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German Unions and the Climate Crisis
EnvironmentDespite all these positive developments within the union movement, Germany’s mainstream media continues to frame the emerging dialogue between Fridays for Future and the trade union movement in binary terms, as if the defense of jobs will inevitably act against the wider interests of the planet. This is exactly the narrative that unions need to explode.
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Tailings Dam Collapses in the Americas: Lessons Learned?
EnvironmentHave there been any lessons learned by mining companies and governments from Mount Polley, Mariana and Brumadinho? Virtually none. Have there been any lessons learned by the civil society? It yet remains to be seen whether the furor created by these catastrophes can be harnessed by social movements. Can other social actors like universities, advocacy groups, and independent think tanks actually carry out the independent research and the monitoring of mining that the governments and companies have abdicated?
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China is on track to meet its climate change goals nine years early
EnvironmentChina appears on track to reach its carbon goals up to nine years earlier than planned under the Paris agreement, in a potential huge boost for efforts to tackle climate change. The world’s biggest polluter accounts for a quarter of humanity’s emissions today, making the nation a crucial part of any efforts to avoid dangerous global warming.
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20 Essential Books on Marxist Ecology
EnvironmentIt’s two years since I published my last Essential Reading list. Since then I’ve received many suggestions for additions, and many new books have been published. It’s time for an update. My selection criteria are subjective: these are books that I have found particularly valuable, that I refer to frequently, and that I often recommend to others. I make no apology for including two of my own books — if I didn’t think people ought to read them, I wouldn’t have written them.
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Top 5 Reasons the Green New Deal is Workable, Winnable and the Idea We Need Right Now
Canadian PoliticsWe know that investments in renewable energy and efficiency create many more jobs than investments in fossil fuels. 5 times more, per unit of electricity generated, according to one UK study. But that only scratches the surface of the transformation required to cut our emissions at least in half in a decade. When you start thinking about the rest of the low-carbon economy: health care, education, local agriculture, land and water defense, and other forms of care work, the job creation potential is far greater.
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No Deal without Nature
EnvironmentIn both North America and Europe, the discussions around a Green New Deal for a decarbonised world are commendably strong on human rights – in particular pressing the claims of Indigenous peoples and working people – and on measures to combat inequality. But vastly more attention must be paid to what has long been the (endangered) elephant in the room when it comes to contemplating ways and means of reversing our kamikaze course, namely, the annihilation of biodiversity.
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The Cheapest Way to Save the Planet Grows Like a Weed
EnvironmentHemp historians have been writing about the crop’s myriad uses and its senseless prohibition for decades. What is news is that hemp cultivation is finally legal across the country. The time is short to save the planet and its vanishing diversity of species. Rather than engaging in endless debates over carbon taxes and Silicon Valley style technological fixes, we need to be regenerating our soils, our forests and our oceans with nature’s own plant solutions.
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Public Banks and a Just and Green Transition
Economic CrisisIn a financialized world dominated by a powerful, unaccountable, and self-interested financial class, there will be no just or green transformation without first reclaiming financial capacity in the public, not private, interest. But it would be a grave mistake to assume that resurgent public banks, by virtue of being publicly-owned, will necessarily function in the public interest. Public banks can and do go wrong. For public banks to work in the public interest, they must be made to do so.
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What Will it Take to Win a Green New Deal?
EnvironmentThe Pact calls the GND “a vision of rapid, inclusive and far-reaching transition, to slash emissions, protect critical biodiversity, meet the demands of the multiple crises we face, and create over a million jobs in the process. It would involve the full implementation of the UNDRIP, including the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), dozens of other pieces of legislation, new programs and institutions, and a huge mobilization calling on the creativity and participation of all of us.”
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Trudeau should cut his losses on the Trans Mountain pipeline
Canadian PoliticsIn 2015, Trudeau made a deal with Alberta. He would get an oil pipeline built to a coast if the province joined his pan-Canadian climate plan. After his election this past April, Conservative Alberta Premier Jason Kenney ripped up Alberta’s side of the bargain and declared war on Trudeau’s climate plan. What should Ottawa do now after being jilted by Alberta? Should the Liberal government proceed with the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline from Edmonton to the Vancouver area and lose credibility as a climate warrior?
