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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- 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-->>
- IPCC: Renewables could provide 80% of global energy by 2050When a cautious and conservative group like the IPCC goes this far, we can be certain that much more could be achieved by a society committed to ecological sanity Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. News Release, May 9, 2011 Close to 80 percent of the world‘s energy supply could be met by renewables by mid-century if backed ...---READ-->>
- The return of population control: Incentives, targets, and the backlash against CairoWorldwide political upheaval, financial crisis, and urgency around climate change inspire hope for radical change and reform in some, while others see an opportunity for a return to the old days of coercive population policies. In the latest issue of DifferenTakes, longtime international women’s health activist Betsy Hartmann, author of Reproductive Rights and Wrongs, calls on ...---READ-->>
- Peak oil is passed as renewable targets plummetTime is running out for oil, and the clean energy revolution is nowhere in sight by Penny Cole A World to Win, May 5, 2011 Peak oil has passed us by – it happened in 2006 according to Faith Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency. He made this astonishing statement in a number of interviews on ...---READ-->>
- Fraud and scams in Europe's Emissions Trading SystemSupporters continue to push ahead with plans for expansion, even though the EU ETS has unequivocally failed to reduce emissions by Tamra Gilbertson Friends of the Earth Australia, March 2011 As new cap and trade markets emerge on the global horizon, the world looks to the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) for insight and lessons learned. This form of ...---READ-->>
- The Ecological Rift: Capitalism's War on the EarthJohn Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark and Richard York The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth. Monthly Review Press, New York, 2010. reviewed by Simon Butler Climate change is often called the greatest environment threat facing humanity. The threat is very real. Unless we cut carbon pollution fast, runaway climate change will worsen existing environmental and social problems, and create new ...---READ-->>