Tag: EcoSystems

Feb 01 2011

Envisioning postcapitalism: Joel Kovel, The Enemy of Nature

In pressing forward with the “envisioning postcapitalism” series, today I will re-present an earlier review of the second edition of Joel Kovel’s The Enemy of Nature, revised from the first edition which I reviewed back in 2007.  What gives Kovel’s exposition of ecosocialism a special strength is its ability to identify a weakness in the capitalist system which escapes the notice of “traditional” marxism, and its advocacy of a goal-society (ecosocialism) which resolves the problem of capitalism’s fundamental weakness.  To put paid to the notion that Kovel’s version of ecosocialism is a “utopia,” I intend to critique the argument of his book from the perspective of an overview of the history of power.

(crossposted at Wild, Wild Left)

Nov 20 2010

How many Billionaires can dance on a Pinnacle?

The GOP often dangles this dream, before its far too loyal followers:

You too, could one day be a Millionaire, or perhaps even a Billionaire, so don’t ruin it for everyone, by raising Taxes on the Wealthy. Afterall, someday it could be you.  In their America, anything’s possible.

Most everyone, wants to be rich someday.  It’s part of the American Dream — or at least it used to be.  But the way things have been going lately it seems the Dream has been downsized to:

I just hope I can find/keep my Job.

Despite the somber work-a-day reality most people face, far too many still take the Republican dream, at face value.  By following their lead, they hope to strike it rich someday, too.

Perhaps we Dems, should address this rouse, and dare to ask:

What would really happen if we ALL struck it rich?

Because obviously there is only SO much room “at the top” …

Oct 24 2010

Who can put a Price on the Environment?

EcoEconomics in a Nutshell

Our free market economy is nothing more than a huge auction called ‘Supply and Demand’, which – very efficiently – puts a price on on everything.

The problem is that it allows us to sell everything – the last drop of oil, the last tree, the last fish, the last of everything. It’s called growth – but it is, obviously, growth into oblivion – the exact opposite of EcoEconomics. It is a fatal flaw of our present economic system.

Or, as Greenpeace puts it: “When the last tree is cut, the last river poisoned, and the last fish dead, we will discover that we can’t eat money…”

[…]

The eco-economic price for a natural resource is, therefore, the price you would have to pay if our planet were to release that resource only at a sustainable level.

Who can put a Price on the Environment?  … We all should.

Afterall if we end up decimating the planet’s EcoSystems —  trying to sell off their once abundant natural resources — We can’t eat the money … or gold either, can we?

Sep 12 2010

Gulf Coast Residents are NOT the Problem. So What is?

Even though many of us have Disaster Fatigue, for scores of hundreds of local Gulf Residents, this BP Crisis is very much their recurring daily Nightmare.

BP Oil Spill Compensation Fund Not Living Up to Promise

NewsInferno.com, News that matters! — Sep 10, 2010

In an interview with USA Today, Feinberg promised a better response times as his staff weeds through old claims. “I’ve inherited a huge number of claims that have never been processed that need to be processed, especially business claims,” he said. Such claims, he said, were placed on a “side track” by BP when it was handling the process.

According to USA Today, more than 46,000 people have filed claims since Feinberg took charge. By September 8, his staff had paid 10,252 claims for nearly $80 million. Most claims paid are small, with payouts of $5,000 or less, USA Today said.

So Ken Feinberg has inherited an extensive paper trail of bureaucratic procrastination;

While the Gulf Coast Residents, simply keep reaping the BP whirlwind …

Aug 25 2010

NEW Study indicates Microbes ARE rapidly consuming the Gulf Oil

I, for one, hope that this is true, and will be further substantiated:

Study: Petroleum-eating microbes significantly reduced gulf oil plume

David Brown, Washington Post Staff Writer — Tue, August 24, 2010

Petroleum-eating bacteria – which had dined for eons on oil seeping naturally through the seafloor – proliferated in the cloud of oil that drifted underwater for months after the April 20 accident. They not only outcompeted fellow microbes, they each ramped up their own internal metabolic machinery to digest the oil as efficiently as possible.

The result was a nature-made cleanup crew capable of reducing that reduced the amount of oil amounts in the undersea “plume” by half about every three days, according to research published online Tuesday by the journal Science.

The findings, by a team of scientists led by Terry C. Hazen of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California […]

Aug 20 2010

Gulf Coast Locals, BP Workers, Speaking Out

Former BP worker speaks out.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

I wonder what he’s afraid of, still ?

Apparently, BP runs a tight ship — perhaps it’s best to not cross them ?