Private Property is Not the Right Solution for the Natural Commons

Michel Bauwens
P2P Foundation
9th August 2011

Excerpted from a stirring speech by Maude Barlow, an advocate of commons-oriented approaches to natural resource issues. In this speech, she strongly stresses the link between the environmental crisis and social justice, and calls for an end to “silo thinking” on that issue. When I co-organized the International Commons Conference last October in Berlin, Maude Barlow refused to attend a previously agreed on panel on the relationship and mutual enrichment of the digital commons with the natural commons. We hope that in the future, that silo too will be broken! Digital commons and their information and knowledge sharing, as well as the sustainability aspects of shared design when coupled with relocalized and distributed ‘making’, has many synergies with the preservation of the natural commons, at least that is our conviction.

The excerpt has a strong critique of misguided market approaches which further enclose and privatize nature, and gives examples of succesful commons approaches to date. Very much worth reading.

Maude Barlow:

“From the perspective of the environmental movement, I see two problems that hinder us in our work to stop this carnage. The first is that, with notable exceptions, most environmental groups either have bought into the dominant model of development or feel incapable of changing it. The main form of environmental protection in industrialized countries is based on the regulatory system, legalizing the discharge of large amounts of toxics into the environment. Environmentalists work to minimize the damage from these systems, essentially fighting for inadequate laws based on curbing the worst practices, but leaving intact the system of economic globalization at the heart of the problem. Trapped inside this paradigm, many environmentalists essentially prop up a deeply flawed system, not imagining they are capable of creating another.

Capitalism’s ecological footprint condemns South to poverty

By Samir Amin
PAMBAZUKA NEWS
August 9, 2011

The expansion of capitalism is destroying the planet and placing the future of people in the South in jeopardy, writes Samir Amin in this week’s edition of Pambazuka News. Consumption levels in Europe, North America and Japan are four times higher than the per capita global average, a figure which already outstrips the earth’s ecological carrying capacity. If this pattern continues, says Amin, its logical conclusion is ‘either the actual genocide of the peoples of the South – as “over-population” – or at least keeping them in ever increasing poverty.’

1) The work of Wackernagel and Rees (first publication in English, 1996) instigated a major strand in radical social thinking about construction of the future.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Why World War II ended with Mushroom Clouds 65 years ago by Jacques R. Pauwels

Globalresearch

 

“On Monday, August 6, 1945, at 8:15 AM, the nuclear bomb ‘Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshimaby an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, directly killing an estimated 80,000 people. By the end of the year, injury and radiation brought total casualties to 90,000-140,000.”[1]

 

“On August 9, 1945, Nagasaki was the target of the world's second atomic bomb attack at 11:02 a.m., when the north of the city was destroyed and an estimated 40,000 people were killed by the bomb nicknamed ‘Fat Man.’ The death toll from the atomic bombing totalled 73,884, as well as another 74,909 injured, and another several hundred thousand diseased and dying due to fallout and other illness caused by radiation.”[2]

 

In the European Theatre, World War II ended in early May 1945 with the capitulation of Nazi Germany. The “Big Three” on the side of the victors – Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union – now faced the complex problem of the postwar reorganization of Europe.

 

The United Stateshad entered the war rather late, in December 1941, and had only started to make a truly significant military contribution to the Allied victory over Germany with the landings in Normandy in June 1944, less than one year before the end of the hostilities. When the war against Germany ended, however, Washington sat firmly and confidently at the table of the victors, determined to achieve what might be called its “war aims.”

 

As the country that had made the biggest contribution and suffered by far the greatest losses in the conflict against the common Nazi enemy, the Soviet Union wanted major reparation payments from Germany and security against potential future aggression, in the form of the installation in Germany, Poland and other Eastern European countries of governments that would not be hostile to the Soviets, as had been the case before the war. 

 

Moscow also expected compensation for territorial losses suffered by the Soviet Unionat the time of the Revolution and the Civil War, and finally, the Soviets expected that, with the terrible ordeal of the war behind them, they would be able to resume work on the project of constructing a socialist society. The American and British leaders knew these Soviet aims and had explicitly or implicitly recognized their legitimacy, for example at the conferences of the Big Three inTehran and Yalta.

