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.
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- How wealthy polluters are blocking action on climate changeHow the giant corporations most responsible climate change emissions are working to defeat climate change legislation and block international agreements Executive Summary of Who’s holding us back? How carbon-intensive industry is preventing effective climate change legislation , published today by Greenpeace International. Introduction The corporations most responsible for contributing to climate change emissions and profiting from those activities are campaigning ...---READ-->>
- Debate: Is population control compatible with the fight for environmental justice?Betsy Hartmann and Katie McKay Bryson of the Population and Development Program reply to Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity. INTRODUCTION Climate and Capitalism recently published The Great Distraction: ‘Overpopulation’ Is Back in Town, by Betsy Hartmann, author of Reproductive Rights and Wrongs. The opening paragraphs of that article described and criticized a video that the ...---READ-->>
- ALBA nations prepare to fight for humanity at Durban climate summitBolivarian alliance calls for extending and strengthening the Kyoto Protocol and climate adaptation aid to poor countries, and opposes the commodification of forests under REDD by Federico Fuentes editor of Bolivia Rising Representatives from the Latin American and Caribbean governments that comprise the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) met in Bolivia on November 17-18 ...---READ-->>
- What if U.S. land were distributed in the same way as U.S. wealth?This graphic shows how much the 1 percent would own if land in the United States were as unequally owned as wealth From Think Progress If U.S. land were divided like U.S. wealth …---READ-->>
- Polar ice melting at all-time record ratesRapid change in the Arctic and Antarctic is a clear, visibly graphic signal of climate change. If current trends continue, there could be virtually no September sea ice by 2015 by Steve Connor The Independent, Nov. 9, 2011 The frozen “cryosphere” of the Earth, from the Arctic sea in the north to the massive ice shelves of Antarctica in ...---READ-->>
- Occupy the Durban climate summitThe Occupy movement considers the UNFCCC to be ‘United Nations Fools, Clowns and Carbon Criminals’ and it’s hard to argue against that based on 16 past performances. by Patrick Bond The Mercury, 22 November 2011 Patrick Bond is Senior Professor of Development Studies and Director of the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. His latest book is ...---READ-->>
- Too Many People? review by Socialist Worker (Canada)Their central argument – that it is not simply our numbers, but how our society is organized to benefit only few – is one that needs to be heard in the environmental movement ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE THE PROBLEM? Too Many People? Population, Immigration and the Environmental Crisis by Ian Angus and Simon Butler Haymarket Books, 2011 reviewed by John ...---READ-->>
- Why the Keystone victory is a major gain for the environmental movementDon’t be fooled by the nay-sayers. The Obama administration’s backtracking on the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada is a major victory against climate change. by Mark Hertsgaard The Nation Victories against climate change have been rare, so it’s vital to recognize them when they happen. The Obama administration’s decision to delay the Keystone XL pipeline is one such victory—arguably ...---READ-->>
- Carbon markets: No threat to fossil fuelThe genius of carbon markets is to create a new asset class that performs alongside, and reinforces, continued fossil fuel use, rather than interfering with it. Larry Lohmann is a scholar and activist who works with The Corner House, a UK-based NGO that supports democratic and community movements for environmental and social justice. He was interviewed by ...---READ-->>
- One-third of Americans are poor or near-poorNew data shows that there are far more Americans living on the edge of poverty than official figures claim by Ian Angus In Too Many People?, in a chapter discussing the myth that environmental destruction is driven by individual overconsumption, Simon Butler and I wrote: “In 2009, 43.6 million Americans lived on incomes below the official poverty line. If ...---READ-->>
- Review: Requiem for a Species Blaming individuals breeds climate pessimismClive Hamilton’s pessimism about climate change activism flows from his assumption that individual consumers are to blame. Capitalism is the elephant in the room Clive Hamilton, Requiem for a Species: Why We Resist the Truth about Climate Change. Earthscan, 2010 reviewed by Elaine Graham-Leigh We all know that we cannot fully stop climate change. Global warming is happening; the ...---READ-->>
- OPTional reading: Comments from a drive-by populationistThe head of Optimum Population Trust has set a new record for comments in one day. Should we feel complimented? by Ian Angus Simon Ross is CEO of Optimum Population Trust, the UK-based group that recently adopted the more PR-friendly “working name” Population Matters. In that capacity he has to keep his celebrity patrons happy, and keep OPT’s ...---READ-->>
- Betsy Hartmann: Beyond apocalypse and back to EarthVideo: International women’s health activist Betsy Hartmann discusses the roots and impact of apocalyptic thinking in American environmentalism---READ-->>
- Video: David Harvey speaks at #Occupy London Stock Exchange“It’s people on the street, in the squares, that really matters in the end. Because that is the only political force we’ve got.” “You cannot solve the problem of global poverty without going after the accumulation of global wealth. Until you leave your anti-poverty campaigns and join the anti-wealth campaign, nothing is going to happen.”---READ-->>
- How to feed 9 billion without destroying the planetResearchers at the University of Minnesota show that sustainable agricultural can deliver enough food for everyone — if humanity works together to make it happen University of Minnesota Institute of the Environment Can we feed the 9-billion-plus people anticipated to live on this planet in 2050 without destroying Earth’s life support systems? Writing in the October 12 ...---READ-->>
- The Denial TangoFrom Australia, Men With Day Jobs sing … “And as the waters rise around me I’ll just hold my breath and say, it isn’t so!”---READ-->>
- Lessons of #Occupy: Don't agonize, organize!Collective political action is the key to the 99% turning their immense potential power into actual power that can end the tyranny of the 1%. by Peter Boyle Peter Boyle, national convenor of Australia’s Socialist Alliance, maintains the blog Peter’s Notepad. He gave this talk to a forum organized by the SA at Occupy Perth on October ...---READ-->>
- Indigenous Environmental Network on pipeline decision:We won the battle, not the warThe delay buys time to strengthen our organizing work to stop the pipeline entirely. We will work to ensure this moment is remembered as the beginning of the end for the tar sands. Statement of the Indigenous Environmental Network November 11, 2011 Mother Earth Achieves a Victory Today with Obama Administration Decision to Delay the Keystone XL Pipeline ...---READ-->>
- An open letter to the 1 per cent: You cannot evict ideasYou and your tiny minority cannot evict these ideas: they are simply too important, too long overdue, and too big to fail. By Derrick O’Keefe Rabble, November 15, 2011 To the 1 per cent (you know who you are), I write to you, as a lowly ninety-nine percenter, to offer both my congratulations and my condolences. First, my congratulations on ...---READ-->>
- Food Sovereignty: Reclaiming the global food systemThe crisis in the world food system has its origin in the expansion of corporate capitalism, which has led to the eviction of millions of peasant families and is transforming the very way in which countries farm. The following is the Executive Summary of Food Sovereignty: Reclaiming the Global Food System, published in October 2011 by ...---READ-->>