or other environmental sources. The mass production of this metal and its widespread use in various fields of capital investment have disrupted the thousands of years of balance of this metal in the human environment and nutrition. Many cases of copper poisoning are often the result of consuming contaminated water sources, topical creams containing copper salts for treating burns, and acidic foods cooked in uncoated copper containers, but the main source of poisoning is the prominent and increasing role of this metal. For example, copper sulphate is a chemical that is readily available in many countries, even sold without a prescription. It is used in agriculture as a pesticide, in the leather industry, and in the manufacture of homemade glue. Burning copper sulphate in homes and shops (as a good luck charm and for some religious activities) is a common practice among Buddhists and Hindus. The bright blue colour of the hydrated form of copper sulphate crystals is attractive to children and is a frequent cause of unintentional poisoning. The mass production of this metal, as is evident from the above diagram, has been closely linked to its extensive use of capital in recent centuries. Capitalism is based on the need to produce and accumulate profit, so what is of primary and vital importance to it is the need to reproduce and accumulate, not the health of humans, their environment, or nature. Wilson’s disease is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by excessive copper accumulation and is caused by a variant of the gene encoding the enzyme copper-ATPase. The risks of copper toxicity are much greater for infants and children because of their immature biliary excretory system and increased intestinal absorption. The symptoms of overt acute copper toxicity depend in part on the manner in which the excess copper was ingested, usually accompanied by gastrointestinal side effects such as abdominal pain, jaundice, anorexia, intense thirst, diarrhea, and vomiting, along with erosive gastropathy. Altered mental alertness, headache, coma, and tachycardia may also accompany gastrointestinal side effects. Neurological symptoms such as depression, fatigue, irritability, agitation, and difficulty concentrating have also been reported. In the most severe forms, copper poisoning leads to rhabdomyolysis (skeletal muscle cells break down and their contents leak into the blood), heart and kidney failure, methemoglobinemia (when the iron molecule of haemoglobin is oxidized by the poisoning), intravascular homolysis, hepatic necrosis, encephalopathy, and ultimately death. As previously mentioned, the relationship between Alzheimer’s disease and copper and zinc is as intriguing as that between aluminium and copper. Researchers discovered this relationship ten years ago and explained it as follows.

“In this special issue on biological factors that cause cognitive impairment, we present and discuss evidence for two such biological factors. One is excess copper, which causes neurotoxicity. We provide evidence that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has become an epidemic in developed, but not underdeveloped, countries, and that this epidemic is a new disease phenomenon that began in the early 1900s and has exploded in the past 50 years. This leads to the conclusion that something in the developed environment is a major risk factor for AD. We hypothesize that the agent is inorganic copper, originating from copper plumbing, the use of which coincides with the AD epidemic. We present a network of evidence that supports this hypothesis.”

Four years later, another research group reached similar conclusions.

“As one of the ten leading causes of death, dementia is becoming a major health concern, especially as the U.S. population ages (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). In fact, the World Health Organization predicts that the number of people with dementia will triple by 2050, with 115.4 million reported cases. Alzheimer’s disease (AD), one of the leading causes of dementia, is also expected to increase in the future. A study using 2010 census data estimated that Alzheimer’s disease will increase from 4.7 million in 2010 to 13.8 million by 2050 (2013). Furthermore, with the cost of Alzheimer’s disease care expected to exceed $1.1 trillion by 2050, a catastrophe is looming if the current rate of Alzheimer’s disease is not reduced (University of California San Francisco, 2013). Several studies have focused on the environmental impacts of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (Wang, 2017).

Chart 25

Occupational exposure to copper and aluminium metals and their impact on dementia was reported by the University of Washington in 2018. In this study, 4,354 workers with different job divisions were studied. The above chart shows the distribution of different worker groups as well as the situations of exposure to copper and aluminium. The majority of workers in this group were in professional, technical work (29%), which included engineers, researchers, computer technicians, and teachers. The second largest group of occupations was service and private workers (22%). Housekeepers, health care assistants, and security guards fall into this category. Individuals exposed to copper and aluminium show. Occupational groups, with the difference that office workers made up the largest occupational group at 24% and 22%, respectively. Office workers consist of messengers, office machine operators, and clerical workers. Technical and professional workers were the second largest group for both metals. At the end of June 2015, 75% of participants were not diagnosed with any form of dementia in the group, 15.5% were diagnosed with dementia with all symptoms. However, it should be noted that compared to the unexposed groups, the respective exposed groups had a higher proportion of dementia.

