PHM-Exch> PHM and climate change: a contribution for discussion (2)

[Claudio Schuftan]

from  Garance UPHAM fannie.upham at gmail.com  edited excerpts


I would like to make a few points:
1- The piece says "*Pressure wealthy industrialized countries to reduce
their consumption and pollution by 90 per cent.*"- This is not a viable
economic objective- unless we were to live under a dictatorship that
eliminates a large chunk of the population (and we may get that with a world
war). I think we need to be careful not to repeat empty slogans.
A very large proportion of industrial production is going into military
hardware, not into the products we 'over consume'.
People should be aware the same corporations responsible for all the
evils rightly listed are slashing labor wages and standards and are pushing
slave-like labor everywhere (ILO report). They are driving up short term
profits to the extreme and squeezing the labor force.
2- Otherwise, the program being put forward is reactive, not proposing
alternatives. If the USA, for example, were to switch from cars and planes
to trains and public transportation the savings in energy would be enormous.
We need rational city public housing (individual houses are terrible energy
consumers), rational transport, and the development of public goods.
3- We need to go back to the Havana Charter to regulate trade. The WTO
regime forcing everyone to open their borders and sacrifice their local
production is the biggest culprit in enforcing wasteful exchanges.  France
sells as many onions as it buys, England apparently sell as much mutton
meat as it buys from abroad... The system has gone mad.
4- If Copenhagen was a 'fiasco' it is that part of the campaign on global
warming is driven by OECD-and USA who want to force China, India,
Brazil, and the Global south to stop catching up with them economically.
There is the trade war behind the scenes, but the Southern countries are not
fooled.
5- It is not true that all 'global warming denialists" are all coming from
big industry.There are, at least in France, important militants for public
goods, against privatization of health services, who are as committed as PHM
members and who do not 'believe' the global warming story. Remember the hole
in the ozone layer? Haroun Tazieff of France challenged that which everyone
believed for years. Haroun was the first volcano specialist world wide.
Much of what we hear in the media is over-simplified.
Granted, some industries are 'denialist' for their own interest, but don't
forget the ENTIRE NUCLEAR industry is pushing based on global warming!!!
When nearly all big corporations and very reactionary governments are
pushing based on 'global warming' we should take a step back and look at it
with a grain of salt.
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