Topic: Less of What We Don’t Need
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This California couple uses more water than all of the homes in Los Angeles
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Rafaela Tijerina first met la señora at a school in the town of Lost Hills, deep in the farm country of California’s Central Valley. They were both there for a school board meeting, and the superintendent had failed to show up. Tijerina, a 74-year-old former cotton picker and veteran school board member, apologized for the…
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Why mining and violence are inextricably linked
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Last year South Africa's bountiful Wild Coast saw the assassination of Sikhosiphi Rhadebe, activist against proposed dune mining on his homeland. The commemoration of Rhadebe who went by the name Bozooka coincided with this year's Human Rights day. At least 500 people came to stand together in solidarity to call for an end to violence…
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The 33 Percent Will Have to Pick Up the Tab for the Climate Conversion
The rapid mobilization that’s necessary to stop a greenhouse meltdown won’t be happening in the near future, given that in Washington the attitude toward effective climate action spans a spectrum from open hostility to timid torpor. In the meanwhile activism, exemplified by the April 29 People’s Climate March, is keeping hope alive, or at…
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Is Pope Francis the World’s Most Powerful Advocate for Climate Stability?
Maybe not now. But that's what he could well become. Francis' Encyclical “On Care for Our Common Home” recognizes the incredible damage being done to climate change and biodiversity. Few realize how strong his beliefs are and the unused power of persuasion he has. Here's 10 ways that power could be used. 1. Francis…
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The Growing Resistance to Megadams in Bolivia
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A growing resistance to the Chepete/ El Bala megadam is challenging President Evo Morales’s plan to convert Bolivia into South America’s leading energy powerhouse. Last November, representatives of 17 indigenous communities held a vigil at the site of two megadams—El Chepete and El Bala—that President Evo Morales plans to build in Bolivia’s Amazonian region. The…
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The Slow Confiscation of Everything
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Climate change is a different prospect of calamity—not just elementally but morally different from nuclear exchange in a manner which has not been properly dealt with. The first difference is that it’s definitely happening. The second is that it’s not happening to everyone. For anyone who grew up in the Cold War, the apocalypse was…
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Addressing Seriously the Environmental Crisis: A Bold, “Outside the Box” Suggestion for Addressing Climate Change and Other Forms of Environmental Destruction
Are you confused about climate change/global warming: is it real or is it fake news? And if it is real, what can be done about it? I gave a talk on March 18, 2017 at the free speech forum in Chicago called The Open University of the Left, where I discussed this and what we…
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Utopia: Work less play more
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According to the latest YouGov poll, more than one in four of us work longer hours than we want to. The UK tops the European long hours league, and research published by the TUC in 2015 revealed that the number of people working over 48 hours a week had increased by 15 per cent since…
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Relocalization among the Most Marginalized in an “America First” World
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Prior to the 2016 US Presidential election, a New York-based Earthcare Coalition of organizations drawn from African Diaspora nations asked, “What would it take to mount a concerted move toward relocalization of food production and sovereignty among marginalized people of African descent as climate disruptions become the norm?”
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As the Climate Melts, Democracy Must Be Rescued and Transformed; Capitalism Can’t Be
Both capitalism and electoral democracy impede effective climate action. But while we have to defend and transform democracy, there is no possibility that capitalism can be made compatible with either global climate mitigation or social and economic justice. Donald Trump plans to dismantle America’s already weak climate policy, potentially dooming not only this country…