Originally published at http://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/04/18/rescuing-planet-still-possible-case-global-green-new-deal
Perhaps humanity isn’t worth saving. After all, look at our country as an example.
Hell, animals treat each other better.
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“It is irrational to rely on capitalist solutions to global warming when it is capitalism itself that has led us towards the current path of a climate catastrophe”
And I would say it is irrational to believe any of the solutions outlined in the article will come to pass, as long as capitalism survives.
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Gaia will survive. But homo sap probably won’t. We’ve lost our chance to evolve in ways that fit in with diverse ecosystems cooperating with each other. Our goal now is to make sure other species have a chance.
Just can’t play well with others when we moved from living as part of Nature to dominating Nature.
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Sadly, I am pretty sure that I will never live long enough to see that.
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Or, destroying it.
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Often I’ll simplify our imminent environmental crisis with, “We drive too much, too far, for too many purposes, too wastefully, too destructively. We fly too much. We truck and ship goods around the world too much.” Then I’ll pose the question, “How can modern societies devise the means to get our basic needs met with less travel and transport?” The more complicated any proposed solutions are, the less chance they have of succeeding.
Question: How is the global economy like the car?
Answer: Just as cars and trucks are an impediment to other modes of urban/suburban travel (walking, mass transit and bicycling), so too the global economy is an impediment to the lesser - though no less fundamental scales of economy (local, regional, state and national). Unless local and (metropolitan area) regional economies are strengthened with the support of state and national economies, the global economy which now dominates these lesser economies will inevitably crash and leave too few support mechanisms behind to survive economic collapse worldwide.
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Me either (myself, not you).
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Helena Nordberg Hodge wrote a piece for CD several years ago about the global totalitarian state, how it’s gradually squashed local, sustainable cultures(or, like Ladakh, not so gradually) in favor of a monoculture based on fossil fuels and individualism. The US used to have several transportation options as well as sustainable local economies. But between Big Oil, Big Three Car companies, and Big Agro, they were forced out of business as the government gave large tax incentives and subsidies to them. Tear up the streetcar and interurban lines, scrap the night boats, force farmers to get big or get out, growing foods that could survive long shipping times. The Interstate Highway system was a very, very bad idea.Unless it had been coupled with new, fast interurbans running in the medians, streetcars running on main arteries.
People globally know the minute the paved road comes, so do the loggers, the cars, the pollution, the fast food and processed foods that are less expensive(subsidized to be so)than their own products. Like residential schools, their children are forced to learn about how to be consumers, not how to live lightly on the land.
Now it’s no longer the car in the US of Abuse. It’s the huge pickup truck and SUV that’s the vehicle of choice. Big Three claim that consumers who are howling for them. Actually, they’re responsible using constant advertising, long-term loans, making these status symbols.
They’re paving what’s left of paradise and putting up strip malls, Big Box stores, exurbs, and, a parking lot.
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I’m not sure you should be sad that you won’t be around for the dystopian future destined for the planet. Sad for your children and grandchildren but perhaps selfishly relieved for yourself. Joebama just refused to end tar sands pipelines in the USA. There are almost 500 new coal-fired plants currently under construction worldwide, more than 900 if you include those already permitted for building. “Abandon hope all ye who exist here”.
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Well said. Thank you!
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I’m not really sad, and I am not afraid of dying. We are all going to die. And since I never had any kids, at least that I know about, I fear not for them.
But I do have concerns for the younger generations that will take on the burdens of the many generations that came before them.
I only hope many within those younger groups inherit my radical nature of not being afraid to protest, and protest with strength.
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Can i add another quote, attributed to Frederic Jameson
“it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism.”
It is very hard to believe capitalism will embark upon reforms and legislation that threatens its existence. For the threat of climate change to go, capitalism has to go…there is no middle way of any regulated capitalism. There is no green capitalism.
A blog-post i recently made which might be useful reading
~https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2021/03/from-horses-mouth-green-capitalism-wont.html
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Should EVs become common in the near future, how their battery packs are recharged, how they may offer a back up power supply in grid failure and how much stored energy is used for driving or for household uses offers a glimpse of their potential and which corporate interests do not want household EVs to happen.
The “driverless” Autonomous Vehicle AV tech car manufacturers claim “inevitable” is a fraudulent ruse. Corporate business interests claim we won’t own cars, but instead hail them via cell phones. This prevents homes from acquiring a lifesaving backup power supply and the means to more closely monitor and reduce fuel/energy consumption overall, both for driving and household uses. Rooftop PV solar arrays are the perfect match to a household EV and neighborhood mini-grids. These symbiotic technologies can survive regional utility grid failure indefinitely.
Which corporate interests don’t want that to happen? Automobile-related business interests, fuel/energy companies, Uber/Lyft, Google, Amazon, Walmart, you name it. International corporate interests won’t allow the public to attain the means to develop local economies. The less we drive, the more we must support the growth of local economies.
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The importance of this concept is the number one problem to be solved.
What are the basic needs?
With an agreement of meanings, we can pursue solutions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Co1Iptd4p4
Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things (Official Trailer)
Something to think about?
edit: I would like to clarify that I am not addressing Wellan directly. I am only using the clever observation to springboard my own agenda. The fact is, I would prefer everyone other than Wellan comment. (but CommonDreams is what it is)
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only if we get rid of the capitalists and their political thralls–
Thich Nhat Hanh agrees with you-----though I think it may be quicker than 100 years.
~https://theecologist.org/2012/mar/22/thich-nhat-hanh-100-years-there-may-be-no-more-humans-planet-earth
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“It is irrational to rely on capitalist solutions to global warming when it is capitalism itself that has led us towards the current path of a climate catastrophe.”
This about sums it up. It is why I don’t have tons of faith in market based methods. Not just on how effective they could be, but on how horribly limited they are.
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