Hear, hear! - John Bunzl
----- Original Message -----
From: "Norman Mikalac" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, August 05, 2000 10:16 AM
Subject: Re: [CrashList] Re: Communist Internationalist Position on
Immigration and Travel
> thanks for your response. i hope that your bout with cancer continues
> in remission.
>
> it's noble to be concerned about the environment and the health of
> billions of people who depend on it, but take care of your own health
> too because the people need valuable leaders as well.
>
> norm
>
>
> M A Jones wrote:
> >
> > Norm
> > Two and a half years ago I got diagnosed with cancer. I was in the
middle of
> > working on a book for Pluto Press the theme of which was the interaction
> > between different kinds of crisis (not my own!). Global warming,
> > resource-depletion, neoliberalism. This idea was (a) to try to decide
how
> > serious the problems of warming and energy depletion really are, based
on
> > the science. (Hardly original!) And (b) to try to assess the
effectiveness
> > or not of policy responses by the so-called 'international comunity'.
John
> > Gray's book, to which John Bunzl refers a lot, had just been published.
I
> > was interested in such things as whether carbon sequestration schemes
could
> > slow the rate of emissions, whether Kyoto stood a chance, whether
neoliberal
> > 'globalism' was part of the solution or part of the problem. And how big
> > really are thge oil reserves, and anyway does it matter if fossil fuels
run
> > out? We have alternatives, right?
> >
> > Just as I was getting into close combat with my own dragon, the Asian
> > Meltdown began and oil prices hit the deck. It looked again like the
> > doomsayers got it wrong, but by now I was too far into my personal
physical
> > meltdown to keep track of things. By March this year, after most of the
> > usual treatments they give you, I seemed to have beaten the dragon back,
for
> > the time being anyhow. I came out of the tunnel and looked around, and
found
> > that even in that incredibly short space of time, historically-speaking,
> > most things had got noticeably worse and nothing got better. The smoke
and
> > ash from burning rainforest covered half of South East Asia. The
incidence
> > of drought, flood, record temperatures, Polar ice-shelf disintegration,
grew
> > so that you bgarely noticed the reports any more. Like people stopped
> > noticed the plague bell during epidemics. You can have the feeling that
> > you're stuck on the front of a runaway loco chasing towards a precipice.
> > Wherever you look, incredible things are happening and no-one notices.
The
> > gamblers are enjoying themselves in the saloon cars at the rear of the
> > train. The rest of us are hanging on to what we've got, in the teeth of
the
> > gale. In the US and a few other places, a huge consumer boom keeps
people
> > quiet. The film Gladiator ought to stand as an icon for our own era of
bread
> > and circuses staged by mad rulers.
> >
> > The coral reefs are collapsing, the ozone holes are growing, the world
ocean
> > is quietly turning into a bath of dilute carbonic acid, the great carbon
> > sinks of the rainforests and the northern tundras are shot, the Arctic
> > ice-sheet is disappearing, there is a mass extinction umparalleled since
the
> > dawn of the Cenozoic. Well, I don't need to go on, you know all this.
> > Inertial momentum behind demographic change will mean there will be 9
> > billion humans, and maybe up to one bilion of those, according to so
> > demographers, will live in North America. If there is a shortfall, it
will
> > be because of the AIDs plague.
> >
> > Daniel Defore (I think it was) said you can 'find a deal of ruin in a
> > nation'. There are always disasters. But this moment is unique, not just
in
> > the history of our species, but of the geological history of trhe
planet.
> > What we're doing here on Crashlist is (a) trying to keep notes about
what's
> > going on (not even snapshots, because the whole kaleidoscope is too big
and
> > variegated to do more than register fleeting impressions) and (b) look
for
> > the underlying patterns.
> >
> > The situation is serious enough to merit a non-frivolous approach and
that
> > is what I try to encourage. Everything we say and do here should reflect
the
> > gravity of the subject matter. When I fell ill, way back in 1998, you
still
> > had to argue with Rush Limbaugh, Julian Simon and their ilk. There are
not
> > many global warming denialists left, and they don't have much
credibility.
> > Equally, no-one any more is arguing that oil production is infinite, or
that
> > 'oil is as renewable resource' as oil-industry guru and renowned
economisty
> > Morris Adelman was still babbling way back then. Today, even the US
> > Geological Service, famous for the crazed optimism of its conclusions,
which
> > usually seem to stand in stark defiance to its own science, does not
deny
> > that an Oil Peak is coming. The question is when, not if, and what
effects
> > will there be. To answer this question requires more than geology or
> > economiss, it also requires world-system thinking, it requires
geopolitical
> > analysis. The future will be one of environmental chaos, climate change,
> > population pressure and energy and water-famines. But in many parts of
the
> > world the future is already happening.
> >
> > Mark
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Norman Mikalac" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2000 8:52 PM
> > Subject: Re: [CrashList] Re: Communist Internationalist Position on
> > Immigration and Travel
> >
> > > for a new member, please tell me what is the "Crash"?
> > >
> > > thanks for your help.
> > >
> > > norm
> > >
> > >
> > > Mark Jones wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Nestor wrote:
> > > >
> > > > >. Do you mean that in the fantastic
> > > > > situation in which capitalism was overthrown in, say, France
alone,
> > and France
> > > > > was let along that path, the French socialist government would
enjoy
> > the
> > > > > brutal expoliation of the Third World in the same way the
bourgeois
> > government
> > > > > does?
> > > >
> > > > And don't get into this either. This List is not about French
socialism
> > or French
> > > > capitalism, it is about the Crash.
> > > >
> > > > Mark
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
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> >
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