Politics

ODAC Newsletter – Aug 6

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There was an almost audible sigh of relief this week in the US as BP and the White House proclaimed the ‘static kill’ procedure on the Macondo oil well a success. With elections approaching the Obama administration will be keen to draw a line under the oil spill and focus on other issues, as reflected by a surprisingly upbeat press conference on Wednesday in which officials announced not only the plugging of the well but also the apparent disappearance of 75% of the spilled oil…

A way forward — Climate hope in a prison of despair

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The U.S. Senate has rejected taking action on a significant climate or energy bill this year. Heads are hanging in despair, moans of anguish are rising, and arguments are breaking out about who is to blame. While Washington has failed to act, the Earth is showing accelerating strains from our continued dumping of warming pollutants to the atmosphere.

We’re hot as hell and we’re not going to take it any more

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For many years, the lobbying fight for climate legislation on Capitol Hill has been led by a collection of the most corporate and moderate environmental groups, outfits like the Environmental Defense Fund. We owe them a great debt, and not just for their hard work. We owe them a debt because they did everything the way you’re supposed to: they wore nice clothes, lobbied tirelessly, and compromised at every turn. By the time they were done, they had a bill that only capped carbon emissions from electric utilities (not factories or cars) and was so laden with gifts for industry that if you listened closely you could actually hear the oinking.

What the Zapatistas can teach us about the climate crisis

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While political forces have conspired to make the Zapatistas largely invisible both inside Mexico and internationally, their challenge has always been to propose a paradigm of development that is both just and self-sustaining. It seems fair, then, to see if Zapatismo can shed any light on the muddle of politics around the climate crisis.

ODAC Newsletter – July 30

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Another week on and there has been no further leak from the BP Macondo well. Officials are now “optimistic” about preparations for a new attempt at a, with the initial step of pumping mud into the top of the well likely to begin as soon as Sunday. With the leak apparently under control, BP chose this week to announce the inevitable departure of its CEO Tony Hayward, whose replacement by the American Bob Dudley was vital for the company’s damage limitation efforts in the US…

Kentucky’s Community Farm Alliance: From growing tobacco to building the good L.I.F.E.

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In 1998, tobacco was Kentucky’s top cash crop…Major changes swept over the tobacco industry that year when it was pressured to compensate states for the public health costs associated with smoking as part of the National Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. Kentucky received a payout of $3 billion over a 25-year period…Kentucky leaders opted to allocate $1.7 billion of its $3 billion share to agricultural development, and much of it went to support small-sized farms. This was thanks to a small but highly effective grassroots organization of family farmers and their allies, the Community Farm Alliance (CFA), which helped to ensure that much of the money devoted annually to agriculture would benefit small-sized farms directly…

Tony we hardly knew ye

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To no-one’s great surprise, BP has fired chief executive officer Tony Hayward – while reporting record losses. Pausing just long enough to negotiate a hefty financial package, said to include a $1.6 million payout in lieu of notice, a $1-million-per-year-pension and shares, he leaves a company fighting for its survival. According to the Guardian newspaper, BP is reporting “the largest losses in British corporate history”…

A vision of the future : The Knights of God

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Hardly anybody today remembers The Knights of God. It was a children’s series produced by a now defunct British regional television channel in 1985. It was aired once, not so unfairly panned by critics, and quickly forgotten. It had a somewhat longer career in France where public television bought it and aired it at least twice, under the title Les Epées de Feu, before putting it in cold storage…Yet, despite its flaws, this piece of nearly lost lore tells us more about what post-peak politics could be than most doomer porn produced since.

A Deutschland disconnected from its Volk

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As elsewhere in western Europe, the advanced liberal consumer democracies are ever more unable (politically unwilling) to implement genuine change. Deutschland’s rulers in Berlin firmly believe that techno-managerial innovation (and a hefty dose of financial risk-taking) will continue to provide cures for current ideas of what is unsustainable. As has happened time and again in Europa’s history of nations, from the mid-19th century onwards, the costs of such ‘revolutions’ will be externalised elsewhere (east and south), and the ecological sustainability that Germany’s admirable network of communes have long been admired for will remain out of reach of the country’s policy and practice.