Today, we have an affluent economy, with only a small fraction of our economies' output devoted to basic needs. Environmentalists say that we are reaching the limits of growth due to ecological constraints. Here in our cities, we have not only reached the limits of human needs but overshot them many times over. What we currently have in our metros is largely overconsumption or unnecessarily luxurious consumption which has many adverse consequences on us, on our economies and on our planet.
Economic growth is no longer improving our well-being. The extra time and energy that we must spend on healthcare, children's education, commuting and just keeping pace of changes are on the rise. The quality of our surroundings -- our neighbourhood, roads, civic infrastructure etc. are deteriorating even as more and more goods flood the supermarkets.
We have reached a point of counterproductive growth; additional growth now brings diminishing benefits while causing increased social and environmental costs.
As we urban Indians have become more prosperous, we have moved from consuming necessities to consuming conveniences to consuming luxuries. We are now driving to work one-per-car and spending many hours per week in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
This has severe environmental consequences. India's phenomenal economic growth of 9.5% per annum comes at the cost of farmers being deprived of electricity, of countless creatures of all shapes and sizes being deprived of their natural habitats and their food, of countless rivers and groundwater resources being both overexploited and polluted. Due to the continuous expansion of factories for manufacturing everything from cement to SUVs to cream-biscuits expand to meet the burgeoning demand, we overdraw on planetary resources and disrupt the fine web of life by cutting its strands.
But how can we stop? How to stop so many billion people from doing all the things they do in daily life?
In my mind, I keep searching for key points that are causing our present situation. I keep trying to identify places where the cancerous tumour, so to speak, can be clearly isolated from human flesh. Because these are the places where we can start cutting away surgically, methodically, without hurting too many people.
1) Consumer credit -- loans extended by banks for purchase of new vehicles and consumer appliances -- is one of the major arteries of this cancerous tumour. Easy loans affect our purchasing decisions. How?
Two calls from an aggressive marketer of car loans is all I need to make me feel that I NEED to step up from my family car to an SUV. I start believing that it is high time I bought a bigger car. "You can afford it, Sir," says the loan agent, sleazily massaging my ego into a full-blown erection.
I think about my employee who drives the same brand of car that I drive, thanks to the same loan agent's persuasion. Then I think about my neighbour's shining new Scorpio and think about how insignificant my own vehicle (read phallic symbol) looks standing next to it.
Some advice from my friendly chartered accountant reinforces this feeling: New SUV = more tax-deductible depreciation. Also, interest on loan installments is tax-deductible.
I reason: if I trade in my present vehicle, it brings down the price of the new one a lakh or so. Then I only need to afford the reduced EMIs (Equated Monthly Instalments) on the load. Can't I afford an EMI of Rs 12,000? Of course I can; what kind of man am I if I can't afford to pay a small installment like that?!
Besides, business is looking up; that new client who I have been pursuing for six months is almost in the bag. So what if he hasn't actually signed on the dotted line? His word is as good as gold.
That decides it: I just WANT a brand-new fuel-guzzler, and I want it NOW! Never mind the price, I can afford the EMI. Of course I can... Case closed!
2) Credit cards: Visa Power -- you've got it! If you have a credit card or two, you know what it means to be a really wealthy person, because you are able to securely carry large amounts equivalent to many months' earnings in your wallet.
And when you do that, you are potentially able to do all those wonderful, beautiful, generous things that you see in TV commercials -- things that can make your wife's heart go flutter-flutter, and that will make her give you that million-dollar smile. How about buying her that diamond solitaire? Or taking her out to dinner at the Taj Princess? Or booking the Presidential suite for your wedding anniversary? Or, better still, surprising her with a couple of air-tickets to Paris... Wow, that would be such a PRICELESS moment... just like they show in Visa commercials!
Credit-card bills? What's that? Oh, just a minor detail, that's all. Stuff that happens in the background, inconspicuously, as part of routine life. Life goes on, bills get paid... they always do. So let's not waste time talking about bills. Those airline tickets are one phone-call or one mouse-click away.
The point that I'm making here is: Consumer credit and credit-cards are the hot air causing the great big Economic Growth balloon to go up... and up... and up at the current rate of 9.5% per annum. Thanks to this banking 'reform', all of us are learning to increasingly live in perpetual debt, just like the Americans whom we all adore so much that they can do no wrong, not even in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thanks to easy consumer credit, we are all borrowing from the future. We aren't only borrowing economically, we are borrowing ecologically. As the previous article points out, "Globally, we are demanding 1.3 planets to support our lifestyles this year, and yet we only have one planet earth. Each year, we as a global community place demands on cropland, pasture, forests and fisheries that goes beyond their capacity to generate resources and absorb wastes. We are using more far more than the planet can regenerate in a year."
Conclusion: At an individual level, we should stop buying things with credit, and stop using our credit cards. It is worth cutting up our credit cards. Let us stop borrowing for the future.
And as a community of concerned citizens, let us lobby for a clampdown on consumer credit. Let us write to the government, to Reserve Bank and to individual banks and bankers.
Let each person in the banking industry be targetted with this message: Cap and roll back. Let us ask for a freeze of consumer credit at current levels this year, and a 50% reduction in the amounts of credit given each year. This would give the economy about three years to adjust to the changing scenario. (Three years is 36 months -- far more time than the economy and its stakeholders get for adjustment when the stock-markets crash or a bank collapse which happens within a few weeks time.)
Do you think there is truth in this argument? If so, please help by spreading the word.
_________________________________________________
Satyam Eva Jayate: Let the Truth Prevail.
Showing posts with label politics of change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics of change. Show all posts
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Consumers? Or Citizens?
My prayer today is:
Let us stop thinking of ourselves and of one another as CONSUMERS. Let us remember that we are CITIZENS.
Consumers care about their various desires and their right to fulfil those desires. Being a consumer is about thinking of rights and opportunities to exploit for pleasure or for gain. It is about deep-seated but usually hidden assumptions such as: More is better.
Big is beautiful.
New is good.
Having fun at all times is the most important mission in life.
My family and I should enjoy more than others, have a bigger share than others.
Consumers are preoccupied with guarding, preserving and enhancing what is theirs. They don't assume responsibility for what lies beyond their doorstep.
Being Citizens is about taking responsibility for the overall direction of things. It is about wanting what is best for the whole community. Citizens want only equity, fairness and long-term sustainability.
For themselves and their families, they are satisfied with getting the fair share after everyone else has had their share. They may accept less than their fair share, but certainly do not want more.
Citizens care deeply about what happens outside their doors. They speak up and take charge.
Please God, help each one of us to beWorld Citizens, not Global Consumers.
Let us stop thinking of ourselves and of one another as CONSUMERS. Let us remember that we are CITIZENS.
Consumers care about their various desires and their right to fulfil those desires. Being a consumer is about thinking of rights and opportunities to exploit for pleasure or for gain. It is about deep-seated but usually hidden assumptions such as: More is better.
