The Enemy of Nature

[blindpig]

Can there be any doubt of the utter failure of the Environmental Movement? Even as we are inundated with so-called green consumer products, as our corporate masters profess their love of baby pandas and the pols all declare themselves to be environmentalists, the planet continues to go down the tubes.

How is it that with the vast majority declaring that more needs to be done to preserve our irreplaceable resources, that the wonder and beauty of the natural world not be lost forever, that things get worse and worse? Is this a democracy, or what is it? Our democracy is a sham, a dog and pony show, a sophoric which allows big money to do what it likes under the pretense of law and popular approval.

You say that it ain't politics that's the answer, that people must change themselves before they can change the world? Got news for ya ,most people are too busy trying to survive, to pay bills and put food on the table to give a rat's ass about self realization or whatever kind of crap the gurus are selling to those who can afford. Are they trying to save the natural world and our planetary support system or preserve their lifestyle and peace of mind?

The unfolding global catastrophe that has inundated most of the people in the world and is destroying their lives is now lapping at the shores of white American suburbia. Tough shit. I am sorry that kissing up to, profiting from, enjoying privilege and status, and building their lives around a system that is a rapacious and evil Juggernaut of global destruction and devastation hasn't worked out for them, that the consequences of their lovely lives are catching up to them.

Global environmental collapse is a symptom. It is a symptom of capitalism., which consumes all, be it clean water and air, fuzzy little critters, human rights, dignity, life. People blame it on the corporations, say it's their mandate and if only we brought the corps to heel that all would be hunky dory. But the corps are just a tool of the rich, a finely wrought device of plausible deni ability. The same people are calling the shots and reaping the profits. It's the whole rotten system, the corps merely providing a level of efficiency only to be dreamed of by the greedy of old.

We've all be co-opted by the system, but some are more co-opted than others. Those are the ones who think we can tweak the system, who think that if only the unenlightened would be like them, who blame everyone and everything but themselves. They don't just buy Hummers and Mc Mansions, they buy organic foods of dubious provenience, overpriced clothing of supposedly ethical origin, the new cabin with a view of the waterfalls. More importantly, they buy the bullshit that they aren't part of the problem, that they are the solution, that they can consume their way into heaven. It's comforting to think that you can drop a check in the mail and save the planet while enjoying the fruits of upscale consumerism. Poison fruits from a poison tree, capitalism.

If you think that what needs being done is to change the way the people think, a dubious proposition, then quite frankly we're doomed. Were it possible, were it the right answer, it still would never get done before we destroy all. It is the society which we live in, constructed by, of and for the benefit of the overclass, using carrot and stick, which has rendered people apathetic and demoralized. Justice, survival and expediency demand that this system of cancerous growth and consumption be put down like a rabid dog.

It may not be the whole cause of environmental degradation but it's the biggest part by far, does it not make sense to stop this engine before it consumes us all?

(Apologies to Joel Kovel for lifting the title of his book, well worth reading.)

[OneBlueSky]

1. the bottom line is the bottom line . . . to mega-corps, nature is merely a free resource . . .

to be tapped for profit . . . any other considerations (environmental, social, etc.) are peripheral, if they exist at all . . .

[Orsino]

2. Should we blame the movement...

...for the utter failure of everyone else? Uh-uh. The environmentalists have been pointing us in the right direction for many decades. They have been, and remain, right.

[blindpig]

3. But what have they done about it?

Considering the magnitude of the situation, not much. I've belonged to probably every enviro org in the country at one time or another and all I've got to show for it is junk mail. They dissipate the energy of the movement by their competition for donor bucks, are often compromised by the corps, and maintain the illusion that we can tweak the system and go on, business as usual. I'm not saying that no good has been done, just that the results have been utterly inadequate given the situation. Little bitty band aids won't do jack for major trauma. We must treat the disease, not the symptoms.

[Orsino]

4. And the disease isn't in the environmentalists.

It's in us who aren't listening closely, or taking their message seriously, as we continue in our profligate abuse of the earth's resources. Sure, the environmental movement hasn't scrubbed the mercury from the ocean or the carbon dioxide from the air yet, but it hasn't been for lack of trying. If you're looking for someone to blame, the environmental movement is not the place to begin.

[blindpig]

5. Did you read the OP?

Of course the disease isn't the enviro orgs, they are an inadequate response to the deprivations of capitalism, which is the disease.

Stop blaming the people, who are only trying to get by and are assaulted by propaganda 24/7. Who ever asked for pet rocks or cell phones? The demand for these and so much of the crap people buy today was generated by propaganda, be it advertising, mass culture, or the education factories.

[Orsino]

6. I sure did.

"Can there be any doubt of the utter failure of the Environmental Movement?"

It's only the wording of that line that I object to.

