- Herman Daly and other eco-economists put the goal as leapfrogging “beyond growth”. This evokes a carbon neutral way of life that nourishes self reliance, human rights and the bright ideas that keep civilization rolling along. What other choice do we have? Humanity's consumption already exceeds the capacity of Earth to regenerate its resources by 30 percent.
- The mind shift will be hotly contested, especially by a traumatised corporate media clinging to the growth/spend/ Lear Jet paradigm and playing dirty. Expect incessant calls for war. Expect reports on future wars to be sanitized even more so than today. Right now CIA spooks in Langley, Virginia are able to instigate air strikes on any country they fancy, be it friend or foe and liquidate anyone they want - including women and children – and yet not have to answer for such deeds. Not a peep of complaint from the West.
Also, do not expect corporate media to remind you that the ‘wars against terror’ are also wars that accelerate global warming.
- Since March 2003, the Iraq war has produced over 141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. According to Oil Change “the costs of the war would cover all of the global investments in renewable power generation that are needed between now and 2030 in order to halt current warming trends”. Iraq meanwhile is a crime scene.
Five years of compulsive bombardment has wrecked Iraq’s “already weakened underground sewage systems… with a lake of sewage clearly visible on satellite photographs”, notes Michael Schwartz . The ultimate destination of this filth is the Tigris and Euphrates river system, now thoroughly contaminated. “Their water can no longer be safely drunk by humans or animals, the remaining fish cannot be safely eaten, and the contaminated water reportedly withers the crops it irrigates”. All this achieved by nations that claim a “moral authority”. We came for the oil, left a mountain of corpses and filled up the rivers of Babylon with sh*t.
Citizenship is about much more than casting a vote. Unless we take time to flush out the truth behind official fairy tales and confront the crimes of those in power, the place where civilisation began could well mark the spot where it ends.
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