Log in

View Full Version : Climate Movement, Meet Global Capitalism



runs with scissors
08-12-2009, 10:43 PM
[div class="excerpt"]Climate Movement, meet Global Capitalism. Global Capitalism, meet the Climate Movment: On the G20 and the fight for climate justice

http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/08/12/climate-movement-meet-global-capitalism-global-capitalism-meet-the-climate-movment-on-the-g20-and-the-fight-for-climate-justice/

It’s Getting Hot In Here
Dispatches from the Youth Climate Movement

Published by mattwilkerson, August 12th, 2009

“Oceans turn increasingly acidic, wiping out calcareous plankton and further hitting surviving coral reefs-much of the marine food chain endangered. One summer in every two has heat waves as strong as the 2003 disaster in Europe, when 30,000 died. Drought, fire and searing heat strikes the Mediterranean basin. Greenland tips into irreversible ice melt, accelerating sea-level rise and threatening coastal cities around the world. Hundreds of millions live in peril of the rising seas. Polar bears, walrus and other ice-dependent marine mammals extinct in the Arctic. Glaciers in Peru disappear, threatening the water supplies to Lima. Declining snowfields also threaten water supplies. A third of species worldwide face extinction as the climate changes-the worst mass extinction since the end of the dinosaurs.”

This rather rosy scenario painted by author Mark Lynas is the reality we can expect to inhabit if the planet heats another 3.6 F degrees. Doesn’t’ sound like much fun, does it? Well unfortunately for us, 3.6 F also happens to be the degree to which our benevolent leaders at the G8 decided is ok to allow our world to heat up. Last month with much fanfare and backslapping the world’s 7 richest nations (plus Russia), who not coincidentally are responsible for the lion’s share of global emissions, set the bar for the collateral damage they are willing to accept in order to preserve their economic stranglehold on our planet.

......

Our climate is not your business

As has been pointed out by others, it is absurd to say that we are fighting climate change. To say we are fighting climate change is to say we are fighting the Earth’s natural processes. Climate change is the natural and long predicted outcome of a society burning fossil fuels and destroying natural ecosystems in order to maintain an economy that’s central tenet is never ending expansion and growth. We are not fighting climate change, we are fighting this economic system that puts profits and production above all else.

...

As we round the corner to the Pittsburg summit a promising coalition of anti-capitalist, indigenous, anti-war, climate justice, economic justice, and anti-authoritarian groups are coming together to let the G20 know that our world is not for sale. In addition to marches and direct actions that are in the works, groups including the Mobilization for Climate Justice are organizing the 3 Rivers Climate Convergence Sept. 20th -25th in Pittsburgh to coincide with the G20 meetings. The climate camp will be a place to come together, learn, share skills, and plan actions.

“The Earth is not dying, it is being killed and the people killing it have names and addresses.” –Utah Phillips
[/quote]

Wasn't sure if this should go in General Discussion, or here.

Dhalgren
08-14-2009, 06:19 PM
that Professor Lovelock (the Gaia Project) has said that the tipping point on climate change has already been reached. It is now a done deal. All we can do now is try to figure out how to save as many people as possible. Pretty scary...

blindpig
08-17-2009, 12:48 PM
retreat to the poles, the equatorial zone unliveable for most life, the equatorial oceans virtually dead. The last time that happened was in the Cretaceous according to some workers. I can't motivate to fight for such a future, a bad sf novel....

fuck that, get to work.

Dhalgren
08-18-2009, 07:32 PM
is working to save as many people as possible. He says we have about 50 years or so to transform our society and culture into something that can function to sustain as many people as we can. We will probably not do it, but it is something that would maybe make the bad sf novel end a little better...

blindpig
08-21-2009, 06:06 AM
we had better get a move on. Even then, I suspect the magnitude of the crash will unhinge society.