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	<title>World Socialist Party (US) &#187; Environment</title>
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	<copyright>Copyright &#xA9; World Socialist Party (US) 2010 </copyright>
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		<title>World Socialist Party (US)</title>
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	<itunes:author>World Socialist Party (US)</itunes:author>
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		<title>Water Wars</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2012/03/water-wars/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2012/03/water-wars/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 25 Mar 2012 02:57:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>FN Brill</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2547</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Water has always been an issue in the American west. For 90 years, Nevada and six other south-western states have shared the waters of the once-mighty Colorado river, according to an established formula. It became clear, however, that the allocations of water decided in 1922 were overly optimistic about the projected rivers flows of the Colorado. Nevada, which for years has been drawing more water from its Lake Mead reservoir than has been flowing in, could be at serious risk of going dry in 20 years. Las Vegas needed a Plan B. &#8221;When you have got a community of 2 million people and it is 90% reliant on the Colorado river you have to have a contingency plan,&#8221; Pat Mulroy, the manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority said. Las Vegas, where the population had been doubling every decade until the most recent recession, planners had an idea. They want to tap into groundwater and pump up to 300bn litres of water a year out of valleys in eastern Nevada and transport it 300 miles south to the thirsty metropolis of casinos and golf courses. Opponents of the pipeline say draining the desert of groundwater would destroy the livelihoods of the cattle [...]


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		<title>Seeing the Trees and the Wood</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/04/seeing-the-trees-and-the-wood/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/04/seeing-the-trees-and-the-wood/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Apr 2011 06:21:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[World Socialist Perspective]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2234</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A tree surgeon reflects on why no business can give due regard to the needs of workers and the environment I am, I suppose, a businessman; not, I should say, from choice but more from the need to follow a prescribed and necessary course; necessary, because, were one not to, inevitably the business would fail and fall by the wayside. I say businessman, now, but thirty years ago I would have called myself a ‘tree surgeon’, or ‘woodman’ without the slightest feeling of inadequacy or embarrassment. Admittedly the term ‘tree surgeon’ does sound rather more grand than the reality of the work, pruning, cutting and working with trees, and certainly does not have the prerequisite of six years’ intensive study at one of the country’s finest universities. Nevertheless a tree surgeon is what I was and work with trees is what I did. I have often thought back and wondered why I found myself in this industry. The reasons, actually, are quite simple. I loved working outdoors and with my hands; I loved practical problem solving, such as one comes across when dismantling a large tree using ropes in a confined space or in a dangerous condition; I love trees [...]


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		<title>After Copenhagen, Then What?</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2010/02/after-copenhagen-then-what/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2010/02/after-copenhagen-then-what/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:05:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPCanada</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=1401</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Copenhagen Conference on climate change is over and done, the fourteenth in the last two decades since Kyoto. What did this latest one accomplish? Fifteen thousand delegates from one hundred and ninety-three UN members attended. It was generally agreed that the earth&#8217;s average temperature rise be kept at no more than two degrees. To achieve that goal, there were many promises &#8211; US promised 17% reductions of carbon emissions from 2005 levels, China promised a 45% cut in energy emissions (not from economic output), India 20-25% reductions, and Europe 30% reductions from 1990 levels &#8211; but there was no clarity on targets. A deal of sorts was salvaged at the eleventh hour between the US, China, Brazil, and India, and others, but, as usual, it was long on ideals, short on commitment, long on rhetoric, short on detail. Most scientists believe that an 80% reduction is necessary by 2050 and the big polluters &#8211; 30 countries, including Canada, are responsible for 90% of human atmospheric carbon &#8211; didn&#8217;t even come close to that goal. No long-term targets or mandatory implementation were agreed on. China baulked at international verification of any kind. The numerous attempted side deals and small group [...]


