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.
If you read or write an article that might be appropriate for this column, please post your suggestion in the Climate and Capitalism Facebook group.
- Video: The neoliberal assault on Egypt's small farmersPity the Nation. A documentary film by journalist and activist Philip Rizk, on the effect of neo-liberal policies on farmers and the food price crisis in Egypt, produced by the newspaper Masry al-youm. Posted with kind permission from Philip Rizk, a filmmaker and freelance journalist based in Cairo, Egypt. Philip lived in Gaza City from 2005 to ...---READ-->>
- Coal seam gas: dirtier than coal, worse than shaleFracking releases methane into the atmosphere and poisons water supplies. New technology doesn’t change that. by Renfrey Clarke Green Left Weekly, June 4, 2011 In the land of desperate excuses, coal seam gas is king. The new boom industry of the Queensland and New South Wales hinterlands contaminates ground and surface waters, while taking rich farmland out of ...---READ-->>
- Vandana Shiva: The great land grab, India's war on farmers“These land wars have serious consequences for our nation’s democracy, our peace and our ecology, our food security and rural livelihoods. The land wars must stop if India is to survive ecologically and democratically.” by Vandana Shiva Aljazeera, June 7, 2011 Dr Vandana Shiva is a physicist, ecofeminist, philosopher, activist, and author of more than 20 books and ...---READ-->>
- Putting a price on nature: a destructive delusionThe UK government’s assessment of the “value” of nature is pure reductionist gobbledegook, dressed up in the language of objectivity and reason. It delivers the natural world into the hands of those who would destroy it. by George Monbiot June 7, 2011 Love, economists have discovered, is depreciating rapidly. On current trends, it is expected to fall by £1.78 ...---READ-->>
- The Socialist Alternative – two reviewsMichael Lebowitz’s book, one of the most important contributions to socialist thought published in the past decade, is getting the recognition it deserves. Louis Proyect writes: “If The Socialist Alternative refrains — correctly — from offering up recipes for a future socialist society, it does do something far more important, namely stressing the kind of human relationships ...---READ-->>
- Developing countries promise bigger emission cuts than the richestA new study for Oxfam reveals that developing countries are pledging to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases by more than developed countries. Oxfam estimates that over 60 per cent of emissions cuts by 2020 are likely to be made by developing countries. From Monday delegates from 195 countries are gathering in Bonn, Germany to resume ...---READ-->>
- To be realistic we must be hereticsThe idea that we should move to an economy where we share resources and don’t simply consume them thoughtlessly is utter heresy. It can hardly even be talked about. by Derek Wall Morning Star, June 5, 2011 The recent figures on CO2 emissions are sobering. Despite the fact that the world has suffered a terrible recession, emissions are still rising. In ...---READ-->>
- James Hansen urges wide opposition to Keystone Pipeline“An overwhelming objection is that exploitation of tar sands would make it implausible to stabilize climate and avoid disastrous global climate impacts.” James Hansen, noted noted climate scientist and author of Storms of My Grandchildren, posted this statement on his website, on June 3, 2011. Silence is Deadly The U.S. Department of State seems likely to approve a ...---READ-->>
- Why I won't "say yes" to Australia's carbon price schemeWe don’t have time to play these pointless games. We have to cut carbon now, directly and drastically. by Ben Courtice Blind Carbon Copy, June 4, 2011 Ben Courtice is a socialist climate activist based in Melbourne, Australia. Tomorrow, World Environment Day, will be the Say Yes Australia rally called by an alliance of unions and NGOs like GetUp. A ...---READ-->>
- For the Land! The Youth of La Via Campesina are fighting!Declaration adopted by the 2011 International Youth Coordination Meeting of La Via Campesina We, the young men and women peasants and farmers of La Via Campesina, have met in Brech, France from March 14th to 16th, 2011 to organize ourselves, exchange with each other and build hope for young peasants and farmers everywhere. We have ...---READ-->>
