[R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Financial Crisis and Ecological Amnesia

[Bill Totten]

by Laurie E Adkin

The Bullet (December 01 2008)

Socialist Project - E-Bulletin No 161


As OECD governments and political parties rush to pour billions of
dollars into the generation of more credit to stimulate more
consumption, no one seems to be pointing out that only a short time ago,
the same governments were insisting that there was no money for a
significant reduction of greenhouse gases. There was no money for
transition to renewable energy sources. There was, in short, no money to
invest in the ecological transformation of our economies. Now, it is as
if politicians everywhere have developed a severe case of ecological
amnesia. Is there no longer a global warming crisis? A collapse of fish
stocks in the oceans? An historically unprecedented rate of extinction
of species? Millions of people living without clean drinking water or
sanitation? Endemic illnesses caused by ubiquitous toxins? Or any of the
other socio-environmental crises that scientists and social ecologists
around the world have worked so hard to document and to bring to the
public's attention?

Suddenly all that matters is that "consumers" in the rich countries
redouble their efforts to over-spend, over-consume, and generate more
waste so that the global economy does not remain in recession. And let's
not mention that personal debt is a huge problem in North America, as
well as a leading cause of the current crisis. Have all these economic
experts and politicians had their memories and imaginations surgically
removed?

Unbelievably, there is serious talk of handing over billions to the big
three auto-makers to restore demand for private vehicles. Are cars not
one of the major sources of greenhouse gases that only a short time ago
we were, supposedly, trying to discourage people from buying and using?
Where are the billions for investment in urban public transportation and
rail transportation? In environmentally-sustainable jobs for the
thousands of autoworkers who face unemployment due to the short-sighted,
profit-maximizing strategies of their employers? Heck, if governments
can nationalize banks in a crisis, why can't they buy controlling shares
in the auto manufacturers and redesign the plants to produce electric
buses, trains, and other pollution-reducing products? The collision
between the old "endless growth and consumption" economics and the
environmental crisis will not be averted by pouring billions into the
old, destructive model. Nor will sustainable livelihoods be created for
autoworkers and their children.

In Alberta, the oil and gas giants are putting their expansion projects
in the tar sands on hold, now that the price of oil has fallen by half
since last year. Ah, what a carbon tax could not achieve, a financial
crisis has wrought - at least in future emissions of greenhouse gases -
at least temporarily. And what is the response of the Alberta
Government? The sky is falling!! Quick, cut the budget (public services
first, of course)! Spend when you've got it; invest nothing in the
future; follow corporations' interests wherever they lead; do nothing to
direct the economy in a greener direction; run around like headless
chickens when the budget surplus falls ... That's Conservative
economics. What should we expect next? A "rescue plan" for Syncrude,
Shell, Suncor, Albion, and the rest? Funny how there is never any money
for child care, or for investment in renewable energy growth, and no
thought of making mega-emitters internalize the costs of their
greenhouse gas emissions.

At the federal level, the Harper government seizes the opportunity to
cut the salaries of civil servants and remove their collective
bargaining rights, and to undercut the public funding of political
parties in the hope of weakening their opponents in the next election.
Neoliberal ideologues and political tacticians to the end, eh, never
mind what's going on in the real world. Never mind that it is renewed
public investment in services and green infrastructure and a revitalized
democratic politics that are needed to get us out of economic and
ecological crisis and into a greener future.

What an opportunity to grab the horns of this financial crisis and turn
it in the direction of a green economic transition! Are there any
political leaders out there with the courage to do it before the moment
has passed?

_____

Laurie E Adkin teaches Political Science at the University of Alberta.

http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet161.html


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