Eco-Slavery

[razzleberry]

I found this article to be, very disturbing.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2337485.ece

/snip/Somewhere in the Indian countryside, a farmer is about to repay Mr Cameron’s debt to the planet. Climate Care’s latest enterprise is to provide “treadle pumps” to poor rural families so they can get water on to their land without using diesel power. The pumps are worked by stepping on pedals. If a peasant treads for two hours a day, it will take at least three years to offset the CO2 from Mr Cameron’s return flight to India.
/snip/

I want to know, how much carbon credit is being claimed
per machine, and the cost of one such pump.

just think of all the carbon that could be saved, if the
undesireable people of the world were lashed to grain threshing machines.

[Javaman]

1. It's just more of that ugly america let someone else deal with my problem

attitude.

god help us to actually cut back. I'm sure mr. cameron is putting along in his giant train car sized SUV with a happy clear conscious as we speak.

[jpak]

2. So how is this "eco-slavery"???

Should those people be "slaves" to the companies selling diesel generators or fuel???

Sounds like a pile of RW anti-environmentalist BS to me...

[XemaSab]

3. WHy should poor people have to engage in HARD physical labor to get water

when we can just turn a tap? :shrug:

[jpak]

4. But how is this "eco-slavery"

and how is a voluntary 2-hour work period HARD labor??

[XemaSab]

5. If it's 2 hours of work to get water

in addition to taking care of the crops and the animals, that's a long day's work.

It's eco-slavery because we're denying them 20th.... nay, 19th century technology so rich people with light skins can feel self-righteous and think they're saving polar bears (all while riding around in their hummers).

[jpak]

6. How is this program enslaving and denying anyone?

If these pumps improve peoples incomes so they can afford schooling for their children, or a cell phone, or a solar lighting system - is this a bad thing?

Not to be snarky, but millions of American workers labor away at physically demanding jobs for 8+ hours per day every day of the week...

:hi:

[XemaSab]

7. I'm opposed to carbon offsets

In order to "offset" anything, it means that what was once done by machine is now done by labor.

[jpak]

8. That's all good, but the OP was about "eco-slavery"

and this nonsense...

"just think of all the carbon that could be saved, if the undesireable (sic) people of the world were lashed to grain threshing machines"

There is nothing in the article that remotely suggests slavery - eco or otherwise...

[XemaSab]

9. To go off on a slight tangent, do you think there's a global conspiracy to keep the bottom 50% poor?

Some days I suspect it, and getting rich liberals to go along with it in the name of almighty carbon would be a real coup.

[jpak]

10. Conspiracy? - not so much - Republican assholes exploiting 3rd world labor and resources

yup

[XemaSab]

12. But the republicans have their little buddies in other countries...

:shrug:

[hunter]

11. Why not a rural electrification program of the U.S. sort?

My great grandparents lived on a homestead, far far away from any city. When rural electrification came to their part of the world my great grandmother wasn't buying into it, but my great grandfather loved radio, and that's what sold him.

They never got indoor plumbing, and when my mom's cousin installed a well and a pump at his house, and offered to do the same at hers, my great grandmother refused outright and berated him for wasting that money on his own house. But she still listened to the radio and used electric lights, although as sparingly as if she was still using oil.

Physical labor isn't bad, but nevertheless, it's rather heinous to impose some misguided puritan work ethic upon others.

These pumps are very much like the short handled hoes of California agriculture. Two hours pumping water is two hours that a person could be doing something else. What we need here, and what we do not have despite all the solar hype and handwaving, is an inexpensive pump that doesn't require this sort of labor.

So, how much does a solar powered pump of similar capacity cost?

Oh yeah, wealthy people can enjoy that, or give it away as charity, but somehow it's not practical for the people who actually live in poverty... they have to make do with treadle pumps. :sarcasm:

The "appropriate technology" movement, which is a perverse manifistation of English and German romanticism, actually harms the poor. Why should the poor have to make do with very inferior and labor intensive sorts of technology when the average fat ass American has a house with interior plumbing and a 24kva electric service?

Why can't we aim for something greater, the same sort of electric and water systems we ourselves enjoy? How many of these treadle pumps are being made? How much would it cost to replace them all with solar or wind powered pumps of equal capacity? That's the target we need to hit.