The Ecosocialist Resources column is published at irregular intervals. It features links to new articles, reports, talks and videos that are relevant to Climate & Capitalism’s mission and goals.
Inclusion of a link does not imply endorsement, or that we agree with everything (or even anything!) the item says.
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- Latin America Faces the Global Ecological CrisisBecause of Latin America’s natural wealth, the region is a great supplier of commodities, food and energy to industrialized economies; and, at the same time, the wealthier countries try to transfer the environmental costs of the dirtiest industries to it by Ignacio Sabbatella, University of Buenos Aires Ignacio Sabbatella is a frequent contributor to Marxismo Ecologico. This ...---READ-->>
- Daniel Dorling: Are the super-rich human?“Places rarely suffer from having too many people, but frequently suffer from a few people taking far too much. By early 2008 it became evident that preceding the economic crash, the acquisition of most of the world’s remaining available land was occurring at rates never seen before. Huge swathes were being bought ...---READ-->>
- Bill McKibben's EaarthEarth has died … but Eaarth offers few solutions Bill McKibben. Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. Times Books, 2010. 272 pages. ISBN: 978-0-8050-9056-7 reviewed by Javier Sethness According to North American environmental activist Bill McKibben, planet Earth has died. Its replacement does not, however, constitute dialectical progress toward a higher or better state: the ...---READ-->>
- Sonia Shah: Oiling the war machine“The U.S. military consumes about 85 million barrels of oil a year, making it the biggest single consumer of fuel in the country and perhaps the world. Accordng to an interdisciplinary panel convened by the Defense Science Board (DSB ), cheap oil has distorted the American military into a handful of super-killing ...---READ-->>
- The Latin American Left and Indigenous AutonomyThe two kinds of lefts – the parties that have achieved power in the various states and the indigenista movements in the various states – do not have identical objectives and use quite different ideological language by Immanuel Wallerstein copyright 2010. published by permission Latin America has been the success story of the world left in the ...---READ-->>
- Did Consumers Cause the BP Oil Disaster?Liberal journalists, pale greens and others are trivializing the BP/Deepwater oil spill and distracting attention from the social roots of environmental destruction. It’s time to dump the myth of ‘consumer sovereignty’ by Ian Angus Following the BP/Deepwater oil well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, many commentators have tried to explain why it happened. Many blame greed and arrogance ...---READ-->>
- News and Video: Australians Walk Against WarmingAugust 15, 2010. Walk With the People, Not the Big Polluters Thanks to Peter Boyle …. +++++++++ The Sydney Morning Herald reports: Tens of thousands of protesters – and a few sceptics – have taken to the streets across Australia to urge the major political parties to take action on climate change. Both Labor and the coalition have failed to ...---READ-->>
- Is Africa Still Being Looted?In a debate broadcast on Canada’s CBC radio network last week, a leading World Bank official defended neo-liberal policies, denied the reality of African economics, and even ignored the Bank’s own research by Patrick Bond (Patrick Bond directs the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is the author of Looting Africa: The Economics ...---READ-->>
- Ecosocialism, Mumia and MOVEDespite decades of imprisonment, Mumia Abu-Jamal remains a prophet — a voice articulating a politics that challenges capitalism and imperialism while speaking for the earth. by Derek Wall Green Left Weekly, August 8, 2010 Mumia Abu-Jamal — on death row for more than 30 years in Pennsylvania for a murder he didn’t commit — is an iconic figure. Yet ...---READ-->>
- U.S. Cities: Too Hot, and Getting HotterExcerpts from a new supplement to the National Wildlife Federation’s 2009 report More Extreme Heat Waves: Global Warming’s Wake-Up Call Many Americans in the eastern and southern United States have been sweltering during summer 2010. As global temperature records have been set for the early summer months, states and cities are also setting hundreds of temperature records. ...---READ-->>
- Bolivia's Ambassador on Climate Negotiations and Water as a Human RightCorporate interests, economy, profits have more weight in the negotiation than preserving life and biodiversity and Mother Earth … there are too many things in the negotiation that really make things even worse. August 10, 2010 — Democracy Now! — Even as the world faces a series of extreme weather events that scientists warn is related ...---READ-->>
- Conspicuous consumption and destructive wealth The case of Ira RennertThere is no question that excessive consumption damages the environment, but are consumers really driving the runaway train? I offer the following as an indication that different drivers are in charge. By Ian Angus If you want to start a campaign focusing on grossly conspicuous consumption as an environmental crime, then an appropriate poster boy would be ...---READ-->>
- Downstream Community Members to Hold Healing Walk Through Tar Sands RegionOn Saturday, August 14th the Keepers of the Athabasca, a network of First Nation, Metis and settler community members along the Athabasca river will host a ‘healing walk’ through the tar sands. Local First Nation and Metis elders from communities directly affected by tar sands operations are leading the walk and will be joined by other ...---READ-->>
- Wet'suwet'en and Unis'toten Nations Rise up Against Big OilIn this country, known as Canada, which is actually the stolen native land of Turtle Island, Indigenous communities are rising up to join the tide of resistance to neocolonialism by fighting the imposition of pipelines and the tar sands in Western Canada. by Julien Lalonde Julien Lalonde is a Climate Justice activist with Toronto Bolivia Solidarity ...---READ-->>
- Video: Raj Patel on the battle for the world food systemRaj Patel, author of The Value of Nothing and Stuffed and Starved, interviewed by Jill Hickson and Simon Cunich for Green Left Weekly and Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal. The battle for the world food system: an interview with Raj Patel from Jill Hickson on Vimeo.---READ-->>
- Vulture capitalists versus the Global SouthHedge funds, bankers and other speculators are buying everything from farmland to mines across the Global South, fueling exploitation half a world away by Mark L. Thomas Socialist Worker (UK) July 31, 2010 A single commodity trader in London hit the headlines this month when he snapped up 7 percent of the world’s entire cocoa bean production. His ...---READ-->>
- Populationism: A Weapon of Political ConservativesA promise to rein in population growth is useful for the right wing because it substitutes for the fundamental social and economic changes needed to really deal with these problems. by Simon Butler Green Left Weekly, July 24, 2010 Forget about the climate science and the record high temperatures. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has decided she ...---READ-->>
- How Racist Anti-Immigrant Groups are Trying to Recruit EnvironmentalistsXenophobes have launched a cynical campaign to recruit environmentalists to their cause by blaming immigrants for urban sprawl and other environmental problems. by Heidi Beirich Southern Poverty Law Center In January 2010, national leaders in ecology, sustainable business, and the larger environmental movement gathered in Washington to grapple with the problem of building “The New Green Economy.” Hosted ...---READ-->>
- Via Campesina Meeting Debates Climate Change and Social ChangeSpeakers at the “National Encounter for Environmental and Social Justice” in Mexico City discussed key aspects of the global environmental crisis and its impact on the countries and peoples of the global south by Javier Sethness On July 24, the North-American section of Via Campesina held a National Encounter for Environmental and Social Justice in Mexico City. The ...---READ-->>
- 41 Countries that Oppose Making Water a Human RightThese are the 41 countries that abstained in the July 28 UN General Assembly vote on Bolivia’s resolution to recognize access to water and sanitation as basic human rights. Rather than honestly vote “no,” they abstained to avoid being labelled as opponents of access to water, but many made statements that reveal their hostility to the ...---READ-->>