Morales: 'The Central Enemy of Mother Earth is Capitalism'

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Morales: 'The Central Enemy of Mother Earth is Capitalism

Bolivian President Blames Capitalism for Global Warming

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia, April 20, 2010 (ENS) - Bolivian President Evo Morales said capitalism is to blame for global warming and the accelerated deterioration of the planetary ecosystem in a speech today opening an international conference on climate change and the "rights of Mother Earth."

More than 20,000 indigenous, environmental and civil society delegates from 129 countries were in attendance as President Morales welcomed them to the conference at a soccer stadium in the village of Tiquipaya on the outskirts of the city of Cochabamba.


Ceremonial sounds welcome delegates to the Cochabamba climate conference. April 20, 2010. (Photo courtesy ABI)
"The main cause of the destruction of the planet Earth is capitalism and in the towns where we have lived, where we respected this Mother Earth, we all have the ethics and the moral right to say here that the central enemy of Mother Earth is capitalism," said Morales, who is Bolivia's first fully indigenous head of state in the 470 years since the Spanish invasion.

Morales is the leader of a political party called Movimiento al Socialismo, the Movement for Socialism, which aims to give more power to the country's indigenous and poor communities by means of land reforms and redistribution of wealth from natural resources such as gas.

"The capitalist system looks to obtain the maximum possible gain, promoting unlimited growth on a finite planet," said Morales. "Capitalism is the source of asymmetries and imbalance in the world."




http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2010/2010-04-20-02.html