Big is beautiful.
New is good.
Having fun at all times is the most important mission in life.
My family and I should enjoy more than others, have a bigger share than others.
Consumers are preoccupied with guarding, preserving and enhancing what is theirs. They don't assume responsibility for what lies beyond their doorstep.
Being Citizens is about taking responsibility for the overall direction of things. It is about wanting what is best for the whole community. Citizens want only equity, fairness and long-term sustainability.
For themselves and their families, they are satisfied with getting the fair share after everyone else has had their share. They may accept less than their fair share, but certainly do not want more.
Citizens care deeply about what happens outside their doors. They speak up and take charge.
Please God, help each one of us to beWorld Citizens, not Global Consumers.
My Journey of Faith
Since the mid-80s, I was of the opinion that the activities of humankind were transforming the world in an unsustainable way. I had researched about this view and found it validated in a lot of writings. I wrote newspaper articles about it in 1988. I discussed a number of alternative courses of social action with my Dad for dealing with it... but I ended up doing nothing other than imposing a sort of penance, subsisting largely on uncooked foods for many months in 1999, and adopting a monk-like dress-code in 2002.
Seeing Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, in July 2007 was for me a vindicating experience. Here was someone with great credibility saying everything that I had been wanting to say all along, and saying it with style and effectiveness. It triggered me with a sense of urgency.
The film, screened at our chamber of commerce, was like a gas lighter's spark to a gas stove; already combustible, I needed that spark to ignite me into action.
The first task that I undertook, with the support of my chamber's anti-global-warming committee, was a mundane one: show the film to a lot of people in my city. And so I began to show the film around on my laptop, editing it down with fast-forwarding to about 55 minutes, delivering a short talk, fielding questions, clairfying, discussing alternative courses of action.
Here is a list of these meetings:
1) Screening at CCI's C K Naidu hall, Churchgate, on 26th July for 120 persons from the financial services sector , in coordination with Tata Mutual Fund, which then independently showed the film five times before audiences in Delhi, Bangalore and Calcutta.
2) Screening for 300 children of New Era School, August Kranti Maidan, on 26th July, Standards 6th, 8th, 9th and 10th.
3) On August 5, Sunday, 80 persons (25 families) at Railway Officers Club at Byculla watched this film before lunch.
4) On 5th September, 40 railway engineers at the Parel workshop saw the film and discussed Climate Change and viable responses.
5) On 10th September, 90 high-school students of Ram Ratna Vidya Mandir, a boarding school at Bhayender, watched this film and discussed lines of action with me over lunch.
6) 19th September at St Xaviers Boys Academy, New Marine Lines. 300 students watched intensely and 20 of them participated in an intense discussion held afterwards in the vice-principal's office.
7) 28th September at USV Limited, Govandi. 75 pharmaceutical lab technicians and their bosses, including their vice-chairman, watched the screening.
8) 18th October at Bombay Management Association. A high-quality audience of 40 persons raptly watched the screening. Two of those present there -- Prof. Bhavna Motwani and Mr Tejus Coulagi -- went on to become intensely involved with this cause. Soon afterwards, we formed an informal group called Children of the Earth. This group has organized two screenings at colleges subsequently, and has held three internal meetings. We are now attracting more members.
9) 14th November at Rotary Club of Navi Mumbai Hillside. An audience of 30 yielded a couple of very promising contacts. The vice principal of a very large college in Navi Mumbai is organizing a full day conference of teachers, besides other 2-hour seminars for students.
10) 26th November at Saraf College, Malad West. Prof Motwani and I addressed 300 girl BCom students for an hour, with a 20-minute screening of An Inconvenient Truth. It was my first experience of a mofussil audience. I became aware that Al Gore's film alone could not reach out to all audiences; I needed to weave oratory and humour into the mix.
11) On 8th December, I was present at a seaside amphitheatre at Khardanda where an awareness programme had been organized by some concerned citizens along with Greenpeace. Without meaning to steal the show, I turned out to be one of the main speakers there, and also facilitated the screening of Greenpeace films.
12) 11th December at Somaiya College, Vidyavihar. Prof Motwani & I addressed 100 students of BSc, along with their teachers, Principal and Vice Principal.
13) On 18th December, for about 90 minutes, I addressed 80 boys and girls of Std 9 at Colaba Municipal school, without screening the movie. It was an demanding job, engaging the mind of this audience without going into scientific abstractions of global warming.
Other activities:
1) Two weeks back, while travelling by train, I entered into a conversation with a peddler of books, who turned out to have a flair for scripting and directing street plays. Our discussions threw up a lot of ideological common-ground. Yesterday afternoon, I addressed a small gathering of slum youths near his chawl in Vile Parle. Many of these youths will act in a street play that we are scripting, and shall enact before slum audiences organized jointly with Rotary etc. For the first time in many months, I am experiencing a need to raise funds to keep this street play going.
2) In the last two months, I have emailed hundreds of members of Parliament, Central Ministers, students of IGIDR, Sardar Patel Institute, Management Institutes, IITs, bankers and economists, administrators, activists etc. I am carrying out a concerted campaign on the internet, through blogs, emails, comments to others' blogs, message boards etc.
3) I have designed Tshirts with slogans and attractive visuals, and am working at circulating them, enabling people to 'Walk the Talk and Wear the Talk'.
4) I have handed out a large number of DVDs and CDs with data on global warming, and xeroxed pamphlets of different kinds.
5) I have attended several meetings organized on Global Warming, at the British Council and other fora. I continue to network with activists and intellectuals, while also working with a more ordinary strata of citizens. All of this activity continues to happen on a day-to-day basis, several hours a day.
Upcoming Events:
1) I shall address a Rotary Club in Kala Ghoda, South Mumbai on 10th January, and another in Borivli on 11th January 2008.
2) Prof. Motwani and I will orient around 30 teachers on Global Warming on 21 st January at a state-sponsored seminar in Navi Mumbai. We shall speak on Corporate Social Responsibility and Citizens' Responsibility in the context of Global Warming.
3) Meetings are being fixed up for slum audiences and mofussil gatherings in coordination with Rotary and others. For such audiences, we have to structure our message differently. The street plays being produced are part of this effort.
Please don't take this as a boastful statement about how much I've done. What I'm trying to say here is: I'm dead serious, and this is a fascinating journey. Is there anybody else on the iland who would like to join me in spreading awareness or organizing some form of action on this problem? Please let us join hands and earnestly work on this problem.
Fighting global warming (or indeed taking on any such problem of similar magnitude) needs several leaps of faith, and then it needs to become a journey. I'm hoping that a few thinking people here on the iland will make these leaps of faith and run shoulder-to-shoulder with me.
Seeing Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, in July 2007 was for me a vindicating experience. Here was someone with great credibility saying everything that I had been wanting to say all along, and saying it with style and effectiveness. It triggered me with a sense of urgency.
