[WSF-Discuss] State, Revolution and Global Social Emancipation

[David Stodolsky]

On 24 Aug 2008, at 09:46, Madhuresh wrote:

>
> From: "peter waterman" <p.waterman at inter.nl.net>
> Anarchism and climate debate - Ewa Jasiewicz and George Monbiot
>
>
>> Maybe neither Ewa nor George 'get's it'.
>>
>> It is only by identifying with the poorest, most marginalised, most
>> endangered, classes or communities, that one can put fear and  
>> urgency into
>> the minds of the hegemons.


While the answer above is probably correct, the evidence is that none  
of the previously mentioned 'get it'.

Anyone who has investigated the previous (1970's) "energy crisis" will  
be aware that oil 'shortages' are not related to resource depletion,  
but to whether Big Oil has gotten their man into the Whitehouse. This  
observation can be generalized to other resource and environmental  
problems. Most of these problems are created to gain outrageous  
profits and then justified as stemming from physical shortages /  
limits. The effect of this is to distract the public away from looking  
for political solutions and toward placing their hopes on  
technological fixes, conservation, etc.

The current Climate Crisis is a case in point. The Mass Media focuses  
on the IPCC report, which they can sensationalize as 'proving' that  
the End Is Near (tm). Equally, if not more reliable analyses, by for  
example, the US National Academy of Sciences (2006) that don't support  
this view at all, are mostly ignored. Actual measurements of the  
Planet's energy balance hardly make an appearance in the media:

<http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060824/news_lz1c24moon.html>

Reflected earthshine reveals changing global climate and clues to  
seeking other Earths

"From the middle 1980s to about 2000, they found that there was indeed  
a drop in the Earth's reflectance – enough to have increased the  
average amount of solar energy absorbed by 3.5 watts per square meter,  
a startling 1.7 percent increase.
By comparison, human emissions of greenhouse gases have added only 2.5  
watts per square meter to the amount of energy retained by the Earth,  
Goode says.

Then, in 2000, the trend reversed. Earthshine increased, and the  
amount of sunlight reaching the surface began declining – an  
observation subsequently confirmed by data from orbiting satellites."



The conclusion of this research is that the changes in the amount of  
energy absorbed by the Earth cannot be attributed to human inputs to  
the atmosphere, since the emission of 'greenhouse gases' has been  
constantly increasing. To put it bluntly, there is no solid evidence  
whatsoever that there is a Climate Crisis and even less that it is due  
to human activity.



If we look at the interventions that have been implemented as a result  
of this climate propaganda, we find that they have had very negative  
social effects. The Carbon Trading system set up by Kyoto extracts  
billions from the poor, since they pay three times as much of their  
income in utility bills as does the middle class. Thus, Kyoto  
implements a highly regressive form of taxation. Another effect has  
been to make it extremely profitable to build highly polluting power  
plants in China. Careful analysis of the Kyoto Treaty has not been  
able to show any positive environmental interventions, that would not  
have been implemented without it. So, "Global Warming" is the scam of  
the decade.

Forget about climate change, oil shortages, water shortages,  
terrorism, etc. These are all propaganda initiatives of the ruling  
elite. The problem is political and will only be solved by political  
action. I would even say that we must go beyond political action, and  
look to social and cultural change, if there is to be any long-term  
effect of current activism. This is the lesson of the 'Flower Power  
Revolution' of 1968.



More links on my new blog;

http://secureid.net/users/dss/



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David.Stodolsky at SocialInformatics.Org  Skype: davidstodolsky