[blindpig]

7. If not failure then what do you call it?

I was in Hopkins Plaza in Baltimore on the 1st Earth Day, 37 years ago, and still we slide toward the abyss at an accelerated rate. While it may be said that things would be worse without the Clean Water act, for example, is that a victory? The machine keeps grinding on, consuming all in it's path. Part of the problem is the strength of the machine, but a greater part is those who would tell us that the damage of the machine can be mitigated without shutting it off. It is time we realize that continuous economic growth and consumption are untenable, and act accordingly.

[Orsino]

8. I hang the failure on the rest of us.

I don't question the use of the word "failure."

[blindpig]

9. That's the problem,

blaming the victim. If you're not a member of the uber class then you're a victim of them. Everything is considered within the context of capitalism, anything outside of that frame is beyond the pall. All of the enviro orgs operate within the context of capitalism, and that precludes anything but pallitives, placebos and window dressing. They would have us blame ourselves so that we don't blame them.

[Quantess]

10. People are destroying the earth.

I've known it for a long time, but most people don't seem to be too worried. Someday it will be too late. But as long as people can get what they want, right now, then they don't care about the future consequences. Sad but true.

[blindpig]

12. Not people

Consider this example: Did the people wish the horrors being visited upon the Congo Basin? These horrors are entirely generated by non-African business interests extracting mineral and timber wealth. Other than gold, a mostly useless luxury item, coltane is the hottests commodity, a necessary component for cell phones. Who ever asked for cell phones, nobody did, demand was created by advertising and manipulation of popular culture(product placement,etc). Demand was created in order to generate profits. Don't blame the people, blame those who manipulate the people to increase their wealth and dominance.

[Quantess]

13. No, people are NOT destroying the Earth? You make no sense.

You seem insincere.
And, what the hell is coltane?
Are you you trying to reference the 70's singer John Coltrane, or what?
(edit to change James to John.)

[blindpig]

15. Google is your friend

http://www.johncoltrane.com/swf/main.htm

Ok, spelling error on my part, it's coltan. Check this out:

http://www.alternet.org/story/41477/

Insincere, who are you to judge?

[blindpig]

11. More here

In our view, the crises of ecology and those of societal breakdown are profoundly interrelated and should be seen as different manifestations of the same structural forces. The former broadly stems from rampant industrialization that overwhelms the earth's capacity to buffer and contain ecological destabilization. The latter stems from the form of imperialism known as globalization, with its disintegrative effects on societies that stand in its path. Moreover, these underlying forces are essentially different aspects of the same drive, which must be identified as the central dynamic that moves the whole: the expansion of the world capitalist system.


We reject all euphemisms or propagandistic softening of the brutality of this regime: all greenwashing of its ecological costs, all mystification of the human costs under the names of democracy and human rights. We insist instead upon looking at capital from the standpoint of what it has really done.


Acting on nature and its ecological balance, the regime, with its imperative to constantly expand profitability, exposes ecosystems to destabilizing pollutants, fragments habitats that have evolved over aeons to allow the flourishing of organisms, squanders resources, and reduces the sensuous vitality of nature to the cold exchangeability required for the accumulation of capital.

From the Ecosocialists Manifesto: http://www.cnsjournal.org/

[Quantess]

14. Whoever gave you a passing grade in High School,

College, or wherever you learned big words, should be ashamed that you are not proficient with junior high grammar.

[blindpig]

16. Here's how it works

Workers buried the 30-pound Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) on a Lee County construction site, its shell crushed by a backhoe. Two weeks later, despite a spinal injury, the determined tortoise dug its way out. The remarkable resurrection led a wildlife expert to nickname the 16-inch-long tortoise "Phoenix." It was the largest Gopher Tortoise ever found in the wild. It died last week.

For 16 years, Florida officials have allowed developers to bury Gopher Tortoises alive and pave over their burrows, in exchange for paying money into a fund to buy land for tortoises elsewhere. Because of their low metabolic rate, tortoises can take months to suffocate under convenience store parking lots, shopping centers and new subdivisions.

http://www.cnah.org/news.asp?id=379

Ain't that just great? Can't let nothing stand in the way of Progress(profits).

[blindpig]

17. Ask the Huaorani

The indigenous people who are thus alienated from their traditional way of life are confronted with a destruction of resources, cut-throat capitalism, alcohol and prostitution. Western curricula, teaching "with a carrot and a stick" (whereas corporal punishment among the Huaorani culture is unheard of), hierarchical thinking and acting, deriding of their forest life through the state and the missionaries - all this increasingly leads to some kind of deculturisation. Their way of living is defamed as communism and barbarism inspired by the devil. Resistance in the form of associations and umbrella organizations is broken up by infiltrating their organizations and by weakening the membership and communities supporting these organizations according to the principle divide et impera.

http://www.crystalinks.com/huaorani.html

Did you or I or anyone you know wish this upon the people? If you were asked to approve of this for x amount of gasoline, would you? I doubt it, but it doesn't phase some people, the corporate decision makers,the capitalists.