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UK Archbishop Williams delivers attack on impact of globalisation
Sam Jones, The Guardian
Blaming the greed of individual bankers for the financial crisis was too easy and people should instead be asking profound questions about how poorly regulated economies obsessed with ever-growing consumer choice have skewed the judgments of entire countries, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.
The Right Rev Rowan Williams used a lecture in Cardiff at the weekend to deliver a wide-ranging attack on a globalised economic system which had been “spectacularly successful in generating purchasing power” but which had also led us to “the most radical insecurity imaginable”.
… “To use one of the more obvious examples, it has become clear that lifestyles dependent on high levels of fossil fuel consumption reduce the long-term opportunities of basic human flourishing for many people because of their environmental cost – not to mention the various political traps associated with the production and marketing of oil in some parts of the world, with the consequent risks to peace and regional stability.”
Dr Williams criticised the unthinking pursuit of growth, which had led to an “unhealthily hyperactive” economy.
(9 March 2009)
Full text of speech.
Monbiot: This scam is nothing but a handout for motor companies, resprayed green
George Monbiot, Guardian
Paying drivers to scrap their old cars and buy new ones will do nothing to catalyse a low-carbon transport revolution
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… prepare yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, for the worst scam of all. It’s another reward for failure, but this one offers no prospect of rescuing the economy. Thanks to its cunning disguise as an environmental measure, we seem willing to be conned. I want to show you why we should resist it.
I’m talking about the scrappage payments being proposed by almost everyone linked to the motor industry: the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, most of the big car firms, the AA, and the unions. Lord Mandelson is said to be a fan. They argue that drivers should be paid around £2,000 a head to scrap their old cars and buy new ones. As well as saving the jobs of hundreds of thousands of workers, this, they say, will catalyse a low-carbon transport revolution. It’s bunkum.
Let’s start by getting a misconception out of the way. The media are reporting the proposal as a subsidy for switching to smaller, more efficient cars. But the manufacturers have called for no such thing.
(10 March 2009)
Prince Charles: ‘We have less than 100 months to stop climate change disaster’
Daily Mail (UK)
A dire climate-change warning will be issued by the Prince of Wales when he tells the world we have ‘less than 100 months to act’ before the damage caused by global warming becomes irreversible.
Charles will repeat the prediction made by experts that there are around eight years in which to make further cuts to CO2 emissions, halt deforestation and take other measures to stave off a permanent problem.
The comments will form part of a speech, ‘Less than 100 months to act’ to be made to business leaders in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, next week as the Prince tours South America with the Duchess of Cornwall.
(8 March 2009)
