Hydraulic Fracturing Rig - Photo Courtesy of Los Angeles County
Sequestration, gridlock and international relations seem to dominate the public discourse, but the seemingly esoteric issue of hydraulic fracturing – fracking – has nevertheless established its place on the political stage. Just last month, our own California announced new policy proposals to regulate fracking; yet despite bucking the pro-industry trend, the state has failed to please concerned environmentalists.
An executive for TransCanada, the company pursuing the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, recently stated that shutting down oil sands production “would have absolutely no measureable impact on climate change”. By stating the percentage Canada as a whole contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions, and what percentage of Canada’s total are created by oil sands, Alex Pourbaix claims the oil sands contribute one-tenth of 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Pourbaix claims there is no measureable impact of the oil sands then immediately proceeds to measure the impact. While he cites a small number, what Pourbaix misses is that there is a number. We are reaching the stage where any number of greenhouse gas emissions is too high of a number.
The claim that production from the oil sands will not have a great effect on climate change fails to recognize the big picture. There are many negative impacts from the oil sands other than just increased greenhouse gas emissions. There is the waste of fresh water during the extraction process, the potential for water supply pollution in surrounding areas, or the negative aesthetic impact of production. However, the largest impact the oil sands and associated projects, such as the Keystone XL pipeline, have is the continuing to say, “yes” to fossil fuel production. Allowing one project, such as Keystone XL, can have the potential to open the floodgates for many more similar pursuits. In order to combat climate change, we must move in a new direction of cleaner, more sustainable energy, not towards an expansion of current practices.
What can you do? Add your name to a petition to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline and to let TransCanada executives, as well as the U.S. government know that there are more concerns surrounding these projects than simply greenhouse gas emissions. Or, continue putting direct pressure on President Obama to reject construction of the pipeline by contacting the White House.
Today, the
United Nations and the Andean community of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru
came together to launch the “International Year of Quinoa” in order to raise
awareness of the nutritional, economic, environmental, and cultural values of
the food. Quinoa has the potential
to help with food security and reducing poverty for small farmers in the world,
as well as ensure an environmentally sustainable agriculture.
“Many nations in South America are making strong progress toward
meeting the Millennium Development Goal,” Mr. Ban said, including by increasing
food production, reducing poverty and increasing access to nutritious food like
quinoa.
While adopting the
resolution to honor quinoa with its own year, the UN body also gave recognition
to the Andean indigenous peoples who have been cultivating more than half of
the annual 70,000 tons of quinoa.
In the same way, because
of its nutritional value, the price of quinoa has risen on the world market,
making it more attractive to large companies.
FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said combating
hunger requires leadership from countries and strong support from the
international community.
On August 2nd, 2012, Suren Gazaryan and Evgeny Vitishko, environmental activists working with the non-profit Environmental Watch on North Caucasus in Russia, were arrested on charges of hooliganism. Their crime? Writing the message, “This is our forest” on an illegal government fence on public lands near the Black Sea shoreline in the Krasnodar region of the North Cacuacus. The fence obstructed public access to lands with no supposed access restrictions. Gazaryan and Vitishko have since been convicted of the hooliganism charge and are currently serving three-year suspended sentences that restrict their travel and impose curfews. Russian authorities have continued to harrass the two men in an attempt to force them to cease all protest and community organizing activities. Recently, a second probe has been launched against Suren Gazaryen on charges of attempted murder of the security guards that accosted the two men near the illegal fence. The three armed and trained security guards are accusing Gazaryen, who was unarmed, of threatening them and causing them to fear for their safety. A conviction would convert the suspended sentence into a real prison sentence for the peaceful environmental activist. The EWNC is calling Suren Ghazaryen an "ecological prisoner" because of the persecution he has received for his environmental activism. They are asking for everyone to support Suren Gazaryen and Evgeny Vitishko in their legal struggles.. Find more information about the environmental activists and the EWNC on Facebook and on their website.
Starbucks Coffee - Photo courtesy of CNN - GPS Blog
Why are charity and environmental conscientiousness so widespread, even fashionable, in today’s society? Back in the 1960’s and even earlier than that, these attitudes were anomalies, only practiced by societal outliers. Before Rachel Carson’s landmark work, Silent Spring, most Americans were unaware that humans could have an adverse and discernible impact on the environment. So, how and why have these attitudes become so prevalent today? Slavoj Zizek, along with the excellent whiteboard animations of the RSAnimate team, attacks the source of this societal transformation with his usual critical, yet deeply perceptive, approach. He arrives at an answer that is surprising: we feel that awareness of our basic societal problems is enough.