 

 

That did not mean that Washington and London were enthusiastic about the fact that the Soviet Union was to reap these rewards for its war efforts; and there undoubtedly lurked a potential conflict with Washington’s own major objective, namely, the creation of an “open door” for US exports and investments in Western Europe, in defeated Germany, and also in Central and Eastern Europe, liberated by the Soviet Union. In any event, American political and industrial leaders - including Harry Truman, who succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt as President in the spring of 1945 - had little understanding, and even less sympathy, for even the most basic expectations of the Soviets. 

Concerns ahead of S. Africa climate talks

By Joshua Howat Berger
(AFP)
August 7, 2011

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa's preparations to host the next major round of climate talks have met with scepticism from activists critical of what they say is the country's lack of leadership on environmental issues.

The high-level meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, scheduled for November 28 to December 9 in the eastern port city of Durban, is seen as the last chance to renew the Kyoto Protocol, the only international agreement with binding targets for cutting greenhouse gases.

Marxism And Darwinism

By Anton Pannekoek – 1912 
WLSN
August 3, 2011

Written: 1909

Source: Charles H. Kerr & Company, Chicago, USA Original Copyright, 1912.

I. Darwinism

Two scientists can hardly be named who have, in the second half of the 19th century, dominated the human mind to a greater degree than Darwin and Marx. Their teachings revolutionized the conception that the great masses had about the world. For decades their names have been on the tongues of everybody, and their teachings have become the central point of the mental struggles which accompany the social struggles of today. The cause of this lies primarily in the highly scientific contents of their teachings.

The scientific importance of Marxism as well as of Darwinism consists in their following out the theory of evolution, the one upon the domain of the organic world, of things animate; the other, upon the domain of society. This theory of evolution, however, was in no way new, it had its advocates before Darwin and Marx; the philosopher, Hegel, even made it the central point of his philosophy. It is, therefore, necessary to observe closely what were the achievements of Darwin and Marx in this domain.

Read more HERE.

Sacrificing the Earth on the altar of politics

Socialist Worker
August 4, 2011

Obama tours tornado-ravaged Joplin, Mo., in May

Against a backdrop of mounting evidence of climate change, Chris Williams, author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis, examines why we need an environmental movement independent of both major parties.

"It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing."
-- Elizabeth Kolbert, Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change, 2006

MAROONED FROM the mainland United States, in June, the nuclear power plant at Fort Calhoun, Neb., became a small island. Sandbags were hurriedly deployed to prevent inundation from floodwaters as the Missouri river burst its banks, a consequence of the greatest flood in U.S. history.
Another nuclear facility, this time at Los Alamos in New Mexico, birthplace of atomic weapons, was threatened by an altogether different force of nature. Los Alamos was forced to evacuate as flames overran fire defenses and firefighters struggled to contain the largest wildfire in New Mexico history. 

“Into Eternity” – A haunting look at the future of radioactive waste

Beyond Nuclear

Beyond Nuclear is proud to announce that we are the non-theatrical NGO distributor of  the new film, Into Eternity, hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as “a rare hybrid: an information-packed documentary crossed with an existential art film . . .  one of the most provocative movies of the year.” You can partner with us in screening this extraordinary and thought-provoking film.

Into Eternity explores the utter impossibility of storing nuclear waste for 100,000 or even a million years. It is, on the one hand, a documentary about the Onkalo storage facility presently under construction in Finland, and on the other hand, a startlingly beautiful work of art and an urgent provocation that ponders the question of who – or what – will remain on this earth when that time frame has elapsed.

Please log on here if you would like to collaborate with Beyond Nuclear –  and our partner, Specialty Studios – to screen this important film in your community – whether at a house party or at a larger public venue. Specialty Studios will work with you to provide promotional materials. Please contact Beyond Nuclear for printed information, follow-on action items, our flier and – where feasible and desirable – a speaker.

Canada's Climate Change Policies a Sham - Report

Linton Nightingale
Climate Action
3 August 2011

The effectiveness of climate change policies put forward by the Canadian government has been wildly overestimated, according to a government-appointed think tank.

The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE), responsible for the analysis of governmental climate change policies, published their analytical response last week and in the process highlighted a lack of transparency and reliability of government estimates.

