Greetings Economists,
On May 13, 2008, at 9:18 AM, Jim Devine quotes a news article:
Civilization's last chance
Doyle;
Rhetorical pressure aside, the current large scale social dynamics
indicate that a global power structure would emerge to make the kind
of economic choices needed to address the climate.
That coupled with a recession in the U.S. seems to steadily weaken the
neo-liberal or free market consensus. Therefore a new economic
consensus is likely forming. McKibben thinks the internet provides
the basis for international organizing. I doubt it can be mobilized
for that purpose. Rather what it will likely be mobilized for is
community structure building. How do we connect to each other. What
do we mobilize to?
We can say if... global warming then global power structures to fit
the problem scale. If the whole system must be re-built as if a world
war level of threat was happening, and that is probably not large
enough to encompass global warming, then it would have to include how
everyone connects to everyone in a much more defined and closely
regulated way. What else can one say it means to stop wasting energy,
but to address every single wasteful element in every day life, and
immediately require everyone to change in a matter of years not decades.
There is no known social mechanism of such cross border attachments,
but that is exactly what is being called for.
No matter what happens, failure to meet the demands in advance of
global warming these changes force everyone to face the challenge one
way or the other. So the radical demand is not directed at energy,
but at social change and specific structures that can make human
social structure work in the face of a severe crisis. Nothing can
happen before the social structure question is brought to the front of
the solutions agenda.
thanks,
Doyle Saylor
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