- Obama's lies: U.S. policy overrides indigenous rightsThere is a fundamental difference between consultation and consent by Chris Lang REDD Monitor, June 2, 2011 On 16 December 2010, US President Barack Obama announced that “in April, we announced that we were reviewing our position on the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And today I can announce that the United States is lending ...---READ-->>
- Argentina accuses agribusiness giants of massive fraudMonsanto, ADM, Bunge and Cargill blocked from exporting while courts consider charges that they lied to boost soya profits by Felicity Lawrence Guardian, June 1, 2011 The Pampas are just as the old geography textbooks described them: vast flat plains stretching to distant horizons, white heads of tall grasses catching the autumn light. A great empty road ...---READ-->>
- Dubious assumptions underlie the UN's latest population forecastA new United Nations report says that there could be a billion more people on earth by 2100 than previously forecast, but New Scientist environmental writer Fred Pearce says the new prediction is based on perverse and contradictory assumptions. by Fred Pearce Nature, May 11, 2011 The latest global population projections, published by the United Nations last ...---READ-->>
- Chronic hunger spreads as food prices hit record highsThe world produces enough for all, but more and more people simply cannot afford to buy the food they need by Jomo Kwame Sundaram United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development Project Syndicate, May 9, 2011 Lack of food is rarely the reason that people go hungry. The world today produces enough food to feed everyone. The problem ...---READ-->>
- Three fallacies spread by renewable energy deniersThose who deny that renewable energy can meet society’s needs use tactics that are almost identical to those of climate change deniers This is the Appendix to “The Base Load Fallacy and other Fallacies disseminated by Renewable Energy Deniers,” a paper published in March 2010 by Dr. Mark Diesendorf, Deputy Director of the Institute of Environmental ...---READ-->>
- Hiding emissions with carbon accountingThe official record says the UK’s CO2 emissions fell 28m tonnes between 1990 and 2008. Actually, they increased 100m tonnes. by Andrew Simms, new economics foundation Guardian, May 1, 2011 If there was a pub where you could drink your fill and leave the hangover with the landlord, would you go there? Idle dreaming, but this is ...---READ-->>
- The pipeline industry's dirty secret: 5,000 oil spills in Alberta aloneWhy would Canada allow two more major tar sands pipelines to be built, when leaks in the existing pipelines are already threatening people and wildlife? Wikipedia defines criminal negligence as “a ‘misfeasance or ‘nonfeasance’ … where the fault lies in the failure to foresee and so allow otherwise avoidable dangers to manifest.” This week in DeSmogBlog, Emma Pullman describes ...---READ-->>
- Pseudo-green NGO offers to greenwash arms dealerIs Conservation International any more than a green Public Relations agency? by Chris Lang REDD-Monitor, May 12, 1011 Alcoa. ArcelorMittal. Barrick Gold. BG Group. BHP Billiton. BP Foundation. Bunge. Cargill. Chevron. Coca-Cola. De Beers Group. Giti Tire. Goldman Sachs. Kimberly-Clark. Kraft Foods. McDonald’s. Medco Group. Monsanto. MPX Colombia. Newmont Mining Corporation. Northrop Grumman Corporation. Rio Tinto. Shell. ...---READ-->>
- It's not easy flying greenResearchers at MIT challenge claims that agrofuels can make reduce emissions caused by air travel by Jennifer Chu Massachusetts Institute of Technology News Office There’s a race afoot to give biofuel wings in the aviation industry, part of an effort to combat soaring fuel prices and cut greenhouse gas emissions. In 2008, Virgin Atlantic became the first commercial ...---READ-->>
- Green capitalism: the god that failedMaximizing profit and saving the planet are inherently in conflict. No amount of tinkering with the market can brake the drive to global ecological collapse ===== by Richard Smith Institute for Policy Research & Development, London Summary In rejecting the antigrowth approach of the first wave of environmentalists in the 1970s, pro-growth “green capitalism” theorists of the 1980s-90s like Paul Hawken, ...---READ-->>