Green Social Thought

Produce less. Distribute it fairly. Create a greener world for all.

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Topic: Less of What We Don’t Need

  • What a Waste

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    by

    fitzdon

    Our modern industrial economy traces a straight line from resource extraction to manufacturing to sales to waste disposal. Since Earth has finite resources and limited ability to absorb pollution, the straight-line economy is unsustainable; it is designed for eventual failure. Why not make the economy circular, with waste from one process feeding into other production processes,…

  • Indigenous Knowledge Has Been Warning Us About Climate Change for Centuries

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    by

    fitzdon

    Nishnaabeg scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson explains why "green growth" isn't enough to save the planet. The most common introductory example we use when we teach kids about interdependent ecosystems is insects. They may seem gross and small compared to the charismatic megafauna, we say, but insects play all sorts of important roles: pollinating plants, breaking…

  • Why the “Anthropocene” Is Not “Climate Change” and Why It Matters

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    by

    fitzdon

    Beyond climate change, there’s the Anthropocene. Humans have altered the planet to such an extent that it has entered a new age. The Anthropocene and the unprecedented changes it brings call for a new way to think about how humans relate to the planet.

  • A Green New Deal Vs. Revolutionary Ecosocialism

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    by

    fitzdon

    The idea of a “Green New Deal” has been raised in response to the threat of climate and ecological catastrophe. Two such proposals are analyzed here and counter-posed to the program of revolutionary libertarian ecosocialism. According to the climate scientists, industrial civilization has at most a dozen years until global warming is irreversible. This will…

  • Podcast: Don Fitz and Stan Cox on the Green New Deal

    Podcast: Don Fitz and Stan Cox on the Green New Deal

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    by

    scox
    in

      In a recent podcast, Daniel Young of KNYO community radio in Northern California  interviewed Green Social Thought's Don Fitz and Stan Cox about the Green New Deal. The following, from Young's blog, includes a link to the audio: For many years, Fitz, Cox, and GST have advocated that solving not just global warming but…

  • In Salinas, Puerto Rico, Vulnerable Americans Are Still Trapped in the Ruins Left by Hurricane Maria

    In Salinas, Puerto Rico, Vulnerable Americans Are Still Trapped in the Ruins Left by Hurricane Maria

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    by

    scox
    in

    Abandoned by their country, residents refuse to accept the idea that they will never recover.   Nearly a year and a half after Hurricane Maria, about three-fourths of the houses in the Sierra Brava neighborhood of Salinas, Puerto Rico stand battered and empty. Some families left because their homes were rendered uninhabitable and they had…

  • The Oily Trinity: How Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Are Automating the Climate Crisis

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    by

    scox

    "Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have all struck lucrative arrangements—collectively worth billions of dollars—to provide automation, cloud, and AI services to some of the world’s biggest oil companies, and they are actively pursuing more. These deals, many of which were made just last year, at what may be the height of public awareness of the threats…

  • There’s Nothing Radical About the Green New Deal

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    by

    fitzdon

    Our insatiable yearning for more has left us with less of the one thing upon which our entire lives depend: the natural world We are at the precipice of ecological collapse. There are no two ways about it. And despite what you hear, it is about far more than just catastrophic climate change. In a…

  • How We, the People, Can Save the Planet

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    by

    fitzdon

    The recent release of the proposed Green New Deal is a template, an outline identifying some of the most crucial issues facing the nation regarding climate change and a wish list of measures to address those issues. But there are plenty of legitimate criticisms too, and progressives would be wise not to let their desire…

  • The Green Old Deal

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    by

    fitzdon

    There are a lot of things to like about the recent resolution for the Green New Deal. The commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the acknowledgment of the catastrophic events that will occur if the world does not act soon- these are all healthy signs. Like Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign which removed many stigmas about…