Land, art, and signals from the edge
We know that emerging issues are emerging because they have a social form. Art gives us clues about the changing meanings of the future.
Politics
Militias rising – are we on the road to fascism? – Apr 19
-Oath Keepers and the Age of Treason
-‘Christian Warriors’: Who Are The Hutaree Militia And Where Did They Come From?
-The Return of Christian Terrorism
-Chomsky Warns of Risk of Fascism in America
Live from Cochabamba – the alternate climate conference
Welcome to the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth—a massive meeting organized by the Bolivian government in response to the resounding failure of the United Nations-sponsored climate talks in Copenhagen last year.
– Video clips
– From Buenos Aires to Cochabamba (Guardian)
– Changing the Climate for Justice (ColorLines)
– “People’s climate conference” in Bolivia kicks off with ambitious aims (Grist)
– What Evo Morales wants
When the U.S. energy secretary spoke of “peak oil” …
… He was referring to the arguments of ASPO that we have already reached peak oil.
Climate conference in Cochabamba
– Hollywood stars join politicians at Bolivia’s ‘cool’ global warming summit
– Evo Morales: Climate change and the rights of Mother Earth
– Bill McKibben on Cochabamba summit
– In defense of Pachamama
The future of capitalism – profits and growth
Growth is only possible when energy flow is increasing. It is pretty simple really. When energy flow is increasing in each subsequent time period it is possible to increase the amount of work devoted to increasing the asset base of society. Alternatively, if the energy flow is decreasing…
The Derivatives Shell Game
The Wall Street Journal reports that your Congress is considering measures that would “improve transparency and reduce risk in the derivatives market.” It is not surprising that there are obstacles to such reform. The Republicans oppose anything that might make the Democrats look good. The Big Banks oppose anything that might intrude upon their Privatize The Gains, Socialize The Losses (PGSL) business model and thus restrict their ability to take crazy risks to make obscene amounts of money.
The new politics of community action
The enthusiasm of the Cameron Tories for community development and localism, and its convergence with the New Labour and Lib Dem ‘community empowerment’ agendas, suggests it is time to ask whether community development and community action, once a radical force in local politics, has been efectively depoliticised and incorporated as an arm of government. Has community radicalism been silenced, or is it more complicated than that?
The imperative of reforming U.S. foreign aid to empower women
Perverse incentives provided by tax codes and government subsidies are an ongoing theme of my articles in The Daly News. These perverse incentives pervade all sectors of the economy and undermine the hope for a prosperous and healthy civilization that lives in harmony with the earth. A paradigm shift away from the present destructive global economic model must entail the elimination of taxes and subsidies that reward pollution and injustice.
After peak oil, are we heading towards social collapse?
We cannot expect our government leaders to help society transition off of heavy oil dependence on account of their being controlled by “big business” interests. Therefore, it is up to average citizens to create the reforms that lead into localized economic and social development.
Maoist rebels and India’s resources
– Deadliest Maoist raid highlights Mittal, Posco India challenge
– Maoists represent a greater threat to India than the Islamist militants
– Maoists threaten Gandhi’s legacy
– Gandhi, but with guns
Bless Bolivia for recharging the fight to rescue our climate
Maybe we’ll get a jolt of political energy from the south, courtesy of the groups and leaders assembling from across the world in Cochabamba, Bolivia. This People’s Summit on Climate Change will be seen as naive by precisely the kind of people applauding the president for turning on the oil spigots today–after all, its by definition a People’s Summit, free from the kind of corporate interference that helped sink the Copenhagen conference in December.