The film, screened at our chamber of commerce, was like a gas lighter's spark to a gas stove; already combustible, I needed that spark to ignite me into action.
The first task that I undertook, with the support of my chamber's anti-global-warming committee, was a mundane one: show the film to a lot of people in my city. And so I began to show the film around on my laptop, editing it down with fast-forwarding to about 55 minutes, delivering a short talk, fielding questions, clairfying, discussing alternative courses of action.
Here is a list of these meetings:
1) Screening at CCI's C K Naidu hall, Churchgate, on 26th July for 120 persons from the financial services sector , in coordination with Tata Mutual Fund, which then independently showed the film five times before audiences in Delhi, Bangalore and Calcutta.
2) Screening for 300 children of New Era School, August Kranti Maidan, on 26th July, Standards 6th, 8th, 9th and 10th.
3) On August 5, Sunday, 80 persons (25 families) at Railway Officers Club at Byculla watched this film before lunch.
4) On 5th September, 40 railway engineers at the Parel workshop saw the film and discussed Climate Change and viable responses.
5) On 10th September, 90 high-school students of Ram Ratna Vidya Mandir, a boarding school at Bhayender, watched this film and discussed lines of action with me over lunch.
6) 19th September at St Xaviers Boys Academy, New Marine Lines. 300 students watched intensely and 20 of them participated in an intense discussion held afterwards in the vice-principal's office.
7) 28th September at USV Limited, Govandi. 75 pharmaceutical lab technicians and their bosses, including their vice-chairman, watched the screening.
8) 18th October at Bombay Management Association. A high-quality audience of 40 persons raptly watched the screening. Two of those present there -- Prof. Bhavna Motwani and Mr Tejus Coulagi -- went on to become intensely involved with this cause. Soon afterwards, we formed an informal group called Children of the Earth. This group has organized two screenings at colleges subsequently, and has held three internal meetings. We are now attracting more members.
9) 14th November at Rotary Club of Navi Mumbai Hillside. An audience of 30 yielded a couple of very promising contacts. The vice principal of a very large college in Navi Mumbai is organizing a full day conference of teachers, besides other 2-hour seminars for students.
10) 26th November at Saraf College, Malad West. Prof Motwani and I addressed 300 girl BCom students for an hour, with a 20-minute screening of An Inconvenient Truth. It was my first experience of a mofussil audience. I became aware that Al Gore's film alone could not reach out to all audiences; I needed to weave oratory and humour into the mix.
11) On 8th December, I was present at a seaside amphitheatre at Khardanda where an awareness programme had been organized by some concerned citizens along with Greenpeace. Without meaning to steal the show, I turned out to be one of the main speakers there, and also facilitated the screening of Greenpeace films.
12) 11th December at Somaiya College, Vidyavihar. Prof Motwani & I addressed 100 students of BSc, along with their teachers, Principal and Vice Principal.
13) On 18th December, for about 90 minutes, I addressed 80 boys and girls of Std 9 at Colaba Municipal school, without screening the movie. It was an demanding job, engaging the mind of this audience without going into scientific abstractions of global warming.
Other activities:
1) Two weeks back, while travelling by train, I entered into a conversation with a peddler of books, who turned out to have a flair for scripting and directing street plays. Our discussions threw up a lot of ideological common-ground. Yesterday afternoon, I addressed a small gathering of slum youths near his chawl in Vile Parle. Many of these youths will act in a street play that we are scripting, and shall enact before slum audiences organized jointly with Rotary etc. For the first time in many months, I am experiencing a need to raise funds to keep this street play going.
2) In the last two months, I have emailed hundreds of members of Parliament, Central Ministers, students of IGIDR, Sardar Patel Institute, Management Institutes, IITs, bankers and economists, administrators, activists etc. I am carrying out a concerted campaign on the internet, through blogs, emails, comments to others' blogs, message boards etc.
3) I have designed Tshirts with slogans and attractive visuals, and am working at circulating them, enabling people to 'Walk the Talk and Wear the Talk'.
4) I have handed out a large number of DVDs and CDs with data on global warming, and xeroxed pamphlets of different kinds.
5) I have attended several meetings organized on Global Warming, at the British Council and other fora. I continue to network with activists and intellectuals, while also working with a more ordinary strata of citizens. All of this activity continues to happen on a day-to-day basis, several hours a day.
Upcoming Events:
1) I shall address a Rotary Club in Kala Ghoda, South Mumbai on 10th January, and another in Borivli on 11th January 2008.
2) Prof. Motwani and I will orient around 30 teachers on Global Warming on 21 st January at a state-sponsored seminar in Navi Mumbai. We shall speak on Corporate Social Responsibility and Citizens' Responsibility in the context of Global Warming.
3) Meetings are being fixed up for slum audiences and mofussil gatherings in coordination with Rotary and others. For such audiences, we have to structure our message differently. The street plays being produced are part of this effort.
Please don't take this as a boastful statement about how much I've done. What I'm trying to say here is: I'm dead serious, and this is a fascinating journey. Is there anybody else on the iland who would like to join me in spreading awareness or organizing some form of action on this problem? Please let us join hands and earnestly work on this problem.
Fighting global warming (or indeed taking on any such problem of similar magnitude) needs several leaps of faith, and then it needs to become a journey. I'm hoping that a few thinking people here on the iland will make these leaps of faith and run shoulder-to-shoulder with me.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Some thoughts on the Lacunae of Green politics
[This is a direct copy-paste from
http://www.geocities.com/carbonomics/MCtfirm/10tf06/10tf06c.html#00
However, I hope to refine this post in the next few days and highlight elements that are universally applicable.]
MUNDIMENTALISM
The following article is a contribution to the current debate within the Green party concerning the party's philosophy, policies, methodology, structure, tactics, and future within the green movement.
ONE: GREEN PHILOSOPY
i) Geocentrism.
The green party must make geocentrism - the belief that all value derives from the Earth and that humans are just one species amongst many others - the centre of its philosophy and politics. Philosophically, the most succinct way of doing this is to adopt an anti-speciesist stance. The green party is opposed to racism, sexism, genderism, ageism, etc., but has not yet stated categorically that it is opposed to speciesism. Until it does it will remain just another humanist party pursuing the same types of policies as other political parties and thus destroy, rather than protect, the Planet's life support system.
ii) The Attack on Humanism and Anthropocentrism.
Human activities are destroying an increasing proportion of the Planet's life sustaining processes and, if current trends continue, it is only a matter of decades before this results in a geophysiological collapse. The main cause of this destruction is not capitalism, communism, imperialism, or poverty, etc., but anthropocentrism, the absurd belief that humans are the most important species on Earth.[1] Anthropocentrism entitles humans to treat the Planet in whatever way they wish no matter how destructive this might be. It is imperative, therefore, that the green party does as much as it can to undermine anthropocentrism because of the damage it is causing the Earth.