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		<title>Zeitgeist &#8211; The Machine inside the Ghost</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2010/02/zeitgeist-the-machine-inside-the-ghost/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2010/02/zeitgeist-the-machine-inside-the-ghost/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:18:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=1253</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Enthusiasm continues apace for the online movie-cum-movement phenomenon Zeitgeist, with its articulate, clean-cut and photogenic presenter Peter Joseph touring even harder than Bob Dylan, it seems, to bring word to the world about the ‘resource-based economy’ idea which sounds so new to everyone else and so uncannily like socialism to us. Socialists should applaud and encourage the efforts of Peter Joseph and Zeitgeist activists everywhere to popularise the ideas of non-market production for use, especially because anti-socialists everywhere will do their best to discredit them with any damn-fool argument they can think of. That’s not to say that there aren’t issues of disagreement, of course. There is a strange emphasis on the technological aspects of the case for a post-capitalist future and proportionally little to say on the role of human activity and decision-making. It’s clear from recent lectures by Peter Joseph (‘Where are we now?’ et al, 2009, YouTube), that far from being merely a matter of emphasis, this bespeaks a quite different perspective on history: “I think it is safe to say &#8230; Technology is the fundamental catalyst for progress and change. It is by far the primary factor driving the development of human civilisation not only in [...]


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		<title>Pitiful Copenhagen</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2010/01/pitiful-copenhagen/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2010/01/pitiful-copenhagen/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Jan 2010 04:08:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=1160</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Given the competitive nature of capitalism any agreement on trying to deal with climate change was bound to be feeble and inadequate, If we were living in a rationally-organised world, and a problem such as the threat of a too rapid global warming arose, a co-ordinated global response would be organised as a matter of course. If it was generally agreed amongst scientists specialising in the field that the problem had been caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels, then steps would be taken to cut this back and to phase in alternative sources of energy. The problems encountered in doing this would only be technological, not political or economic, as there would be no vested interests manoeuvring and lobbying to prevent or delay what needed to be done from being done. But of course we are not living in a rationally-organised world. We are living under capitalism where there are vested interests galore – of the states into which the world is artificially divided, of the capitalist corporations seeking to make a profit by supplying some market or other. Certainly, the United Nations exists but it is only the arena in which these vested interests jockey for position [...]


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		<title>Climate Change?</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2009/12/climate-change-2/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2009/12/climate-change-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:50:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPCanada</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Climate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=1111</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[At a recent bookfair in Toronto, members of an organization called, “Supreme Master&#8221; handed out leaflets on climate change. The main thrust of their argument is that greenhouse gases are not the major cause of global warming, but de-forestation for cattle grazing land is. To support this contention they offer various statistics, some of which are interesting, and could well be true, e.g. Over 75% of tree cutting in the Amazon rainforest is done for meat production. Livestock produces more greenhouse gases than all world-wide transportation combined. The Arctic sea reflects about 80% of the sun’s heat, stabilizing the colder temperatures of the ocean. Greenland surface ice loss is now 400% greater than fifteen years ago. Unless urgent action is taken, all the ice in the arctic could be gone by the end of the summer melt season of 2012. That methane, a greenhouse gas currently being released from arctic permafrost and bubbling up through lakes is accelerating global warming in ways not currently accounted for. Research by Dr. Gregory Ryskin at Northwestern University indicates that methane explosions from the ocean caused extinctions of ninety per cent of marine species and 755 of terrestrial species some 250 million years ago. [...]


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		<title>Forget Shorter Showers</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2009/07/forget-shorter-showers/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2009/07/forget-shorter-showers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:02:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>FN Brill</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=1036</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Derrick Jensen, a prolific (and well known) anti-capitalist and environmentalist has written a pretty good argument for the need for political change on a system wide basis. Forget Shorter Hours (subtitled &#8220;Why personal change does not equal political change&#8221;.) Jensen, who writes from a radical environmental perspective, says: Part of the problem is that we’ve been victims of a campaign of systematic misdirection. Consumer culture and the capitalist mindset have taught us to substitute acts of personal consumption (or enlightenment) for organized political resistance. An Inconvenient Truth helped raise consciousness about global warming. But did you notice that all of the solutions presented had to do with personal consumption—changing light bulbs, inflating tires, driving half as much—and had nothing to do with shifting power away from corporations, or stopping the growth economy that is destroying the planet? Even if every person in the United States did everything the movie suggested, U.S. carbon emissions would fall by only 22 percent. Scientific consensus is that emissions must be reduced by at least 75 percent worldwide. While good at tearing apart the opposition, Jensen should take a bit more time discussing what to do: The good news is that there are other options. [...]


