[Dissent-bristol-info] Sustainable Development flyer

[anarchist606 at hushmail.com]

Here is the revised text of the Sustainable Development flyer.  I 
am yet to add a bit more to the 'Co-operative Action' section.  
Cheers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Myths of the G8:  Sustainable Development

Buried in the recent rush of important news of who was a celebrity 
and needed getting out of here, you may have missed a series of 
reports that show that our earth is being destroyed at an ever 
frightening rate: "'Worst' sea bird breeding season" (BBC) or "The 
polluted planet: Alarm as global study finds one-third of 
amphibians face extinction" (Independent) or "Hundreds of bird 
species going the way of the dodo" (Guardian).  

If you think worrying about the natural world is for hippy-tree-
huggers then consider that for every one barrel of oil discovered, 
we are consuming three - this while the UK's use of oil and gas is 
being projected to rise each year until at least 2030.  Thanks to 
global warming, broad areas of Antarctica now are now forming turf 
where there were once ice-sheets and glaciers. Scary stuff.

By whatever measure you choose to take, the world of globalisation 
and capitalism is just not sustainable.  To blind us to this 
reality, the politicians have invented the concept of 'sustainable 
development' - in their words, "A higher quality of life for all 
people is the goal of sustainable development." (G7  1995 Meeting). 
 The problem with this lofty statement is that for all people on 
the planet to achieve the living standards of the US, would require 
three planets worth of resources - how is this possible with the 
rat-race in full flow?

Thankfully Tony Blair and his band of merry men are on hand to save 
the day; "To become more resource efficient we need to accelerate 
the de-coupling of resource use and growth in GDP."  In plain 
English, Tony and his cronies are saying that we need to get rich 
without using stuff (oil, timber, gas, metals etc.) - How is this 
economic-magic going to work? Nobody seems to be sure.  Tony 
recently remarked, "If we were to put forward as a solution to 
climate change something which would involve drastic cuts in 
economic growth or standards of living, it would not matter how 
justified it was, it simply would not be agreed to." Translation - 
I know there is no such thing as sustainability within the current 
system, but I can't tell you that.  And George Bush's plans for 
sustainable development?  Tax cuts for the rich.  Drilling for oil 
in the Alaska wildlife refuge and war without end.

Here's a final pearl of wisdom from the government; "It is a simple 
fact that, as we become more efficient at producing things we will 
get wealthier. And as we get wealthier we are able to produce and 
consume more goods and services. In the longer term therefore it is 
only by finding new, less wasteful ways of meeting our needs that 
we can move to a sustainable path."  However being 'less' wasteful 
is not the same as being 'sustainable'.  'Less' means not as much 
as before.  'Sustainable' is a cycle that can be kept going forever 
while 'development' (in this context) means economic growth – 
growth that can be kept going forever?  In the words of Professor 
Richard Heinberg, an expert on resource use and human ecology, 
"Beyond a certain point nature does not negotiate. If all else 
fails, there is always famine and disease to take care of it."

Reject their deceit.  Their Babylon must fall.




Alternatives to the G8:  Life in Balance

Not every life on this planet needs to be reduced to dollar bills.  
If we reject the notion that profit is God we can build a world 
that works with nature rather than smashes it into submission.  
First we need to reject the notion of capitalism.  We are trained 
to see money as trade as wealth – an inseparable trinity.  This is 
a lie.  To say there can be no wealth or trade without money is to 
say there can be no time without hours.  With this in mind, below 
are some inspirational examples of life getting back in balance:

Co-operative Action
Acting together is the opposite of capitalism.  We can see this 
idea in action in many places:  Born here in the UK in 1844, the co-
operative movement has grown to mean some 750 million people work 
for organisations that are owned by and controlled by them and not 
international capital markets, shareholders or a wealthy family 
dynasty.  Bristol has some 90 co-operatives doing every think from 
food production to IT support.  See http://www.avoncda.coop/ for 
more info on this.  

The Navdanya Organisation
Dr. Vandana Shiva, an Indian Physicist, has been championing the 
idea of 'freedom zones': "It lead her to help found the 
organization Navdanya, [translation 'nine seeds' meaning 
'ecological balance'] which forms seed banks and trains Indian 
farmers to produce traditional crops without chemical pesticides or 
fertilizers. To date, she says, about 100,000 farmers have returned 
to traditional, organic farming methods in villages now dubbed 
'freedom zones '. Navdanya has opened an organic market in New 
Delhi to sell the produce." (This quote is from an article at 
http://www.mindfully.org, plus you can find lots of good 
information at http://www.vshiva.net/ and http://www.navdanya.org  
plus Bristol has a permaculture group, see 
http://www.bristolfoe.org.uk/bpg/ )

Buena Vista Fossil Fuel Club
Cuba is famous for laid-back funky music, rum and socialism.  It 
may soon be famous for showing the way on sustainable farming 
methods.  When the USSR mutated into Ru$$ia and replaced one set of 
authoritarian rule for another – it stopped the cheap supply of oil 
to both Cuba and North Korea.  While people in North Korea starve, 
Cuba looked towards autonomous self-management rather than 
militarism and the results have been pretty spectacular.  Outside 
of capitalism, Cuba is successfully making the transition to a more 
sustainable society: "The World Bank has reported that Cuba is 
leading nearly every other developing nation in human development 
performance. Because Cuba's agricultural model goes against the 
grain of orthodox economic thought, the World Bank has called Cuba 
the 'anti-model'...This despite that fact that the Cuban model 
flies in the face of the neoliberal reforms prescribed by both the 
World Bank and the IMF." (This is from the article 'Drawing Lessons 
from Experience Part 2' by Dale Allen Pfeiffer which can be found 
at http://www.copvcia.com/free/ww3/  in addition Bristol as a Peak 
Oil email group, see 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bristolpeakoilers )





http://anarchist606.blogspot.com
Bloging as radical as the issues the world faces.




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