It is quite staggering that whilst the reputedly most compassionate greens such as eco-socialists, social ecologists, and green anarchists, oppose all forms of human oppression, they totally ignore, if not condone or, even worse, participate in, the human exploitation of Animals. This country murders nearly 800 million Animals every year (and this is just the vertebrates) which represents a tidal wave of exploitation, vile tortures, and brutality the likes of which this country has never seen before.[2] And yet compassionate greens do not seem to regard this gigantic slaughter as being in the least bit politically or ecologically significant. They seem unable to understand that today's level of mass extermination is something quite different from the slaughter which took place in the past. Humans have killed Animals from the earliest of times but the current, industrialized, rate of slaughter is astronomically larger than anything which has happened in the past that it can only be seen as a qualitatively different phenomena.
The oppression of Animals is the biggest and the worst form of exploitation on Earth - far worse than classism, racism, sexism, genderism, etc., and the extermination of Wildlife is a greater moral depravity than nazism or genocide. Greens who have compassion for humans but not Animals are frauds. The crucial issue of our time is not global warming but the dismantling of humanism.
iii) Animals Saving the Planet.
There is another reason why geocentrism should be made the centre of green philosophy. It is a geophysiological fact that Ants and Worms are doing more to protect the Planet's life-sustaining processes than humans. In fact all Animal species are doing more to save the Planet than humans. Humans are the only geophysiologically destructive species on Earth. Why is it, then, that the only Animals on this Planet with votes are those causing ecological destruction?
iv) The Ecological Destruction Caused by the Animal Exploitation Industry.
Finally, another reason for giving top priority to geocentrism is that although it is not yet possible to verify the hypothesis, the evidence points in the direction that Animal exploitation is one of the most ecologically destructive industries on Earth.[3] It is possible that it is even more destructive than the road/car/oil industries, human overpopulation and capitalism. If greens are serious about stopping ecological destruction they must focus their campaigns and propaganda on the most ecologically destructive activities and that means primarily the Animal exploitation industry.
TWO: GREEN POLICIES.
i) Animal Freedom and the Creation of Wilderness Areas.
The green party must give top priority to the creation of Wilderness areas. Globally, greens should demand that a substantial part of the land in each country around the world is put aside as Wilderness for the exclusive use of Wildlife.
It is imperative to go beyond Animal welfare, Animal conservation,[4] Animal rights, and Animal liberation, to promote Animal freedom. The creation of Wilderness zones and the guaranteeing of Animal freedom is not a spiritual matter but partly scientific, since humans cannot survive on Earth without Animals, and partly the need for humans to repay their ecological debts to Wildlife. After all, it was Wildlife which turned the Earth into a habitable Planet. But Wildlife not only created the Earth, they created humans. God did not create humans - Wildlife did. If humans need a god then it ought to be Wildlife.
ii) Immigration.
It is a manifest contradiction for cornucopian decentralists to support the right of local communities/regions to control their own resources and yet also support open borders. Even worse is that the biggest beneficiaries of the creation of a global village would be the rich who could acquire homes in various countries around the world, and travel wherever they wanted, whilst the worst affected are the poor who’d find themselves walking past holiday homes which remain empty for 10 months of the year, and have to suffer transport pollution. The reason that decentralists (and other light greens) fail to understand that all 6 billion, soon to be 8 billion, going on 12 billion, people on Earth cannot own as many homes as they want and travel wherever they want and by whatever means they want without producing an ecological collapse, is because they know very little about ecology. Each region should have the right to choose how many newcomers should be invited to live within its borders. If some regions don't want any additional members then that is their prerogative.
iii) Overpopulation.
Overpopulation is already a considerable ecological danger. Given its (near) exponential rate of growth, it could eventually become the biggest threat to the Planet's ecology. Unfortunately, whilst some greens seem all too willing to talk about, and to promote policies against, overpopulation they seem reluctant to do the same as regards capitalism. Overpopulation is not a single issue but consists of the five Cs:-
* cars (i.e. car overpopulation and the road/car/oil industries);
* kids (i.e. human overpopulation);
* cattle (i.e. livestock overpopulation and the animal exploitation industry),
* capital (i.e. the overconsumption of the Earth's capital resources, the colossal growth in the number of capital construction projects and the huge expansion of wealth) and,
* carnage (i.e. the arms industry and war).
iv) Alternative Energy.
There is a need to make a distinction between alternative forms of energy (solar power, wind, wave, biomass, hydro-electric, etc) and renewable forms of energy (i.e. Photosynthetic resources primarily Trees). Alternative forms of energy are not renewable - new zealand thought it had a 'renewable' source of energy until the winter of 1991-92 when river levels fell so much many of its hydro-electric generators became inoperable. More importantly, the fact has to be faced that alternative energy has the potential to cause vastly more ecological damage than fossil fuels. The colossal hydro-electric power schemes in india (the narmada dam); china (the three gorges project on the yangtse); brazil (the caracas project), and, much closer to home, the construction of tidal barrages around brutish estuaries, will all cause a considerable amount of ecological destruction.
The green party should oppose all forms of alternative energy. At the very least, it should carry out an ecological analysis (see below) of its alternative energy policies and reject those which cause ANY ecological damage.
v) Regulating the Earth's Climate.
If there were no humans around, the Earth would currently be heading back into the next ice age and vast ice sheets would gradually be spreading across the north american and euroasian continents. However, humans have boosted global warming to such an extent they are not merely preventing the return of the next ice age but are threatening to cause a quantum leap in global temperatures which could turn the Planet into a vast desert.
There is little choice about the matter. Humans have got to regulate the Planet's climate to prevent either of these extremes. What is more, humans must regulate the climate not merely to protect the Planet's life-sustaining processes, but to maximize Biodiversity. Green politics must be based on geophysiology, the science of the Earth’s climate. It is transparent that greens need to be far more concerned about globalization than they are with devolution.
vi) The Nature of a Sustainable Planet.
The green party should advocate the need for global institutions to regulate the Planet's climate and to protect the Earth's Biodiversity. Whilst the green party has formulated national policies it still hasn't outlined the nature of a sustainable Planet. It is necessary to specify the structure, functions and purpose of the global institutions needed to maintain a sustainable planet.
THREE: A GREEN METHODOLOGY.
The Green party should adopt, as part of its manifesto for a sustainable society (mfss), a geophysiological analysis; a Carbon methodology; a global Carbon budget; and Carbon costed policies:-
i) A Geophysiological Analysis.
This would:-
* outline the scale of the ecological devastation happening around the Earth and thereby determine the imminence of a global ecological collapse;
* assess the major social/political/economic/cultural forces causing ecological destruction; and
* determine which ecological calamity poses the biggest, and most immediate, threat to the survival of life on Earth, e.g. acid rain, ozone depletion or global warming.
