16 October 2019 — Climate & Capitalism
Metabolic Rifts
Part Four of Ian Angus’s examination of the disruption of the global nitrogen cycle by an economic system that values profits more than life itself.
Category: Climate Change
Major Media Bury Groundbreaking Studies of Pentagon’s Massive Carbon Bootprint
10 October 2019 — FAIR
by Joshua Cho
In 2010, Project Censored (10/2/10) found that the
US military is responsible for the most egregious and widespread pollution of the planet, yet this information and accompanying documentation goes almost entirely unreported.
The Conversation (6/26/19) ran a piece by the authors of the Durham/Lancaster study.
Almost a decade later, Project Censored’s observations are still applicable, with two major studies published in June remaining buried by most major media outlets. The first study, “Pentagon Fuel Use, Climate Change, and the Costs of War,” by Neta Crawford for Brown University’s Costs of War Project, confirmed previous findings that the US military is “the single-largest producer of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world,” and that the Pentagon is responsible for between “77% and 80% of all US government energy consumption” since 2001, and that from the beginning of the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 to 2017, the US military emitted approximately 1.2 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent.
A Green Earth With Peace And Room For Us All
9 October 2019 — Transform! Europe
Source: flickr.com/DonkeyHotey
Draft Globalization programme submitted by the National Board of the Red-Green Alliance/Enhedslisten, Denmark, to the party’s next Annual Congress on 5 – 6 October. It is a programmatic text about global development.
The world economy is characterized by major economic inequalities and by a production system that has already exceeded the limits of what is globally sustainable.
Millions of years of low CO2 … until now By Ian Angus
4 October 2019 — Climate & Capitalism
New study
In Facing the Anthropocene, I showed that CO2 levels are higher than they have been for 800,000 years. New research extends that to 2.6 million years
Earth System scientists describe the Anthropocene as a “no-analog state,” a time when conditions on Earth have changed in unprecedented ways. A new study confirms and extends that conclusion, showing not only that humans have never before experienced carbon dioxide levels this high, but that our ancestors didn’t either.
Greenhouse gas levels haven’t been this high since at least half a million years before homo erectus walked the Earth.
Socialism is the only realistic solution to climate change by John Molyneux
1 October 2019 — Climate & Capitalism
There is no third way
Capitalism will not and cannot prevent climate disaster. A socialist response at governmental and societal level is an historic necessity.
John Molyneux is editor of Irish Marxist Review and a supporter of People Before Profit. This article was first published on the socialist website Rebel.
Veritable Uprising or it’s The (Faux) Real Thing™: Greta and Climate Activism in a Wilderness of Projections
30 September 2019 — Counter Currents
by Phil Rockstroh and Kenn Orphan
[An ‘alternate’ take on Greta Thunberg @ the UNGA. Long but worth reading I think. WB]
PR: Kenn, recently, this observation of mine provoked a measure of ire: Street demonstrations, even large ones, are apropos of nothing as long as they are manifested as de facto state sanctioned protests. A march proceeds, chants are cast into indifferent air, speechifying comes to pass by the usual gasbags then the assembled head home and carry on as usual. Conversely, a strike means job walk-offs — until the strikers demands are met — not walking out and walking back in the next day.
Capitalism and the climate disaster: The issues posed by the worldwide protests By Bryan Dyne
1 October 2019 — WSWS
Last week’s climate strikes, in which more than 7.6 million people participated in international protests September 20-27, reveal the willingness among broad masses of young people to fight for their future, that of Earth and of humanity.
‘How Dare You!’ The Climate Crisis And The Public Demand For Real Action
30 September 2019 — Media Lens
Reality clashed with the BBC version of false consensus in a remarkable edition of HardTalk last month. Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, was starkly honest about humanity’s extreme predicament in the face of climate breakdown and refused to buckle under host Stephen Sackur’s incredulous questioning. Sackur’s inability to grasp that we are already in a climate emergency, and that massive changes are necessary now to avoid societal collapse, was clear for all to see. His line of questioning attempted to present Hallam to the BBC audience as a dangerous revolutionary, trying to destroy capitalism for twisted ideological reasons.
Sackur: ‘You want to bring down the capitalist system as we know it, is that correct?
Hallam: ‘The capitalist system is going to be brought down by itself. The capitalist system is eating itself.’
Greta Thunberg and Big-Biz’ Climate Charade
28 September 2019 — Land Destroyer
(Tony Cartalucci – NEO) – A 16 year old girl is obviously not behind a “global movement” demanding “climate action” from governments.
The massive corporate Western media is. And anything the corporate media is behind certainly cannot be described as “grassroots.”
“Extinction Rebellion”, “Green New Deal” and the “Rebranding of Global Capitalism” By Julian Rose
20 September 2019 — Global Research
On 20 September students will be mobilizing in a global protest against climate change.
Who is supporting this Worldwide endeavour, who is funding it?
Is this a real rebellion?
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Ecosocialist Bookshelf, Sept. 2019, Part 2
19 September 2019 — Climate & Capitalism
Reading matters
We seldom receive enough new books to justify two columns in one month, but our red and green bookshelf is overflowing …
Climate & Capitalism can’t review every book we receive, but this column lists and links to those that seem relevant to our mission, along with brief descriptions. Titles described here may be reviewed in future. Inclusion does not imply endorsement, or that we agree with everything (or even anything!) these books say.
China and the Prospects for a Global Ecological Civilization
17 September 2019 — Climate & Capitalism
Is transition possible?
As the world leader in renewable energy capacity and production, China has the potential to open up a path for global ecosocialist transition, if …
David Schwartzman is Professor Emeritus of Biology, Howard University, Washington DC. This is a revised version of a paper he gave at the 2nd World Congress on Marxism, Peking University, May 5-6, 2018.