The report, “A Response of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy to its Obligations under the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act”, not only dismisses the country’s chances of reaching its proposed emission cuts by 2020, but also its fast approaching Kyoto 2012 target.

Selling Nature to Save Nature, and Ourselves

By Stephen Leahy
Inter Press Service
July 6, 2011

THE HAGUE - Avoiding the coming catastrophic nexus of climate change, food, water and energy shortages, along with worsening poverty, requires a global technological overhaul involving investments of 1.9 trillion dollars each year for the next 40 years, said experts from the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) in Geneva Tuesday.

"The need for a technological revolution is both a development and existential imperative for civilization," said Rob Vos, lead author of a new report, "The Great Green Technological Transformation". [ Baker River Dam Site / International Rivers)] Many believe the green technology transformation that the new U.N. report calls for is unlikely to succeed without a move away from the economic growth-at-all-costs paradigm that dominates nearly everyone's thinking.

Eco-socialism and 'Ecological Civilization' in China

By Ariel Salleh
Capitalism Nature Socialism
2008, Vol. 19, No. 3, 122-128.

On the weekend of 16-18 May 2008, Shandong University in Jinan - capital of the province just south of Beijing, hosted an International Conference on Environmental Politics. The university is one of the oldest in modern China and has three lush green city campuses. The dynamo behind the event was Professor Qingzhi Huan with strong support from university president Prof Tao Zhan and an enthusiastic postgrad team.

It opened with formalities from Prof Mouchang Yu of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Quanxin Zhang, Vice-Director of the Shandong Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and Yaoxian Wang, former Director of the Ministry of Environmental Protection. Speakers from far a field included Indian born activist Saral Sarkar from Cologne - author of Eco-socialism or eco-capitalism?;1 political philosopher John Barry from Queens University, Belfast; environmental sociologists Seajae Lee, Jaemook Park, and Do-Wan Ku from Korea; Masatsugu Maruyama from Japan, and myself from the University of Sydney.

The two day forum was loosely organised under three heads: Eco-socialism and Environmental Political Theories; International Comparison on Red-Green Movement and Practice; Eco-socialism and Constructing Socialist Ecological Civilization in China. Cutting across this were substantive themes at several levels of generality. The international relations focus showcased work on environmental diplomacy, UN governance mechanisms, and the role of the GEF. At a national level the focus was consumerism and the logic of capital, impacts of China's growth economy, environmental rights, the state and civil society in disaster management.

Regional case studies covered environmentalism in India, water, subsistence agriculture, Korean oil spills, and moves towards energy saving. Finally, there were critical theoretical papers on O'Connor's ecoMarxism, alternative communities, the gendered ecological footprint, and the concept of "ecological civilization."

Read more HERE.

Bureaucrats urged Kent to take global warming seriously

By Mike De Souza
Postmedia News
August 1, 2011

“Climate change is the most serious environmental issue facing the world today and carries with it significant impacts on human health and safety, the economy, natural resources, and ecosystems in Canada and throughout the world,” say the briefing notes, which were prepared for Environment Minister Peter Kent.

Peter Kent

OTTAWA — Global warming is the world’s greatest environmental challenge and Canada is falling behind the United States in reducing the pollution from industry that is causing the problem, say newly released briefing notes prepared for Environment Minister Peter Kent.

The warnings, submitted to Kent in January when he took over the environment portfolio in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, say global warming will have significant social, political and economic implications, putting Canada on the hot seat over its own record and commitments.

A Tar Sands Partnership Agreement in the Making?

By Macdonald Stainsby
Canadian Dimension
August 1st 2011

Campaigns against tar sands production have grown rapidly over the last four years. From the relative obscurity in Alberta to an international lightning rod for people trying to address all manner of concerns from indigenous and community self-determination to peak oil and climate change – criticisms of the largest industrial project in human history have gained a major voice.

The voices are certainly not homogenous, but a large contingent of these voices call for a shut down of tar sands production and a move away from fossil fuels – if not an outright move away from market-led growth of any sort. But, in the language of the environmental elite, what are the “decision makers” preparing to do with all this anti-tar sands resistance?