Answers to these questions should provide the Green party with a more accurate understanding of:-
* which policies should be given the highest priority;
* the rapidity with which these policies must be implemented to prevent an ecological breakdown; and,
* which industries would need to be reformed, or abolished, in order to prevent a global ecological collapse.
ii) A Carbon Methodology.
A geophysiological analysis entails measuring and comparing the impact of the diverse phenomena mentioned above on the Planet's global Carbon cycle. For example, it is possible to measure the relative destructiveness of the road/car/oil industries, human overpopulation, the Animal exploitation industry, capitalism and carnage, etc., by exploring their contribution to global warming. It is imperative therefore for the green party to adopt a Carbon methodology.
The global Carbon cycle, however, is only one of the Earth's many natural cycles e.g. hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur, etc.. It is clear that any geophysiological analysis which confines itself solely to Carbon will, eventually, prove to be inadequate. But, given the all pervasive presence of Carbon on the Earth and its central role in the life process, it would give the best approximation of the damage being inflicted on the Planet.
At the very least, a Carbon methodology would be a model of the type of analysis that needs to be carried out for all the Planet's major natural cycles. There is no getting away from the fact that the green party is going to have to carry out this type of scientific work if it is to present itself as a credible, ecologically knowledgeable, organization which understands the Planet's geophysiology and knows how to protect it.
iii) A Global Carbon Budget.
If humans are to regulate the Planet's climate and steer clear from either an ice age or a heat age, they will need to control the concentration of atmospheric Carbon. The amount of Carbon in the atmosphere is determined by Carbon emissions and the Planet's Photosynthetic capacity, i.e. primarily its level of Forest cover. Carbon is the Planet's thermostat and the concentration of atmospheric Carbon determines the Earth's global average temperature. It should be possible for humans to turn up the heat to avoid an ice age, or decrease the heat to avoid global warming, by varying the amount of Carbon dumped into the atmosphere emissions and by increasing/decreasing the scale of the Planet's Forest cover. A global scientific body such as the inter-governmental panel on climate change should be given responsibility for drawing up a global Carbon budget and then setting the concentration of atmospheric Carbon by fixing firstly, a ceiling for global Carbon emissions and, secondly, the scale of the Planet's Forest cover.
Once the green party has adopted a global Carbon budget, preferably with the co-operation of all other green parties around the world, it should then be possible to determine what brutland's national Carbon budget should be - there should also be national Carbon budgets for every other country around the world. In turn, national governments would give each of their regions a Carbon budget within which they would have to live. National and regional governments would have to face the rigours not of cash limitations but of Carbon limitations.
iv) Planetary Policies Determine National Policies Not Vice Versa.
At present, all countries around the world are altering the Earth's climate, to a greater or lesser extent, by dumping Carbon pollution into the atmosphere and by ransacking their Forests. One hundred and fifty countries are, in effect, trying to create 150 different global climates and, if this continues, there will be a geophysiological breakdown. If humans want to create a stable climate which is sustainable and maximizes Biodiversity then all countries must co-operate (on an equal basis) to produce a specific concentration of atmospheric Carbon.
The need to set a global Carbon budget to create a specific climate and to implement global policies to create a sustainable Planet, means that it is not possible to put forward policies to create an ecologically sustainable community (or region or nation) without showing how these policies fit in with this global context. Only when a global Carbon budget and ecologically sound global policies have been created would it be possible to create ecologically sound communual (or regional or national) policies. In other words, Planetary policies determine national (and regional) policies and not, as at present, the other way around because this latter state of affairs, as should be all too obvious, is leading to a global ecological breakdown.
Given that the Planet is a unitary geophysiological entity then, in effect, there are no local environmental problems. All green problems are geophysiological, that is global, in scope and can be solved only within a global context. It is theoretically impossible to work out what an ecologically sound policy is for a community, region or nation without global ecological policies and a global Carbon budget. Without a global Carbon budget to create a climate which maximizes Biodiversity, and Planetary policies to create an ecologically sustainable Planet, then green policies are just so much green sounding wishful thinking. The policies put forward in the green party's manifesto are irrelevant because they are not located within such a global context.[5]
Nationalists who support national sovereignty (and decentralists who support communal sovereignty) believe they have the right, in effect, to create their own climate. But, whilst it may be possible for countries (or communities) to become economically self-sufficient, or achieve resource self-sufficiency, it is not possible to achieve ecological self sufficiency. There is only one climate.
v) Carbon Costed Policies.
The creation of a global Carbon budget (and correspondingly national/regional Carbon budgets) would mean that all governments would have to assess policies in terms of their Carbon implications i.e. their effect on Carbon emissions AND net primary production (i.e. Photosynthesis). Once governments had Carbon costed their policies, they would have to make choices about which ones they could afford within the limitations of their national Carbon budgets.
The green party should evaluate all of its policies in the mfss (and policy proposals) in terms of their Carbon costs and then discard those which would exceed the national Carbon budget. If it does not adopt global, and national, Carbon budgets and Carbon costed policies, the green party could find itself advocating environmentally friendly policies (e.g. alternative energy) which lead not merely to considerable, but perhaps even critical, ecological damage.
vi) The Politicical Advantages of a Carbon Methodology.
The Carbon theory of value provides an invaluable device for measuring the ecological implications of political policies and the seriousness of the Planet's ecological predicament. Donella meadows recently called for the introduction of a simplistic, ecological, measuring device to replace gross domestic product as a guide to a country's well being. Carbon may be the most suitable device. Another major advantage of the Carbon theory of value is that it supplies some excellent weapons for political propaganda.
vii) Conclusions.
Without an geophysiological analysis and a Carbon methodology the Green party will never be able to determine which are the most urgent issues and which policies should be given priority. Without a global Carbon budget it would not be able to prevent a global warming disaster. Without Carbon costed policies, it will end up damaging the Planet's geophysiology. It is doubtful whether the public would support the green party if it didn't have clear answers to the crucial ecological issues of our time.
FOUR: THE STRUCTURE OF THE GREEN PARTY.
Most of this section has already been highlighted in the previous article.
i) The Leadership Issue.
The Green party needs a national leader.
ii) A Green Party Shadow Cabinet.
The regional council is vital for the success of green politics.
iii) The Policy Community.
The policy community has been very useful for encouraging greater participation in the Green party and has a valuable educational role.
FIVE: GREEN TACTICS.
i) The Limitations of Media-ism.
The green party cannot afford to concentrate solely upon publicizing its message through the media. The media forces greens to censor themselves; to concentrate upon short term issues; to conform to prevailing values; and to extol boundless optimism. These pressures are completely antithetical to the green party which needs to tell the truth about the grim state of the Planet's ecology; to promote long term policies; to tell consumers how much they are going to have to change to lead a sustainable life; and to express its fundamental pessimism that if humans, primarily consumers in the over-industrialized nations, continue to act in the way they are doing at present then there is not the slightest doubt they will cause a global ecological collapse.