Zizek characterizes today’s form of capitalism as “global capitalism with a human face”, or more generally, cultural capitalism. Cultural capitalism sells an attitude, or lifestyle, as the direct result of its products.For example, think of Nike, which advertises a culture of physical achievement (“Just do it”), or the clothing line Northface, which sells clothing under the slogan “never stop exploring”. Starbucks was a leader in this field, promoting “fair-trade” coffee as more than just coffee: “You are buying into something bigger than yourself. You are buying into coffee ethics….It’s good coffee karma,” says one of their campaigns. This is cultural capitalism at its purest, where consumers buy their own “redemption” from being only consumers. They become environmentalists, social activists, and philanthropists, a whole “culture”, all expressed in one consumerist act.
Zizek points to Toms as the most “absurd example” of cultural capitalism. Toms is famous for its “one-for-one” business model, in which the company will donate one pair of Toms to a third-world farmer for every pair of Toms bought. In this model, one consumerist act literally equals one charitable act. Consumers can buy a pair of shoes for themselves, and feel morally and ethically satisfied while doing it because they have fulfilled their “ethical duties” of charity, kindness, etc.
Learning of inequality or injustice in the world causes an emotional response. Whether its sadness or anger, the emotional response prompts us to donate money and/or effort to ending those injustices. If you remove the emotional response, however, you remove people’s desire to act. This is what Zizek believes cultural capitalism does; it “short-circuits” the emotional process by including the charitable act in the price of the consumerist act.
Now, this short-circuit would not be a problem if the charitable act that companies include within their products were real, effective programs. In fact, it could even be an effective and efficient way to aid people. However, the current manifestation of cultural capitalism is actually detrimental to the people they claim to support. It only holds the symptoms of poverty at bay, and does not seek to address the original cause of poverty. No real, viable solutions are ever offered, but are, in fact, discouraged by the belief that one is already in place. In this way, the first-world countries can feel morally satisfied and continue to exploit the cheap labor and products of undeveloped third-world countries; “The worst slave owners were the ones who were kind to their slaves”, Zizek says.
So, how do we address this problem? The proper action begins with thinking. And it is important to realize that thinking is, in itself, an action. Too often, when confronted with inequality and injustice, blind, immediate action is applauded, while thinking is condemned as cold, calculating or unfeeling. But it is blind action, not thinking, that is the problem here. We don’t think about the real implications of our actions when we buy Starbucks or Toms, we just short-circuit from buying, directly to charity. The thinking is what needs to be restored to our system. We need to move from cultural capitalism to conscious capitalism. This is not “capitalism with a human face”, but “capitalism with a human mind”. From the basis of thought and nowhere else can we move into a truly just and sustainable capitalist society.
I think it is important to confess that I am just as guilty as every other consumer participating in the cultural capitalist lifestyle. Denying my involvement in this farce would be just as destructive, and even more immoral, than the short-circuit itself. No; If you, the reader (assuming you are persuaded by my argument), and I, accept our guilt, it will be the first step to ending our involvement. And our involvement in cultural capitalism is, in fact, the most maddening of all its injustices: It involves every one of us in its immorality, making every one of us guilty, without our knowledge or explicit approval, just through naive participation.
Now, let us think about some more concrete solutions. The next time you go shopping, ask yourself what the product is selling beyond itself. When you buy that Northface jacket, are you also trying to buy into the outdoorsy, independent explorer persona? Do you even need Northface to sell you that persona, or could you create it yourself, through personal means? Or, when you next go to buy a coffee, from Starbucks or anywhere else, take the passion that you used to satisfy with their fair-trade coffee and do something real with it.
In the final months of 2012, the Myanmar parliament approved
the Letpadaung mine project and has been looking into the expansion of the
copper mine. The deposit has 1.478
billion tons of copper and the project could be beneficial to the Myanmar
economy. The expansion of the mine would affect more than 26 villages in the surrounding
area.
However, in the months that followed, a large population of
activistshas protested the expansion of the mine due to both the social and
economic consequences of such expansion.
In regards to the people living there, the expansion of the
project would mean losing their land: homes, farmland, schools, monasteries, (etc),
which would result in the displacement of many people. In the same way, mining chemicals have
been bad for the farmland as well as for the community, and have contaminated
drinking water and crops, causing health problems to the people living
nearby.
It is important for the Myanmar parliament to now ask
whether or not the expansion of the Letpadaung project is worth both the short
and long term interests of the people, the economy, and the environment.
EarthAction's mission is to inform and inspire people everywhere to turn their concern, passion, and outrage into meaningful action for a more just, peaceful and sustainable world.
