Editorial from the forthcoming January 2008 issue of the Socialist Standard This article, aimed at the British Green Party, can be just as easily applied to the Green Party here in the States. Capitalism, no matter how progressive, can never be reformed in the interest of the working class or the planet. People are...
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Environment
The Futility of the Greens
The politics of climate change
Fundamentally there are three elements to the climate change debate, elements of dissimilar weight and influence: first there are the governments and the economy to which they are bound; second is business and the corporations, including the media; and third are the citizens. There is deliberately no mention here of the planet, the environment,...
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Green without being Green
October 25th‘s New York Times contained a special full-color insert titled “Corporate Social Responsibility – Designing a Sustainable Future”. The introduction, given by the President and CEO of Business for Social Responsibility Aron Cramer, tells us that “Consumers are paying more attention to the sources of the food they eat and the safety of...
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Global warming: we’re not to blame
The government, the churches, the charities are all trying to make us feel guilty by saying that we as individuals are to blame for global warming. Some say that, by our chosen lifestyle, we personally emit too much CO², directly, when we drive a car or, indirectly, when we leave the lights on or...
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Climate change
It is not good news for the future of the continent of Africa from climate change according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Greenhouse gases will later this century put up to 1.8 billion more people in Africa at risk of water stress. Even a modest temperature rise could lead to...
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Pig Shit and Profits
The autocratic ruler of Jordan, King Abdullah II, enjoys barbecuing in the palace garden. Recently, however, he felt obliged to send a letter of complaint to Israel’s environment ministry regarding an unwanted and unsavoury export from that country. Indeed, the stench of manure from a kibbutz was so objectionable that he cancelled a planned...
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Marketing the suicide seed
In the second week of February the United Nations convened a meeting in Bangkok that, despite its importance, failed to make newspaper headlines or feature anywhere in news broadcasts. The lack of apparent newsworthiness, however, belies the meeting’s significance, for in time the issue under discussion could well turn out to have profound consequences...
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Common Ownership: Our Last Chance
A recent episode of the PBS program Now, broadcast nationwide in most states on 4/22/2005, announced gravely not only that “scientists are convinced our Earth is warming, and with scary consequences,” but also and even more gravely that “meanwhile industry funds a campaign to do nothing.” The program quoted Dr. Richard Alley, professor at...
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Better living through chemistry?
Pharmaceuticals & personal care products in the environment All chemicals ingested or applied externally have the potential to be introduced into sewage systems and from there to aquatic or terrestrial environments. When those chemicals are components of personal care products such as suntan lotions, makeup, and toiletries, or human and veterinary pharmaceuticals, they represent...
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The Ethics of Capitalism
Herbert Spencer’s concept of Survival of the fittest…Pseudo Scientists, in Economics, Anthropology, History, etc., have have probably erected more obstacles to the clear understanding of reality than any other group, for their misconceptions are tinted with the gild of scholarship. Herbert Spencer, with his Social Statics, was perhaps the most outstanding of those scholars...
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