The value of the media is also overestimated. Although the media industry continues to grow the proliferation of media outlets means that each one is left with a smaller and smaller share of the audience. What is more, it is virtually impossible to convince people of the merits of virtually any green policies when a large proportion don't even understand the role of Trees in the Planet's ecology. Many people believe Trees are nothing more than ornaments - usually unwanted ones because they have a bad habit of blocking out sunlight, undermining building foundations, causing hazards to motorists, etc..
ii) The Limitations of Community Politics.
After doing community work for seven years[6] I have concluded that the current prospects for grassroots' politicization are minimal. External forces are far too powerful for fragile communities - not so much capitalism as coronation street and all powerful one party local states. Such an observation is probably commonplace amongst decentralists who don't spend most of their time in national politics.
iii) Extra Parliamentary Action.
Given the limitations of the previous two tactics there is little alternative but to use extra-parliamentary activities. There are not many decades left before an ecological collapse so greens must go on the offensive. The ratification of the gatt treaty is nothing less than a formal act of war against the Earth.
iv) Preparing for the Worst.
The gap between where humans are now and a sustainable green future is so huge that it might well be beyond the powers of persuasion to shift people's attitudes sufficiently to win their support for the establishment of a green world. If an ecologically sound Planet cannot be created through democratic means then it will have to be done dictatorially. The Earth is more important than democracy.
SIX: A NEW GREEN PARTY.
i) The Need for Factions.
There is an exhilerating profusion of ideas, beliefs and theories within the green party. What helps to stir up this melting pot is the lack of any guidelines from the science of ecology which is still in its formative period. Indeed, it can be argued that green politics, as opposed to environmentalism, began with lovelock's theory of gaia and the establishment of the ipcc. The lack of certainty about the nature of the Planet's life support system makes the process of policy formulation that much more difficult. Despite the increasingly desperate ecological predicament greens need patience. The green party's teething problems are virtually unavoidable given that green politics is still at an embryonic stage.
Given the inadequacy of green science the green party should allow its factions to flourish in the hope of fostering the more rapid spread of scientific ideas and the formulation of new policies based on these new insights. The green party should allow its factions to organize and develop their own policies - as long as each one abides by nationally agreed policies.
ii) The Case for Separation.
However, ever since the 1989 euro-elections the green party has collapsed into a black hole of its own making with green 2000 and decentralists wasting each other's time, money, effort, and patience. There are irreconcilable divisions between green 2000 (whether in its old or its eco-political form) and the decentralists. Some of these divisions are political or philosophical so even if a new piece of scientific evidence was discovered which could overcome some of these divisions it would not bridge the gulf between the two factions. It is pointless for both sides to go on suffocating each other in private when such differences could be aired in public between competing parties so that voters could choose between them. When people are spending more time stopping others from doing things rather than doing anything themselves then this is time for a divorce.
http://www.geocities.com/carbonomics/MCtfirm/10tf06/10tf06c.html#00
However, I hope to refine this post in the next few days and highlight elements that are universally applicable.]
MUNDIMENTALISM
The following article is a contribution to the current debate within the Green party concerning the party's philosophy, policies, methodology, structure, tactics, and future within the green movement.
ONE: GREEN PHILOSOPY
i) Geocentrism.
The green party must make geocentrism - the belief that all value derives from the Earth and that humans are just one species amongst many others - the centre of its philosophy and politics. Philosophically, the most succinct way of doing this is to adopt an anti-speciesist stance. The green party is opposed to racism, sexism, genderism, ageism, etc., but has not yet stated categorically that it is opposed to speciesism. Until it does it will remain just another humanist party pursuing the same types of policies as other political parties and thus destroy, rather than protect, the Planet's life support system.
ii) The Attack on Humanism and Anthropocentrism.
Human activities are destroying an increasing proportion of the Planet's life sustaining processes and, if current trends continue, it is only a matter of decades before this results in a geophysiological collapse. The main cause of this destruction is not capitalism, communism, imperialism, or poverty, etc., but anthropocentrism, the absurd belief that humans are the most important species on Earth.[1] Anthropocentrism entitles humans to treat the Planet in whatever way they wish no matter how destructive this might be. It is imperative, therefore, that the green party does as much as it can to undermine anthropocentrism because of the damage it is causing the Earth.
It is quite staggering that whilst the reputedly most compassionate greens such as eco-socialists, social ecologists, and green anarchists, oppose all forms of human oppression, they totally ignore, if not condone or, even worse, participate in, the human exploitation of Animals. This country murders nearly 800 million Animals every year (and this is just the vertebrates) which represents a tidal wave of exploitation, vile tortures, and brutality the likes of which this country has never seen before.[2] And yet compassionate greens do not seem to regard this gigantic slaughter as being in the least bit politically or ecologically significant. They seem unable to understand that today's level of mass extermination is something quite different from the slaughter which took place in the past. Humans have killed Animals from the earliest of times but the current, industrialized, rate of slaughter is astronomically larger than anything which has happened in the past that it can only be seen as a qualitatively different phenomena.
The oppression of Animals is the biggest and the worst form of exploitation on Earth - far worse than classism, racism, sexism, genderism, etc., and the extermination of Wildlife is a greater moral depravity than nazism or genocide. Greens who have compassion for humans but not Animals are frauds. The crucial issue of our time is not global warming but the dismantling of humanism.
iii) Animals Saving the Planet.
There is another reason why geocentrism should be made the centre of green philosophy. It is a geophysiological fact that Ants and Worms are doing more to protect the Planet's life-sustaining processes than humans. In fact all Animal species are doing more to save the Planet than humans. Humans are the only geophysiologically destructive species on Earth. Why is it, then, that the only Animals on this Planet with votes are those causing ecological destruction?
iv) The Ecological Destruction Caused by the Animal Exploitation Industry.
Finally, another reason for giving top priority to geocentrism is that although it is not yet possible to verify the hypothesis, the evidence points in the direction that Animal exploitation is one of the most ecologically destructive industries on Earth.[3] It is possible that it is even more destructive than the road/car/oil industries, human overpopulation and capitalism. If greens are serious about stopping ecological destruction they must focus their campaigns and propaganda on the most ecologically destructive activities and that means primarily the Animal exploitation industry.
TWO: GREEN POLICIES.
i) Animal Freedom and the Creation of Wilderness Areas.
The green party must give top priority to the creation of Wilderness areas. Globally, greens should demand that a substantial part of the land in each country around the world is put aside as Wilderness for the exclusive use of Wildlife.
It is imperative to go beyond Animal welfare, Animal conservation,[4] Animal rights, and Animal liberation, to promote Animal freedom. The creation of Wilderness zones and the guaranteeing of Animal freedom is not a spiritual matter but partly scientific, since humans cannot survive on Earth without Animals, and partly the need for humans to repay their ecological debts to Wildlife. After all, it was Wildlife which turned the Earth into a habitable Planet. But Wildlife not only created the Earth, they created humans. God did not create humans - Wildlife did. If humans need a god then it ought to be Wildlife.
ii) Immigration.
