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In today's NY Times, there are two articles about deforestation. The first one, which I posted yesterday, describes how China is the world's second largest importer of timber in the world after the USA. It is protecting its own forests but is leveling them all over the world, particularly in nations that lack the economic muscle to protect their own resources. Russia, which does have such muscle, is seeing its timber resources stripped by Chinese companies only because Putin's government both lacks the will to stave off this colonial onslaught and because Russia corruption is so deeply rooted in the post-Soviet culture.
The article below describes the same process taking place in Poland at the behest of the filthy rightwing government that has its origins in the Solidarity movement. Talk about degradation...
I will be writing something for CounterPunch on Friday that deals with the question of ecological limits, degrowth, etc. Twenty years ago, when James Heartfield was a presence in leftwing listservs, any attempt to deal with such questions was dismissed by him as neo-Malthusianism. While his sect was blasting full speed ahead toward naked capitalist politics, some people who should have known better were leaning toward his dubious conclusions.
Why are forests being destroyed? In a word, to supply the need for furniture. Much of the wood that China imports is turned into furniture sold by Ikea, Walmart, Home Depot, et al. It is a commodity chain that involves older imperialist powers like Sweden, the new arrival from China's "Ecological Imperialism", and the Third World that is being plundered.
Will socialism fix this? Only if it can figure out a way to make furniture out of thin air. Natural resources are not some inexhaustible tap that can be run for eternity.
One of the most galling things about this Green New Deal propaganda is its failure to come to terms with this. Naturally, Jacobin, which is one of its main proponents, has a poor grasp of this as evidenced by publishing the feckless Spiked online fellow traveler Leigh Phillips. There has to be a political reckoning with these issues if revolutionary socialism hopes to help resolve the apocalyptic crisis we are facing. Half-measures will not work. Wikipedia cites Ikea as one of the most environmentally responsible companies in the world. If that is the case, we are certainly doomed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/world/europe/poland-bialowieza-forest-logging.html _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
