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ABSTRACT: In a previous post, I asked the question "Would Gus Speth
regard Arjun Makhijani's (2007) 'Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A
Roadmap for US Energy Policy' as unworkable because it attempts to
'work within the system'." I then posed that question directly to
Speth who responded: "I'd urge you to read the book. I'd love to see
Congress move in Makhijani's direction." But I submit that the
failure of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act is (a)
consistent with Speth's point that "real solutions. . .[to
environmental challenges]. . . will require transformative change in
the key features of this contemporary capitalism," and (b) bodes ill
for "Congress moving in Makhijani's direction."
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In a previous post "Re: Civilization's Last Chance?" [Hake 2008)], a
title prompted by Bill McKibben's (2008) Los Angeles times opinion
piece, I noted that according to a review of "The Bridge at the Edge
of the World" [Speth (2008)] at Amazon.com
<http://tinyurl.com/5v6m4w> by Ross Gelbspan
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Gelbspan>, Speth contends that:
"Working only within the system will . . . not succeed when what is
needed is transformative change in the system itself."
Considering the above, I posed the question (slightly edited):
"Would Speth regard Arjun Makhijani's (2007) 'Carbon-Free and
Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for US Energy Policy' as unworkable because
it attempts to 'work within the system'."
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Q: What have you concluded . . . [regarding environmental challenges]
. . . . .? Can we still make enough meaningful changes to reverse the
damage?
A: My conclusion, after much searching and considerable reluctance,
is that most environmental deterioration is a result of systemic
failures of the capitalism that we have today. Real solutions will
require transformative change in the key features of this
contemporary capitalism. In this book I've tried to identify these
transformative changes.
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I submit that the failure [Pooley (2008)] of the Lieberman-Warner
Climate Security Act [UCS (2008)]:
a. is consistent with Speth's point that "real solutions. . .[to
environmental challenges]. . . will require transformative change in
the key features of this contemporary capitalism," and
b. bodes ill for "Congress moving in Makhijani's direction."
"In a world confronting global climate change, political turmoil
among oil exporting nations, nuclear weapons proliferation, nuclear
plant safety and waste disposal issues, the United States must assume
a leadership role in moving to a zero-CO2-emissions energy economy.
At the same time, the U.S. needs to take the lead in reducing the
world's reliance on nuclear power. This breakthrough joint study by
the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and the Nuclear
Policy Research Institute shows how our energy needs can be met by
alternative sources. Wind, solar, biomass, microalgae, geothermal and
wave power are all part of the solution. 'Carbon-Free and
Nuclear-Free ' is must reading for people concerned with energy
politics and everyone who wants to take action to protect the
planet's future."
Speth, J.G. 2008. "The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism,
the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability. " Yale
University Press (YUP), publisher's information at
<http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300136111>. YUP writes:
"How serious are the threats to our environment? Here is one measure
of the problem: if we continue to do exactly what we are doing, with
no growth in the human population or the world economy, the world in
the latter part of this century will be unfit to live in. Of course
human activities are not holding at current levels-they are
accelerating, dramatically-and so, too, is the pace of climate
disruption, biotic impoverishment, and toxification. In this book Gus
Speth, author of "Red Sky at Morning" and a widely respected
environmentalist, begins with the observation that the environmental
community has grown in strength and sophistication, but the
environment has continued to decline, to the point that we are now at
the edge of catastrophe."