It is a manifest contradiction for cornucopian decentralists to support the right of local communities/regions to control their own resources and yet also support open borders. Even worse is that the biggest beneficiaries of the creation of a global village would be the rich who could acquire homes in various countries around the world, and travel wherever they wanted, whilst the worst affected are the poor who’d find themselves walking past holiday homes which remain empty for 10 months of the year, and have to suffer transport pollution. The reason that decentralists (and other light greens) fail to understand that all 6 billion, soon to be 8 billion, going on 12 billion, people on Earth cannot own as many homes as they want and travel wherever they want and by whatever means they want without producing an ecological collapse, is because they know very little about ecology. Each region should have the right to choose how many newcomers should be invited to live within its borders. If some regions don't want any additional members then that is their prerogative.
iii) Overpopulation.
Overpopulation is already a considerable ecological danger. Given its (near) exponential rate of growth, it could eventually become the biggest threat to the Planet's ecology. Unfortunately, whilst some greens seem all too willing to talk about, and to promote policies against, overpopulation they seem reluctant to do the same as regards capitalism. Overpopulation is not a single issue but consists of the five Cs:-
* cars (i.e. car overpopulation and the road/car/oil industries);
* kids (i.e. human overpopulation);
* cattle (i.e. livestock overpopulation and the animal exploitation industry),
* capital (i.e. the overconsumption of the Earth's capital resources, the colossal growth in the number of capital construction projects and the huge expansion of wealth) and,
* carnage (i.e. the arms industry and war).
iv) Alternative Energy.
There is a need to make a distinction between alternative forms of energy (solar power, wind, wave, biomass, hydro-electric, etc) and renewable forms of energy (i.e. Photosynthetic resources primarily Trees). Alternative forms of energy are not renewable - new zealand thought it had a 'renewable' source of energy until the winter of 1991-92 when river levels fell so much many of its hydro-electric generators became inoperable. More importantly, the fact has to be faced that alternative energy has the potential to cause vastly more ecological damage than fossil fuels. The colossal hydro-electric power schemes in india (the narmada dam); china (the three gorges project on the yangtse); brazil (the caracas project), and, much closer to home, the construction of tidal barrages around brutish estuaries, will all cause a considerable amount of ecological destruction.
The green party should oppose all forms of alternative energy. At the very least, it should carry out an ecological analysis (see below) of its alternative energy policies and reject those which cause ANY ecological damage.
v) Regulating the Earth's Climate.
If there were no humans around, the Earth would currently be heading back into the next ice age and vast ice sheets would gradually be spreading across the north american and euroasian continents. However, humans have boosted global warming to such an extent they are not merely preventing the return of the next ice age but are threatening to cause a quantum leap in global temperatures which could turn the Planet into a vast desert.
There is little choice about the matter. Humans have got to regulate the Planet's climate to prevent either of these extremes. What is more, humans must regulate the climate not merely to protect the Planet's life-sustaining processes, but to maximize Biodiversity. Green politics must be based on geophysiology, the science of the Earth’s climate. It is transparent that greens need to be far more concerned about globalization than they are with devolution.
vi) The Nature of a Sustainable Planet.
The green party should advocate the need for global institutions to regulate the Planet's climate and to protect the Earth's Biodiversity. Whilst the green party has formulated national policies it still hasn't outlined the nature of a sustainable Planet. It is necessary to specify the structure, functions and purpose of the global institutions needed to maintain a sustainable planet.
THREE: A GREEN METHODOLOGY.
The Green party should adopt, as part of its manifesto for a sustainable society (mfss), a geophysiological analysis; a Carbon methodology; a global Carbon budget; and Carbon costed policies:-
i) A Geophysiological Analysis.
This would:-
* outline the scale of the ecological devastation happening around the Earth and thereby determine the imminence of a global ecological collapse;
* assess the major social/political/economic/cultural forces causing ecological destruction; and
* determine which ecological calamity poses the biggest, and most immediate, threat to the survival of life on Earth, e.g. acid rain, ozone depletion or global warming.
Answers to these questions should provide the Green party with a more accurate understanding of:-
* which policies should be given the highest priority;
* the rapidity with which these policies must be implemented to prevent an ecological breakdown; and,
* which industries would need to be reformed, or abolished, in order to prevent a global ecological collapse.
ii) A Carbon Methodology.
A geophysiological analysis entails measuring and comparing the impact of the diverse phenomena mentioned above on the Planet's global Carbon cycle. For example, it is possible to measure the relative destructiveness of the road/car/oil industries, human overpopulation, the Animal exploitation industry, capitalism and carnage, etc., by exploring their contribution to global warming. It is imperative therefore for the green party to adopt a Carbon methodology.
The global Carbon cycle, however, is only one of the Earth's many natural cycles e.g. hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur, etc.. It is clear that any geophysiological analysis which confines itself solely to Carbon will, eventually, prove to be inadequate. But, given the all pervasive presence of Carbon on the Earth and its central role in the life process, it would give the best approximation of the damage being inflicted on the Planet.
At the very least, a Carbon methodology would be a model of the type of analysis that needs to be carried out for all the Planet's major natural cycles. There is no getting away from the fact that the green party is going to have to carry out this type of scientific work if it is to present itself as a credible, ecologically knowledgeable, organization which understands the Planet's geophysiology and knows how to protect it.
iii) A Global Carbon Budget.
If humans are to regulate the Planet's climate and steer clear from either an ice age or a heat age, they will need to control the concentration of atmospheric Carbon. The amount of Carbon in the atmosphere is determined by Carbon emissions and the Planet's Photosynthetic capacity, i.e. primarily its level of Forest cover. Carbon is the Planet's thermostat and the concentration of atmospheric Carbon determines the Earth's global average temperature. It should be possible for humans to turn up the heat to avoid an ice age, or decrease the heat to avoid global warming, by varying the amount of Carbon dumped into the atmosphere emissions and by increasing/decreasing the scale of the Planet's Forest cover. A global scientific body such as the inter-governmental panel on climate change should be given responsibility for drawing up a global Carbon budget and then setting the concentration of atmospheric Carbon by fixing firstly, a ceiling for global Carbon emissions and, secondly, the scale of the Planet's Forest cover.
Once the green party has adopted a global Carbon budget, preferably with the co-operation of all other green parties around the world, it should then be possible to determine what brutland's national Carbon budget should be - there should also be national Carbon budgets for every other country around the world. In turn, national governments would give each of their regions a Carbon budget within which they would have to live. National and regional governments would have to face the rigours not of cash limitations but of Carbon limitations.
iv) Planetary Policies Determine National Policies Not Vice Versa.
At present, all countries around the world are altering the Earth's climate, to a greater or lesser extent, by dumping Carbon pollution into the atmosphere and by ransacking their Forests. One hundred and fifty countries are, in effect, trying to create 150 different global climates and, if this continues, there will be a geophysiological breakdown. If humans want to create a stable climate which is sustainable and maximizes Biodiversity then all countries must co-operate (on an equal basis) to produce a specific concentration of atmospheric Carbon.