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		<title>Political Reality</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2008/12/political-reality/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2008/12/political-reality/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Dec 2008 22:33:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Left]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wspus.org/?p=871</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Bianca Jagger participating in a demonstration during the United Nations climate change conference in Poznan, Poland &#8220;The politicians just don&#8217;t seem to get the seriousness of the global warming crisis. Scientists attending the recent UN climate conference in Poznan, Poland, complained that the gap between political rhetoric and scientific reality on climate change is growing.&#8221;It doesn&#8217;t matter what the politicians promise,&#8221; said French climate scientist Phillipe Ciasis. &#8220;Even if we stop emissions growing today, the world will still warm by 2 °C &#8211; a lot more in some places. It is too late to prevent that.&#8221; Ciais was at Poznan to present the latest findings of the Global Carbon Project, a network of scientists that monitors how humans are influencing the natural carbon cycle. While politicians boast of their progress in cutting CO2 emissions, in the real world the gas is actually accumulating at an accelerating rate. Emissions have risen 28% already this decade, compared with 9% for the whole of the 1990s, said Ciais.&#8221; (New Scientist, 20 December) This is another example of politicians making sympathetic noises about the environment but in practice to cut emmissions may put them at a disadvantage against their international competitors. If they put [...]


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		<title>Manufactured Scarcity</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2008/12/manufactured-scarcity/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2008/12/manufactured-scarcity/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Dec 2008 01:45:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Left]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wspus.org/?p=868</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Book Review from the December 2008 issue of the Socialist Standard Green Capitalism. Manufacturing Scarcity in an Age of Abundance. By James Heartfield. www.heartfield.org .2008 James Heartfield is associated with the former Trotskyist (British) Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) which used to publish Living Marxism (LM) and has moved on considerably since “the collapse of Communism” at the end of the 1980&#8242;s and the dissolution of the formal RCP organisation in 1997. These days the so-called “LM network” produces the edgy www.spiked-online.com website and organises debates and events under the auspices of the Institute of Ideas and a myriad of propaganda campaigns expedited largely through a robust, sometimes entertaining, and not ineffective style of media entryism. One area this current has been particularly interested in over the last two decades is in promoting a full-on critique of the reactionary imperatives of the politics of “Environmentalism”. In Green Capitalism James Heartfield reminds us that the profit system is essentially a system of rationing, which is now, in certain circles and in a variety of ways, being dressed up as “greenwashing” by Big Business and Governments – as the contemporary ruling elites reinvent scarcity in an age of abundance. Heartfield rightly presents the [...]


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		<title>The Next Frontier</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2008/11/the-next-frontier/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2008/11/the-next-frontier/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:02:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stefan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wspus.org/?p=812</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Over the last few centuries, one region of the planet after another has been “opened up” to capitalist plunder. Often rival capitalist powers fought over the spoils of conquest. In the 19th century they had the “scramble for Africa.” In the 21st they are scrambling to control the resources of the Arctic, which global warming and technological advance are making accessible to exploitation (Socialist Standard, September 2007). Once the Arctic and Antarctic are brought fully under the sway of capital, what next? Won’t that be the end of the story, the closing of the last frontier? There remains space, to be sure. But won’t the costs of extracting resources and transporting them to Earth be prohibitive? So you might think. In fact, the strategists of the six powers that now have active space programs – the United States, Russia, the European Union, China, India, and Japan – already have their sights on the commercial and military potential of the cosmos. Helium-3 On 22 October India launched the Chandrayaan-1 satellite, and on 11 November it entered Moon orbit. One of its main tasks is to map deposits of Helium-3 (He-3). This isotope, used together with deuterium (H-2), is the optimal fuel [...]


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