We have already talked about the harmful effects of heavy metals and rare earths on humans and animals. It is appropriate to give a brief report on an element whose capital applications are increasing astronomically, and huge resources are being extracted in some countries, including Bolivia and Australia. The production of this precious metal, along with its increasing use in car batteries, has been expanding since 2016, and only in recent years has the trend of increasing its production fluctuated.

Chart 26 Global lithium production

Lithium is an important element in batteries in everything from electric cars to cell phones. But the metal is dangerous to health. Research has shown for years that lithium restricts fetal growth and causes birth defects. Like heavy metals, lithium, which is extracted from deep within the earth and then released into the environment as a result of widespread production and consumption, passes from the mother’s blood to the foetus, and many studies have shown that it affects fetal development. “The biggest concern is that lithium will end up in the same situation as other hazardous substances,” says Marie Wachter, a professor of environmental medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. “It will enter the environment on a large scale, as we have seen with lead emissions or, more recently, polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances,” she says. “It will get to the point where it is impossible to reverse and reduce.” So far, no government agency, whether it be the United Nations, the European Commission, or the governments of the United States and China, the largest consumers of these commodities (rare earths and lithium), has even made a final decision on how to classify these elements and lithium, nor have they made any plans for their collection and recovery. Like many toxins, they are consumed and released into nature. At the beginning of this article, we said that “capitalist crises also emanate precisely from here, from the depths of this same process, the process of excessive production of capital and the forced rise of the organic composition of capital, which makes the rate of accumulation surpassing the rate of production of surplus value, the downward trend of the rate of profit, and finally the outbreak of crisis, inevitable.” However, the very nature of capitalist crises, which today are no longer periodic but continuous and interconnected, is not in itself, in any way, not even the slightest, an existential crisis or the destruction of this system, or even a danger to the existence of this system. Here, as elsewhere, capital, as the basis and foundation of its existence, locks every insignificant amount of its own increase and its profit into the greater poverty, deeper exhaustion, and increasing degradation of the worker. It is absolutely not satisfied with a more crushing intensification of exploitation and a deeper physical slaughter of him; it also bombards his intelligence, knowledge, discernment, and ability to think. Today, compared to two decades ago, the global working class must endure a much more crushing, eroding, and deadly rate of exploitation to make the mountains of capital of the world’s capitalist class profitable. The working masses of the world will be forced to multiply the volume of capital accumulated to date in the coming years, under the pressure of the most fascist and criminal form of exploitation, slaughter, and extinction. The only way out for the working masses around the world is to return to class struggle and revolt against the social existence of the capitalist world. This struggle is not a rebellion, but rather the global labour movement is forced to find a solution in its forced and coercive campaign to overcome its shortcomings, weaknesses, and inferiority complex, to end its misguidance, and to make the search for a radical anti-capitalist struggle its agenda. Following right-wing syndicalist reformism, social democracy and left-wing reformism is not the solution for the workers but the challenge of their struggle against capital. Reformist solutions are the solution to the capitalist crises for the survival of this order in another form and image. If we are to overcome capitalism, push back capitalist states in all areas including livelihood, environment, housing, food, schools and hospitals and ultimately bury capitalism in the cemetery of history forever, the entire working class, all the conscious, active, militant, influential and radical elements of this class, together with the working class, must organize hand in hand in an anti-capitalist soviet movement. A labour movement that, in the context of current, everyday events and in the arena of great uprisings that are taking shape, will have this capacity and will take the path of purifying itself from reformist impurities, will step through this transition, will become radical, will present its demands from an anti-capitalist perspective, and will organize itself as a council and anti-capitalist movement.

Reference

1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00859-1

2. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-i/

3. https://www.oist.jp/news-center/press-releases/climate-change-causes-landfalling-hurricanes-stay-stronger-longer

4. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2867-7

5. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-00613-2

6. https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/07/1067991

7. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks

8. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks

9. https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions

10. https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/greenhouse-gas-bulletin-another-year-another-record

11. https://www.svt.se/nyheter/utrikes/otillrackliga-klimatloften-leder-till-temperaturhojning-pa-2-7-grader