The scientist Ugo Bardi argues that in the anthropocene era of global history, that is the era of human dominance, our extractive activities have so changed the nature of our planet that we might as well be living on a different planet from the one we inherited. We have changed the planet to one that is environmentally and climatically hostile to sustaining us. We have a small window of opportunity within which to change the way we interact with the planet if we are to sustain our continued presence here. Instead of the current screw and plunder the planet as quickly as possible for the last remaining resources we should scale down our dependence on fossil and non-renewable fuels such as coal, oil and uranium. There is no mechanism in the current economic system that would lead private corporations to adequately value long term benefits for everyone, including themselves of moving away from plunder. They exist to maximise short term profits for their shareholders. Current political structures/governments are incapable of regulating and controlling these corporations given the comfortable revolving door that exists between them. In fact most governments and nation states exist as marketing extensions of the major corporations. It is time to limit mining and mineral prospecting all together, and this can be done by criminalising ecocide - the wanton destruction and plunder of the environment. The battlefield is political, Bardi suggests, and we need to unite all the local struggles against plundering corporations, we need to manage the media at our disposal and build global concensus by gettin g all the local struggles to speak to each other globally. We need to unite science and struggle, social, environmental, economic and cultural struggles. We need to constantly fight and expose corporate spin and not become sucked in by it. We need to retake our government and shut the revolving door between government and corporations. We must defend the public and the commons and roll back the private. We already have the solutions for climate change and we can limit environmental and social damage - our very existence depends on it. Read Ugo Bardi, Extracted, How the quest for Mineral Wealth is Plundering the Planet (2014) Chelsea Green.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 09:45:32 +0000
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