The need to set a global Carbon budget to create a specific climate and to implement global policies to create a sustainable Planet, means that it is not possible to put forward policies to create an ecologically sustainable community (or region or nation) without showing how these policies fit in with this global context. Only when a global Carbon budget and ecologically sound global policies have been created would it be possible to create ecologically sound communual (or regional or national) policies. In other words, Planetary policies determine national (and regional) policies and not, as at present, the other way around because this latter state of affairs, as should be all too obvious, is leading to a global ecological breakdown.
Given that the Planet is a unitary geophysiological entity then, in effect, there are no local environmental problems. All green problems are geophysiological, that is global, in scope and can be solved only within a global context. It is theoretically impossible to work out what an ecologically sound policy is for a community, region or nation without global ecological policies and a global Carbon budget. Without a global Carbon budget to create a climate which maximizes Biodiversity, and Planetary policies to create an ecologically sustainable Planet, then green policies are just so much green sounding wishful thinking. The policies put forward in the green party's manifesto are irrelevant because they are not located within such a global context.[5]
Nationalists who support national sovereignty (and decentralists who support communal sovereignty) believe they have the right, in effect, to create their own climate. But, whilst it may be possible for countries (or communities) to become economically self-sufficient, or achieve resource self-sufficiency, it is not possible to achieve ecological self sufficiency. There is only one climate.
v) Carbon Costed Policies.
The creation of a global Carbon budget (and correspondingly national/regional Carbon budgets) would mean that all governments would have to assess policies in terms of their Carbon implications i.e. their effect on Carbon emissions AND net primary production (i.e. Photosynthesis). Once governments had Carbon costed their policies, they would have to make choices about which ones they could afford within the limitations of their national Carbon budgets.
The green party should evaluate all of its policies in the mfss (and policy proposals) in terms of their Carbon costs and then discard those which would exceed the national Carbon budget. If it does not adopt global, and national, Carbon budgets and Carbon costed policies, the green party could find itself advocating environmentally friendly policies (e.g. alternative energy) which lead not merely to considerable, but perhaps even critical, ecological damage.
vi) The Politicical Advantages of a Carbon Methodology.
The Carbon theory of value provides an invaluable device for measuring the ecological implications of political policies and the seriousness of the Planet's ecological predicament. Donella meadows recently called for the introduction of a simplistic, ecological, measuring device to replace gross domestic product as a guide to a country's well being. Carbon may be the most suitable device. Another major advantage of the Carbon theory of value is that it supplies some excellent weapons for political propaganda.
vii) Conclusions.
Without an geophysiological analysis and a Carbon methodology the Green party will never be able to determine which are the most urgent issues and which policies should be given priority. Without a global Carbon budget it would not be able to prevent a global warming disaster. Without Carbon costed policies, it will end up damaging the Planet's geophysiology. It is doubtful whether the public would support the green party if it didn't have clear answers to the crucial ecological issues of our time.
FOUR: THE STRUCTURE OF THE GREEN PARTY.
Most of this section has already been highlighted in the previous article.
i) The Leadership Issue.
The Green party needs a national leader.
ii) A Green Party Shadow Cabinet.
The regional council is vital for the success of green politics.
iii) The Policy Community.
The policy community has been very useful for encouraging greater participation in the Green party and has a valuable educational role.
FIVE: GREEN TACTICS.
i) The Limitations of Media-ism.
The green party cannot afford to concentrate solely upon publicizing its message through the media. The media forces greens to censor themselves; to concentrate upon short term issues; to conform to prevailing values; and to extol boundless optimism. These pressures are completely antithetical to the green party which needs to tell the truth about the grim state of the Planet's ecology; to promote long term policies; to tell consumers how much they are going to have to change to lead a sustainable life; and to express its fundamental pessimism that if humans, primarily consumers in the over-industrialized nations, continue to act in the way they are doing at present then there is not the slightest doubt they will cause a global ecological collapse.
The value of the media is also overestimated. Although the media industry continues to grow the proliferation of media outlets means that each one is left with a smaller and smaller share of the audience. What is more, it is virtually impossible to convince people of the merits of virtually any green policies when a large proportion don't even understand the role of Trees in the Planet's ecology. Many people believe Trees are nothing more than ornaments - usually unwanted ones because they have a bad habit of blocking out sunlight, undermining building foundations, causing hazards to motorists, etc..
ii) The Limitations of Community Politics.
After doing community work for seven years[6] I have concluded that the current prospects for grassroots' politicization are minimal. External forces are far too powerful for fragile communities - not so much capitalism as coronation street and all powerful one party local states. Such an observation is probably commonplace amongst decentralists who don't spend most of their time in national politics.
iii) Extra Parliamentary Action.
Given the limitations of the previous two tactics there is little alternative but to use extra-parliamentary activities. There are not many decades left before an ecological collapse so greens must go on the offensive. The ratification of the gatt treaty is nothing less than a formal act of war against the Earth.
iv) Preparing for the Worst.
The gap between where humans are now and a sustainable green future is so huge that it might well be beyond the powers of persuasion to shift people's attitudes sufficiently to win their support for the establishment of a green world. If an ecologically sound Planet cannot be created through democratic means then it will have to be done dictatorially. The Earth is more important than democracy.
SIX: A NEW GREEN PARTY.
i) The Need for Factions.
There is an exhilerating profusion of ideas, beliefs and theories within the green party. What helps to stir up this melting pot is the lack of any guidelines from the science of ecology which is still in its formative period. Indeed, it can be argued that green politics, as opposed to environmentalism, began with lovelock's theory of gaia and the establishment of the ipcc. The lack of certainty about the nature of the Planet's life support system makes the process of policy formulation that much more difficult. Despite the increasingly desperate ecological predicament greens need patience. The green party's teething problems are virtually unavoidable given that green politics is still at an embryonic stage.
Given the inadequacy of green science the green party should allow its factions to flourish in the hope of fostering the more rapid spread of scientific ideas and the formulation of new policies based on these new insights. The green party should allow its factions to organize and develop their own policies - as long as each one abides by nationally agreed policies.
ii) The Case for Separation.
However, ever since the 1989 euro-elections the green party has collapsed into a black hole of its own making with green 2000 and decentralists wasting each other's time, money, effort, and patience. There are irreconcilable divisions between green 2000 (whether in its old or its eco-political form) and the decentralists. Some of these divisions are political or philosophical so even if a new piece of scientific evidence was discovered which could overcome some of these divisions it would not bridge the gulf between the two factions. It is pointless for both sides to go on suffocating each other in private when such differences could be aired in public between competing parties so that voters could choose between them. When people are spending more time stopping others from doing things rather than doing anything themselves then this is time for a divorce.
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