It\’s Getting Hot In Here

The discussions regarding the whole pie thing reminded me of something I’ve been worrying about recently in relation to this “movement,” and that’s the seeming Elephant-in-the-room: Imperialism.

For those in the US, we live in an Empire — the largest, most powerful empire the planet has ever seen. The United States Empire enacts genocide (just ask the Hopi, the Navajo, the Western Shoshone or any other Native American tribe). The United States Empire plays key roles abroad in colonization, both through military operations like the dirty wars waged in Latin America in the ’80s and into Iraq in the present as well as through economic means (through neoliberal institutions like the IMF and WorldBank). The United States Empire makes war for profit (Military-Industrial Complex anyone?). The United States Empire makes a very few rich at the expense of everyone else (it is the nature of Empires, after all). Overall, like any Empire, the United States is a massive force that has shown that it is willing to throw its political, economic, and military might around without care for human dignity. (If all of this seems strange, offensive or unheard of to you, there are a number of things that you might want to read. I’ve listed a few books below, but I’d welcome others to throw out more book suggestions that are instructive on issues of Empire and global domination. The one’s I’ve chosen may not be the best)

Given that we do live in an Empire, which I rate to be pretty awful on the whole, I have wondered what it is this so-called movement is working for? Are we just working for windmills and solar panels so that we can sustain the Empire? Why should we expect Empire be any less destructive just because it’s powered by so-called “clean energy” and so-called “green jobs”? Isn’t that just trying to put the wolf into sheep’s clothing? Can an empire ever be reformed to be “sustainable and just”? Are we just enabling oppressors by trying to get large banks and governments to “invest in wind and solar”?

Continue reading ‘Sustaining Empire?’

[Editor's note: this post contains technical errors that affect the conclusions of the post.  A clarifying post will be written shortly.  Please see comments below for now.  -Jesse Jenkins, policy editor, IGHIH]

In the spirit of questioning assumptions, I want to do some serious questioning of the constant push for wind and solar electricity as a solution to the climate crisis. At conferences, direct actions, and in the media, I’ve seen countless calls for transitioning from fossil fuels and nuclear power to a “clean energy economy” powered by wind and solar. Wind and solar! That’s all I hear these days from folks about what to do (with maybe an occasional mention of the much less significant geothermal or tidal electricity). But what if a massive rollout of “wind and solar” isn’t really viable? And what if a massive rollout of these technologies won’t help us gain independence from dirty energy and avert the worst of climate chaos? For now though, let’s focus on solely on wind power.

The obvious problems with wind-generated electricity is, of course, that the wind doesn’t always blow. In order to deal with this, something has to be ready to provide an uninterrupted source of electricity to prevent blackouts. This is problematic because it requires dirty energy sources (coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear, or, in the case of Denmark, massive hydropower imported from Sweden) to hold up the electric grid when the wind isn’t blowing. With this approach wind don’t break us free from dirty energy sources. Of course, though we wouldn’t be completely independent of fossil fuels and nuclear, certainly we’d be consuming less, right? Unfortunately, this seems to be a false assumption.

Continue reading ‘Wind Power = Dirty Energy?!’

Human as envisioned in Afterculture: Anthropology of the Future

The beautiful film, Koyaanisqatsi, begins its panoramic tale of modern civilization with the launch of a rocket, which, like Icarus, begins its journey towards the great heights of heaven with so much promise. But, like Icarus, the rocket won’t make it — the wax will melt, the wings will fall, and it will plummet back to Earth. This is Koyaanisqatsi, “Life Out of Balance” in the Hopi language, and a great metaphor for our modern civilization.

There is a growing need to talk about why we’re in this mess and how we got here. Is habitat-destruction and toxification simply an aberration that began in the last couple of hundred years with the industrial revolution or has access to easy energy just accelerated the tendencies of an already aberrant humanity? And if these are aberrations, for what other animals pillage and rape their habitats, what does a real, earthy humanity look like?

Perhaps one of the greatest cultural falsehoods of the contemporary mythos is the story of Progress. We see it inscribed into all the civilized stories of humanity: Evolution, we are often told, follows a linear progression towards more and more advanced species, like humans. Or, human knowledge is increasingly more advanced and closer and closer to truth than ever before. Or, technological progress is inevitable and the dream of all humans. And, once we’ve made a technological acheivement, we can never go back. Endless Growth, Endless Ascent.

Continue reading ‘The Return to Old Ways’

With industry and government still pushing false solutions like “clean” dirty coal and nuclear power, ignoring the consequences for the health of our planet and our bodies, the news yesterday spells the beginning of the end for arguments that there are no other “economically viable” alternatives.

Yesterday, Nanosolar, a California solar-tech company, announced that they have shipped the first of their ultra-cheap solar panels. How cheap? Well, estimates put the installed cost of these panels at just around $2 per watt, which is pretty seductive when compared with the approximate $2.10 per watt in initial costs for constructing new coal plants. Not only is the initial monetary cost now comparable (and possibly less) than new coal, but there’s also the added bonus of having no ongoing fuel expenditures. So, monetarily cheap in both the short- and long-run. I think that’s a language even politicians and businessfolk should be able to understand. Continue reading ‘Dwindling Excuses for False Solutions’

With the US legislature stripping the energy bill of most of the things we need and with the failure to agree to tough action on climate change in Bali, I think we need to start reviewing our tactics.

As Daniel Quinn writes in his book, Beyond Civilization, “Old minds think: If it didn’t work last year, let’s do MORE of it this year. New minds think: If it didn’t work last year, let’s do something ELSE this year.”

These are words to contemplate as we head into a 2008 without any significant action taken by the US government (to say nothing of other countries) on climate change. We are in critical battle for this planet, and we need to think seriously about doing whatever it takes to stop the actions which are destroying the land and seas (e.g. just the other day BP announced that they are going to commit the biggest global warming crime in history) and contributing to snowballing (or, more appropriately, snow-melting) climate collapse. Are petitions, lobby days, call-ins, protests, and nonviolent civil disobedience enough?

Continue reading ‘Whatever It Takes: Beyond Nonviolence’